Episode 1114: "I Think I Know What Steve Ritchie's Next Game Is...But I Will Confirm What It's Not"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·23m 49s·analyzed·Jul 17, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Kaneda teases next JJP Steve Ritchie game while assessing struggling boutique manufacturers and market corrections.

Summary

Kaneda speculates about Jersey Jack's next Steve Ritchie game, ruling out major IPs (Matrix, Top Gun, Sonic, Mario, Beastie Boys) while hinting it may be a lower-appeal title similar to Avatar. He also discusses market dynamics, criticizing American Pinball's Cuphead, Pinball Brothers' Predator, and Barrels of Fun's Dune launch timing, while praising Spooky, Jersey Jack, and Stern as the only consistently executing manufacturers. Additional topics include Dutch Pinball's Alice manufacturing defect (reversed outlane spinners), Multimorphic's Portal pricing and slow adoption, and a tribute to community member Rob Anthony.

Key Claims

Steve Ritchie's next Jersey Jack game is NOT The Matrix, Top Gun Maverick, Sonic, Super Mario, or a music pin like Beastie Boys
high confidence · Kaneda explicitly states these negatives as what he's ruled out through investigation
Barbie would outsell Elton John, Godfather, and Avatar combined if released as a pinball machine
low confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on market demographics and comparison to Miss Pac-Man outselling Pac-Man
Dutch Pinball's US Alice run (25 units) had a manufacturing defect: outlane spinners wired backwards, spinning balls into outlanes instead of saving them
high confidence · Kaneda reports this as confirmed issue from Alice owners sharing videos
Pinball Brothers only sold 2 Predator machines according to a major distributor
medium confidence · Kaneda reports conversation with unnamed major distributor
Stern Premium games (James Bond, John Wick, Foo Fighters) have corrected down to ~$7,500; LEs down to ~$10,000
medium confidence · Kaneda's observation of market trends in secondary market pricing
Only three pinball manufacturers consistently execute well: Stern, Jersey Jack, and Spooky
medium confidence · Kaneda's editorial assessment after reviewing all active manufacturers
Barrels of Fun's Dune launch was poorly timed, launched simultaneously with King Kong when it should have waited for better show exposure
medium confidence · Kaneda's critique of launch strategy and marketing execution
Portal kit alone costs $5,000-$6,000, nearly the price of an entire Stern Pro cabinet
high confidence · Kaneda states this as pricing fact regarding Multimorphic platform costs
Portal has been available for 5-6 months (as of July 17) with very few unboxings visible
high confidence · Kaneda's direct observation of lack of content about the product

Notable Quotes

“I think Barbie would be one of the best selling pinball machines ever. When you talk about the amount of people out there who are into arcades and into vids, go look at how many more Miss Pac sold than Pac”
Kaneda @ ~20:00 — Core argument for why an untapped demographic (parents buying for Barbie fans) could drive unprecedented sales volume
“If Godfather comes out and I have absolutely no desire to own it. Same thing with Avatar. Well, Stern's going to give me three other titles I might want to consider.”
Kaneda @ ~15:00 — Explains why individual game theme misses are survivable in a market with regular releases
“it's like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are like people that just wanna buy a Saab. You know, they just don't wanna be in what everybody else is in.”
Kaneda @ ~35:00 — Positions Dutch Pinball's Alice as differentiation play in homogeneous market
“I just wish there was more think about it. What about Chicago Gaming Company? Doesn't it feel like what, three years ago, Pulp Fiction was revealed?”
Kaneda @ ~40:00 — Criticism of slow production cadence at CGC
“So it really is kind of like a three horse race. And Spooky, Jersey Jack, and Stern, you know, those are the ones that have been the most consistent recently.”
Kaneda @ ~50:00 — Market consolidation observation: only three manufacturers meeting delivery expectations
“I think the Dune launch didn't really go according to plan. They launched it on top of King Kong. I wouldn't even have done that.”
Kaneda @ ~45:00 — Critique of Barrels of Fun's go-to-market strategy
“it's kind of weird, right? Cause like King Kong didn't really take off, but it was like, there was just too much happening at once.”
Kaneda @ ~46:00 — Analysis of overlapping releases cannibalizing attention
“The problem is there was no real show to wait for. They kind of missed their backyard show at TPF.”

