Welcome everybody to Kineticist Pinball Podcast. Happy Friday. How's everybody doing? Welcome to the world's least confrontational, least controversial pinball podcast. We're going to talk about the Kineticist trying to take down Harry Potter by bringing up J.K. Rowling's like views on trans people. What is going on? We come to pinball to escape what's going on in the real world. I'm really ashamed about that post. And then we're going to go around the pinball horn. Let's talk about everything going on because what's not going on is us discussing Harry Potter. I heard the delays are somewhat significant. I don't think we're going to get this game maybe until June now. So we'll talk about that. And that gives more time to sell these King Kongs that nobody wants. Gives more time for barrels of fun to get people into Dune. I'm not sure what the next move is going to be there, but let's go around and talk about everything happening everywhere. How does that sound? Let's start with this silly post by Colin. He knows what he's doing. He's smart enough to know who the pinball buying demographic is. and I'm really disappointed. I'm disappointed because you got to remember, this was the guy that was all about pinball positivity. Let's bring more people into pinball. All right, think about that for a minute. If you want to bring people into pinball and you want to cast a wide net that gets everybody excited about the hobby you love. And also Colin is doing this for a living. This is how this guy makes his money. He's not making a lot of money. And if you're smart, you don't put up a post like this that's going to drive away the majority of people that buy pinball, that read pinball content. Sure, you can like virtual signal and get a few people to agree with you. But for the most part, a post like this is meant to divide people. It's meant to bully people. It's meant to trigger people. And it's meant to like out people on being closed minded, whatever he wants to do. I'm not going to share with you my views on this because this is not why you come here. And I'm not going to pick on you and ask for your views on this because this is not why I want you here. I want you to talk about Harry Potter pinball in the sense of the rules, in the toys, in the layout, in the art, everything about this game. I don't want to know what you feel about someone who made a book like 20, 30 years ago and what their political views are. That's not why we're here. So I'm disappointed to see that. I know why he did it. He wants to get the attention and we're going to give him a little bit of that attention right now. But I'm also going to declare right now, this is why I want nothing to do with the Twippies moving forward. He's the head of it. I want nothing to do with these people. They're all fakes in my mind. I'm serious. They're all fakes. They're all hiding behind an agenda. And it's crystal clear what that agenda is. And I want nothing to do with it. I don't hang with people like that. All right, Let's talk about everyone else in pinball right now. Let's start with Jersey Jack. So everybody thought Harry Potter was coming this week. I heard earlier in the week there was not going to be a distro or dealer call. That didn't happen. So we know that Jersey Jack, when they turn on the marketing around this game, they're going to have a dealer call scheduled. They're also going to invite pinball content creators. curious if they still invite Colin after he tries to sandbag their launch with a question like that but they will they will um but here's the thing this game I'm hearing has changes by JK Rowling and I think that the changes might require them to make new playfields which means if they've built games I think they might be in trouble and they might have to go back and reassemble the final version approved by the author herself. So I don't know. I don't know the latest. They are keeping a lot of this very hush. And so I would expect if I were us that we are not going to see Harry Potter until maybe June. So if we get it earlier, thank you. I think everybody is tired of waiting. We just want to see the game. And that's that. All right. Stern Pinball, King Kong, it's not selling very well. It's clear that it's not selling very well. The mighty goose that lays the golden eggs did not knock it out of the park. I think we've all talked about this enough. We've been beating this dead horse. I think Stern made every model look too similar. I think King Kong without assets doesn't really work. I think people have zombie Eddie fatigue. Every game starting to look the same. And I just think at this price point, it's not enough. You got to go watch Kerry Hardy's video on the Ellie of the game. Again, we're not saying it's not a fun game. We're not saying it's not a great shooter. We're not saying it's not a good theme for pinball. But what we're saying is for this much money, Stern is cutting a lot of corners. People are tired of it. And everybody knows that this game is just going to lose money because they didn't give it enough detail. They didn't separate the models enough. And it's not personal, Stern. it's professional we just don't think you're going far enough professionally to warrant this kind of money for these games and you either gotta lower the price or you gotta give us more so speaking of more i think everybody's gonna quickly move on to the next game i know dnd owners i'm in that thread dnd owners interesting those guys are enjoying the game but i also think what's going to happen when i've been reading dnd owners is a lot of them are making their way through this dnd world. Remember, that game is a game where you save your progress and you keep playing to achieve new things. So guys are playing for like two and a half hours in a single going in a single game. Remember it not like they starting over every time their game is over They starting where they left off And so I think what going to happen with D that going to get really interesting is there going to come a moment where Stern is done with the code and all the owners because it's save your progress kind of game, they're going to end up seeing everything. And I think they're going to be done with the game. It's kind of like when you beat a Final Fantasy role-playing game. It's a lot of fun, right? The journey is the enjoyment. But once the journey's over, you're not going to play it again. You're not going to want to do it all over again. And I think that's going to lead to a ton of D&Ds hitting the secondhand market. And that's fine, right? Some people can then go on the journey for the first time. But I think a lot of these games are going to hit the market at the same time. But all of the attention on Stern is going to be what's next. It's John Borg. It's most likely Star Wars. There's no way. I can't imagine it's going to be Star Wars episodes, what, four through six? You know, the original trilogy. There's no way. And here's why. Stern sold like 8,000 of those Steve Ritchie games. And that's based on the original trilogy. Dwight destroyed the code in that game. Stacking the different scenes from the movies. TIE Fighter on a spring. I hate that game. There's not many games I will say the word I hate. I hate that game because I love Star Wars so much and they butchered it, but they sold 8,000. There is no way Stern is going to burn everybody who owns that game and make another game based on the same movie. So I think they might go episode one through three. I hope it's that versus the skeleton crew. If it is Skeleton Crew, the game won't sell very well. And then after Star Wars, the big rumor is Pokemon from Jack Danger. Again, world's number one IP. But I also don't think Pokemon crosses over to the pinball buying demo. I think it could be another avatar situation. Even though the box office is so big, even though the gross of Pokemon is so big, how many of you have watched a Pokemon cartoon ever? how many of you trade Pokemon cards, how many of you care about Pokemon. And I would say about 90% of you are like, I don't care at all. That's not good. You would rather have Back to the Future than Pokemon. Okay. After Pokemon, I really don't know what's next from Stern. After Pokemon, we're going to get the next from Brian Eddy and then the next from Keith Elwin. We all knew about Elwynn's King Kong for the longest time, for many years. Nobody's rumored what's Keith Elwin's next. So if you know what Elwynn's next is, let me know at canadapinball at gmail.com. All right, that's Stern Pinball. Spooky Pinball. Spooky Pinball is having a great 2025. They've sold all their Evil Deads. The Evil Dead praise continues. I think people are realizing it is the best game of 2025 so far. And the thing about this company, I mean, there's been a fun debate about whether or not they should use shooter rods or launch buttons on the game. Lots of fun debate there. I really don't mind. I really don't. Like, skill shots, to me, it doesn't matter. Skill shots is, like, I don't know. It's, like, such a small part of the gameplay experience. And, you know, whenever you're, like, at league night or you're watching good players, like, slowly pull back the shooter rod trying to perfectly nail that skill shot. They look like losers. I mean it. We all look like losers and chumps when we're trying to perfectly hit that skill shot. Who cares? And in so many of these modern games, it feels like there's 18 skill shots in the game. I think every game should have just one skill shot. That's it. Don't give me 18 different. Don't have all the different stuff lighting up. I don't really care about a variety of things to start out my game. Just get me in the game and don't charge me a ton of money. All right, so spooky pinball. The next game from them is most likely Beetlejuice. It's going to sell out in an instant. And I know there's been a debate about whether or not it should be Goonies or it should be Beetlejuice. I'm just going to say this right now. They're both sell out on day one properties. They're both titles that everybody is really excited for. I think Beetlejuice translates better into pinball than the Goonies. That being said, I think they're both great potentials for a world under glass. And I also, I don't know who has Goonies. I keep seeing Barrels of Fun. We're going to talk about them next. But they keep teasing Goonies. I'm not sure why they're doing that when they got to get people excited about Dune. But I think it's going to be Beetlejuice. And the thing with Spooky is this. If the next game is Beetlejuice, day one sellout, and then they make that game for an entire year. I love where this company is at. I think out of everybody, the Spooky Pinball crew is going to bed and sleeping the best. I think they're the ones who are waking up in the best mood. I think they're having the most fun out of everybody. Name me another pinball company that looks like they're having as much fun as Spooky. And that is why buying from them is so much fun. And I don't think the other companies can genuinely present themselves as such a lovable company the way Spooky does. It is so authentic. And I think other companies are more guarded. They're more serious. They're more obnoxious. They're more scared. They're more anxious. Everything. I just don't think anybody out there has got the vibes that Spooky's got. And I really do believe that. And I'm a good judge of human character. I really am. Kaneda is. He really is. I mean, I really do love complimenting myself. And I just did. All right, let's go to Barrels of Fun. So Barrels of Fun. This company they got Dune Pinball out in the world And the main question I have now is okay what next Like what do they do next to get people excited about this game They just had the gentleman from Mythbusters He gets a ton of views He got a Dune Pinball machine He did a great walkthrough of the game And here's my thing, though. In that video, what did they do again? They once again teased Goonies. And I'm just like, seriously, I fired a text message to David David Van Es. I'm like, David, stop. Why do you think this is funny? You need to sell Dune Pinball. Why do you keep misdirecting everybody's attention and enthusiasm towards Goonies? I don't know what they're doing, but I don't like it. It's like I would not do anything that takes attention away from Dune right now. As Gary says, the only game I care about is the game on the line. He's right. He's right. And so when you do this video that's meant to sell more Dune machines, and then all of a sudden you're teasing like Goonies is around the corner, I think where this is coming from, and I want to be candid here. I think where this is coming from, I think David is insecure. I do. I think he's like building this brand and he's got a lot of other