Entities

Jersey Jack Pinballcompany Steve Ritchieperson KanedapersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJoe Newhartperson American Pinballcompany Dutch Pinball

Signals

?
rumor_hype: Kaneda has strong suspicions about next Jersey Jack Steve Ritchie title but withholding reveal pending confirmation; hints it may underperform due to niche appeal
high · Extensive setup discussing theme hypotheticals (Barbie, G1 Transformers, Akira, Blade Runner, Back to the Future) and explicit negatives (Matrix, Top Gun, Sonic, Mario, Beastie Boys music pin)
?
product_concern: Dutch Pinball's 25-unit US run of Alice had factory wiring error: outlane spinners reversed polarity, spinning balls into outlanes instead of saving them
high · Kaneda reports owners sharing video evidence; characterizes as 'easy fix' but notable quality control lapse
$
market_signal: Stern Premium tier games correcting to ~$7,500 and LEs to ~$10,000 after inflated pricing; market softening especially in summer
high · Kaneda cites James Bond, John Wick, Foo Fighters pricing trends and notes seasonal softness
?
business_signal: Only three manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, Spooky) consistently executing; boutique tier fragmented with execution failures
high · Kaneda systematically reviews all active manufacturers and concludes 'three horse race' at top tier
?
product_concern: Barrels of Fun's Dune launch hampered by simultaneous King Kong release; needed pinball show exposure but missed TPF window; slow code maturation at launch
high · Kaneda critiques timing as 'too much happening at once' and notes lack of show venue for strong reveal

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.071

0:00

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. I've been dancing, I'm dancing. I'm dancing, I'm dancing, I'm dancing, I'm dancing, I'm dancing.

0:11

Welcome everybody to the only pinball podcast that doesn't come with a dust cover. What's with those dust covers? They're so weird. It is a Thursday, July 17th. If you own a Switch 2, you're going to get Donkey Kong Bonanza. Is there any bonanza happening in the pinball world? It's definitely slower in the summertime. It's like, what can we talk about? Well, look, I'm going to tell you right now. I think I have a pretty good idea what the next Jersey Jack machine is going to be. It's a Steve Ritchie game. I have a really good sense of what this title is going to be. And I'm curious to see how the pinball community responds to this. Because it's like one of those things where on paper, I think it sounds like a really good idea. Avatar on paper, really good idea. But then I think about who we are, what you really want to own, what you're going to free up space for, and what you're emotionally drawn to. And I don't know, I feel like it might be another avatar situation. Now, I'm not going to reveal what I think it is just yet. I want to do a little bit more confirming and snooping around. This is what Canada does in these slow summer months. I'm not snooping around American pinball. I don't care about Cuphead. It's not going to be successful. It will be the final game from American Pinball. I'm not snooping around Turner Pinball. Chris Turner, where are you? I know you're listening to this. You popped into the chat for just a little bit. Where are the Merlin arcades? He's got to sell those games. Am I snooping around spooky pinball? Some distributors, Joe Newhart, I'm talking about you, brother. They're starting to take a list of people who are interested in the next spooky game. Joe, that game is sold out. Do you really need an interest list? If they make a thousand or less Beetlejuice games with Christopher Franchi on artwork In this pinball world in which so many companies out there have delivered games with no nostalgic value, this game is sold out already. It's already spoken for. If they sold out of Evil Dead, which is a theme not nearly as popular as Beetlejuice or Gremlins. A lot of Gremlins haters out there have noticed that. Go back and watch Gremlins. It's such a good movie. Same with Goonies. Same with Beetlejuice. Way more appeal to most of us than Evil Dead 1 and 2. And look what they did with it. Look what they did with that game. It is shaping up to be the best buy of the year. So yeah, Kaneda is also taking an interest level list on the next game from Spooky Pinball. Joe Newhart. I texted him today. hey, Joe, put Kaneda at the top of that list. Do I buy it from Joe? Do I buy it from Melissa? I know Bug and Luke will hold the game for me. I could go right to the source. It's the thing is like when you know the mayor, you don't need to be friends with the cops. And that's why I love spooky pinball. You can go right to the source. I mean, come on, it's a little premature to get on the list. We know people want it. And Joe can thank me because It was Kaneda's live that uncovered the fact that Spooky Pinball had 25 games left to sell. They had like 25 or 30 games left. Mike at Automated bought five and Joe Newhart bought the rest. But it's because I was doing my show. My cut for those final games sold zero dollars. But it might get Kaneda at the top of that list. They're listening to this right now in Benton, Wisconsin, and they're nodding their heads. They're like, yeah, it was Kaneda. it's always been Canada we wouldn't be where we are if it weren't for Canada that's how every pinball manufacturer feels well at least that's how I think about it in my head all right so Jersey Jack's next one now here's another interesting thing and I've been saying this for a couple years now I know that Jersey Jack was interested in making a game targeting a different demographic. And if you were going to make a game that targeted a different demographic and you wanted to make it a lower volume run, would there be no better theme than Barbie? And I've been saying this and I'll say it again. Barbie would outsell. It would sell more units than Elton John, Godfather, Avatar combined. All right. So three of those games, which they spent so many years and put so much effort behind, Barbie would outsell all of them. In fact, I think I'm just going to say this. I think Barbie would be one of the best selling pinball machines ever. When you talk about the amount of people out there who are into arcades and into vids, go look at how many more Miss Pac sold than Pac Now you going to say well Miss Pac a better game and it still Pac All that true My point is this The people out there in the world with disposable income that have little girls that love Barbie, what do you think they're gonna buy? What would they put into their game room? You know me, I love the color pink. Talk about a game that would stand out in a lineup. You know, I'm just saying, You would sell way more Barbies than John Wicks, than Venoms. The thing is, Barbie's not cheap. And that's probably the number one reason there is not a Barbie pinball machine. But there should be. And it's not like they don't license out the damn theme. They put that damn license on everything. So it's definitely gettable. It's just going to be expensive. And I think these companies are scared to test that territory. I'm telling you, if Barbie comes out, Canada's a buyer. You know, I keep thinking about how beautiful the Jersey Jack platform is. I'm looking at my Guns N' Roses, looking at these Harry Potters. It's so beautiful. Imagine G1 Transformers the movie made by Jersey Jack. Imagine Akira made by Jersey Jack. Imagine Blade Runner made by Jersey Jack. Imagine Back to the Future made by Jersey Jack. Imagine these things. Now, I will tell you this right now. I'm not going to tell you what Steve Ritchie's title is just yet, but I will tell you what it's not. It is not The Matrix. It is not Top Gun Maverick. It is not Sonic the Hedgehog. It is not Super Mario Brothers. It is none of those. It is not a music pin. So it is not the Beastie Boys. All of those things I just said, you all would most likely want and you would buy. Do I wish it was all those things? Yes. Do I like all of those properties I just mentioned more than what I think it might be? Yeah, I do. But you know what's interesting about this hobby? And I'm sure you all feel this. Games keep coming out. So if a game comes out and I don't want it, it's not like that's our only option. If Godfather comes out and I have absolutely no desire to own it. Same thing with Avatar. Well, Stern's going to give me three other titles I might want to consider. Spooky's going to give me a title I might want to consider. Chicago Gaming Company will reveal a game that will take two years to get. But other than that, really, there's not that much else that you can actually get your hands on and really want. You know, I asked a major distributor out there, not going to name names. Now, I know a lot of them. How many Predators did you sell? You know what they said? Two. Two Predators. I mean, if this isn't a potentially company ending game for Pinball Brothers, I don't know what they're going to do. And by the time they get this Arnold-less Predator on the line, we're going to see Star Wars with the assets. Would you rather buy a $15,000 Predator with no Arnold or Harry Potter for $10,000 or Star Wars with the assets? Or how about the other 40 to 50 games you could go get now at a much better price than they were like four years ago and just have pinball fun? Because pinball doesn't keep evolving. Like there's nothing in Predator. There's nothing the pinball brothers are bringing to the table that is better than what the other companies have. I would rather have a dialed in LE for $6,000 to $7,000 than a Predator. All of these Stern premiums now, James Bond, John Wick, Foo Fighters, you name it. Almost every single Stern premium now is sliding back down to $7,500.

9:51

And all of a sudden it's like, okay, the market has corrected itself. All of the LEs, for the most part, are sliding down to 10. That's the highest they ever should have been. So now you can go get a lot of great stuff for a much better price. And the market is really soft. It's especially soft in the summertime. And there's a variety of reasons. It's like people are spending more money in the summertime. You're traveling. You just don't have the time. You're not thinking about staying inside and playing your pinball machines. Speaking about staying inside and playing pinball machines, I was in the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland thread. And I'm reading about this game. And I'm always curious about Alice. You know, I'm friends with Melvin. You know, it's some funny thing happened. And I don't know what's going on over there at Dutch. But they made these games for the US. I think there's like 25 US games. And something was wired incorrectly. And it's a funny thing that was wired incorrectly. It was the Outlane Spinners. they had the wires backwards so the spinner was spinning in the wrong direction it's supposed to save your ball instead the spinners were spinning the ball into the out lanes and some of the owners that were getting the game were like wait this doesn't make any sense I thought this is supposed to help me stay alive and they were sharing video of how when the ball would hit the spinner it was getting kicked into the out lane. Easy fix, but man, how do you wire that wrong at the factory, Barry? Come on, do I need to send over another pizza party? But overwhelmingly, the response to people that have Alice, and keep in mind, it's 25 people. Stern makes 25 games by lunchtime, and people have waited like six, seven months to get these games. Now, I don't know what's going to happen with tariffs and the manufacturing schedule and the toppers on this game But what I do hear people saying is how beautiful the game is which we knew but also just it's unique in a lineup. And you know how I feel about this game. I've said it all along. It's not the best of anything, but it's different. And what Dutch has made is something that does feel like you're playing an occasion. It creates an occasion when you play Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because there's just nothing else like it in the market. And I think that's one of the things that's sort of working against both Jersey Jack and Stern a little bit is it always just feels like more of the same. And they're two big companies. And, you know, it's hard to sort of move in unique directions if you are big. You don't want to take too much of a risk. I think Stern suffers from this more than Jersey Jack. I think when you put Jersey Jack games in a lineup, you see a lot more variety. Variety of themes, variety of artwork, variety of layout, variety of toys. Everything about a Jersey Jack just feels like they've got more variety. and they have far fewer games than Stern. When you put Sterns in a lineup, they all do look sort of the same. And it's not just like the artwork. Look, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Like they look good in a lineup, but it also does suffer a little bit from a sea of sameness. So for those of you out there that just want something different, if I were to use a card, it's like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are like people that just wanna buy a Saab. You know, they just don't wanna be in what everybody else is in. I wish we had more of that in pinball. I wish we had more of that that was successful. I would say Multimorphic is trying to be that, but it's not a successful execution of a different platform that's just unique. It absolutely has a lot of innovation in it. It has a lot of engineering in it, but it's just not clicking. and look it's not just me saying this like where are the unboxings of portal that game has been out what since march april may june july five months six months where are all the portal unboxings are you seeing them am i missing them and this whole thing of like we're gonna show a game half a year goes by a year goes by and hardly anybody has the product it's just weird to me And it's another reason why you should just wait and see, because Portal is also a really expensive game. Let the multi-morphic people buy it new in box. Let them take the huge hit. And then I love it when the multi-morphic guys want to sell like eight games with the platform. And you know, these guys are like now like 30 grand in on all these are like, they'll take like 17,000 or 15,000. they're never going to get back even close to what they put into the platform and now the new games like portal on its own as just a kit is like five to six thousand dollars that's insane it's almost like the price of an entire stern pro and you're stuck with it and if you want to sell the platform you're going to take a huge loss on everything you own i just wish there was more think about it What about Chicago Gaming Company? Doesn't it feel like, what, three years ago, Pulp Fiction was revealed? All right, so they fulfilled the Pulp Fiction orders. I think they're pretty much close to being done with Pulp Fiction. Then they're going to do another run, like the third or fourth run, if you will, of Medieval Madness. Okay, when's that happening? It's July 17th. And then what? Isn't Mark Ritchie working on Halo forever and a day? Like what's up with these companies? Like they just can't get their acts together. So when you really think about it, I know there's like 15 pinball companies out there, but the truth is there's really only like four that are consistently executing the right way. Stern pinball, Jersey Jack pinball, spooky pinball. Okay. Once you get even those three out of the way, who is next? Like, who consistently delivers on an annual basis great games that don't make their customers wait forever? Who? Really? Is it just a three-horse race? I mean, am I missing anybody? Not American Pinball. Barrels of Fun, I mean, look, it's only their second game, but man, like, where are the Dune unboxings? Slowly, like, slowly trickling out games. I mean, people were emailing me this weekend, like, Barrels of Fun is selling damaged cabinets. And they're like, this is a sign that this company is having issues and cash flow problems. I'm like, I don't know. Maybe they're just trying to sell their damaged cabinets. I don't know who's in the market for a damaged cabinet, and I don't really get it. Like, if you order cabinets from your vendor and some of them are damaged, wouldn't you get a refund on those damaged ones? or are you damaging them yourselves and that's why you can't use them? Might be a little bit of both, but I wouldn't say Barrels is like crushing it. I think the Dune launch was a little strange. I think the Dune launch didn't really go according to plan. They launched it on top of King Kong. I wouldn't even have done that. I mean, you know, it's kind of weird, right? Cause like King Kong didn't really take off, but it was like, there was just too much happening at once. Right now would have been a good time to release Dune the code would have been further along You would have had more attention on it I do think a game like Dune really did need a pinball show It really needed to be at a high traffic pinball show with a captivated audience And I think if they had waited, I think it would have had a stronger reveal. The problem is there was no real show to wait for. They kind of missed their backyard show at TPF. and then there really wasn't another large show to appear at. So it's going to be a slow burn. I'm assuming they probably have enough orders to get them to Expo at least. And so, you know, they're probably making, I don't know how many a week, 20 a week, 15 a week, 30 a week. Nobody tells me. I'm never sure like what the real capacity is at these boutique companies. I know we want to see more from them. You know, when it comes to barrels of fun, for me, the main thing is the themes. I'm just not sure they understand what the pinball buying community wants. And the reason I say that is simply this, and I say this to my friends over there and they're listening to this. I say this, like you guys should know what people want and your sophomore game, you put a lot into it, but it should have been a theme that easily moved you 800 to a thousand units easily. If you picked a theme that people wanted and people just didn't want Dune. So Barrels of Fun is not lighting the boutique world on fire right now. Dutch Pinball is not either, right? It's like slowly trickling these Alice's out. So it really is kind of like a three horse race. And Spooky, Jersey Jack, and Stern, you know, those are the ones that have been the most consistent recently. They're the ones that release games with the most cadence. It doesn't mean they always make the best games. Stern has just as many misses as hits. I think Stern has more misses than hits recently. And that is why I think they're going to go back to the Star Wars as well. And we're going to see Star Wars sometime end of August, early September usually. But it's definitely feeling like a slower summer. I was just on Naps Arcade yesterday. Jason, congratulations on launching the new website. His kids worked on this with him. There is now a lot more stuff you can do with Jason Knapp and Knapp's Arcade. He's got a forum. He's got a marketplace. He's got the blog still. The blog is still free. So if you want to go on Knapp's Arcade and get all your free news, you're still going to be able to do it. I did give him some marketing advice because to get to the forum is a $5 donation or $5 subscription, if you will. And you know, it's hard to get people to buy something they haven't experienced yet. And I gave him like the real, real. I was like, look, Jason, when it comes to getting people to donate, which I've done successfully with my podcast, you got to let people know what they're going to get. They've got to experience it sometimes for free and then charge. Because I think if he charged $5 a month for the entire thing, most people would sign up. I would sign up. I want the news. I'm going to sign up anyway and show my support because I love what he does for the hobby and I know how much work goes into it. None of you really get how much work does go into it because you simply wake up every day, two to three days a week. You have a new Canadian Spinball podcast. Every day you can go on Naps Arcade and get entertained. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of work that goes into it. It's not like Pinside where I don't see Pinside as a lot of work. They don't do any moderation. All the work is being done by the hyper users. And then he's just making so much money off of the traffic. Where's the hard work. I don't understand how that's hard work. So congratulations, Jason. And for those of you listening, let's throw some support Jason's way. I think he has the greatest and really the only pinball news website you need to go to that allows each and every one of us to avoid pin side. I want to end this show by saying our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Rob Anthony. Some of my really good friends were super close to Rob. He unfortunately passed away. I believe a couple days ago. Really, really sad. He was always a great member of this community. He was always filled with so much enthusiasm at the pinball shows. A dog lover. A great man. And it sucks. And, you know, I always say to everybody out there, life is really short. The friendships we make in this hobby are what matter the most. We can't take any of these games with us. Nobody up there in heaven cares about limited editions versus pros. And take care of yourselves. You never know when your time is up, but you can definitely every day make a little bit of a decision to put your health over everything else. It's so important. And sometimes this hobby can be really sedentary. And I always say like as many times as you play pinball, do push-ups. As many times as you post on Pinside, do a pull-up. And just try to take care of yourselves a little bit each day and it will go a long way because you never know what's going to happen. It doesn't even matter. You can be in the best shape of your life. You could be a vegan. and you could just wake up the next day, feel something on your body and in four months you're gone. I've seen it happen to people. Everybody be good. Thank you for being a member of Canadian Spinball Podcast in this three horse race where everybody else is trying. They're all trying. I can't wait to tell you what I think the next Jersey Jack game is gonna be. I think it's not gonna hurt Harry Potter sales at all. I'll just say that. Later.