titles in the mix. And, you know, Dune didn't land like he thought it would. It didn't. It's not selling great. It's not. And, you know, they're going to struggle to sell a thousand of these. And I think he's kind of like, I want more attention. I want people to believe in this company more than they currently are and the sales aren't there So, you know like look at we're gonna have other fun stuff like the barrel is gonna be filled with so much fun But in the end david and i've been saying this to him and i'll say it to you in the end You need to make better decisions. So you don't end up here You need themes that can just sell on their own We're not buying into your brand. Consumers are buying a specific title. You've made a better game than Labyrinth. The game is impressive, but it's still half-baked. And I think that's the story of barrels right now. I'm not sure how they reignite people's enthusiasm for this title. I think what they need to start doing is encouraging people to watch the movies. I think they need to let people know on what date is the new code going to drop. And I think they're going to have to figure out a way to make the streams of the new code drops enticing enough to get people to spend 12. It's such a hard thing now, right? You really need to nail the theme better because at this much money, it's almost like remember Pirates when it first came out? The more you stream the game, the more you show it to people, it doesn't necessarily get you more FOMO. It almost makes people kind of good. Like they feel like they've seen it. Now I've seen it again. Now I'm seeing it again. And watching a pinball machine slowly come to life is not the best marketing strategy. You want on day one of reveal, you want all thousand of your games to sell out. if you're Barrels of Fun. You at least want to sell five to 600 the way Spooky did of Evil Dead. But I don't think they came even close. And now I think it's going to be a slow burn. It's going to be a slow journey through that desert to get all these Dune machines sold. So that's Barrels of Fun. Speaking of slow movement, have you heard any update on Chicago Gaming Company getting people their Merlin editions of Medieval Madness? I think they did it once again, people. They got, what, like 1,000 or 1,200 people to submit non-refundable deposits. And do you know when you're getting your game? I thought everyone was getting their games starting in the summer. It is the summer. And that's what's happening at CGC, another radio silent company. I've told you this. I'll tell you this again. I will not support this company because I don't like the way they treat their customers. I don't even care what the final product is. I'm just not happy with the service. It's like you go to a restaurant. The food can be delicious. But if the service is terrible, I'm not going back. And to me, that's Chicago Gaming Company. The service is always terrible. I don't care. I don't care about Pulp Fiction. I don't care about Medieval Madness. I don't care about anything they make. This service is bad. And it's on them to turn their service around. Okay, so that's Chicago Gaming Company. Let's go on to Pedretti Gaming. I'm hearing Pedretti Gaming is going to release any day now. They're going to release a Tales of the Arabian Nights remake. It is going to have a software update kit in it. The problem with this company is everybody knows the quality is not there. They only sold a couple hundred fun houses. And when I talk to distributors, when people have issues with their fun house, this company's customer service is not great. So there's a reason why, you know, fun house didn't sell very well. And I don't think people are looking at Pedretti Gaming as where they want to send a check for $10,000 plus. Even though people love Toten, there's enough original ones out there that are built like tanks that I would be hesitant. Now, the other thing they're going to do is a new art package. Again, Toten is one of the games that doesn't need a new art package. It's one of the most beautiful games from back in the day. They're going to have Brian Allen do his magic on the machine. He did the new Funhaus version. And so expect that in the world sometime soon. Pinball Brothers, Predator. No news whatsoever. So what I heard is they don't want to go up against Harry Potter. Of course, that's smart. But, you know, why not? I mean, they probably would have been better off releasing right now. Kong was like, eh. Dune didn't light the world on fire. they would have had an entire month to themselves of being the new game I get it though I think a lot of people are waiting for Harry Potter I think a lot of people now will only buy one new game I get it though I think a lot of people are waiting for Harry Potter I think a lot of people now will only buy one new machine a year especially at these prices 15K for a Harry Potter CE. So I just think a lot of people are waiting. So, you know, if you're them, it does kind of make sense. Let Potter come out, then release Predator. I hear Arnold is in the game. I'm just tired of the pinball brothers facebook page it's like they're still marketing alien to us and abba and i'm like nobody cares guys time to move on but predator is next from them that's next from them who are we missing multi-morphic portal um you know the thing with this game it's with all jerry games like they get revealed they make their way to shows and then nothing right it takes a long time to get these out the door. I need to go into the portal thread and see if people are buying this game. I don't know. I think every Jerry game comes out. They sell a handful to people who have the platform. I've been asking for a year now just to get from him. How many units have you sold? How many platforms are out there? Nobody wants to be transparent about it. I don't get it. I do get it actually it's because the number is embarrassingly low and that's where Multimorphic is at it's a shame because I do think these guys are putting some of the best engineering in all of pinball some of the best mechs in all of pinball into this platform all right who am I missing in the pinball world American pinball American pinball David Fix I saw him on LinkedIn he's open to work He's looking for vice presidential positions. He didn't clarify what kind of VP role. But look, man, I hope everybody lands on their feet. I hope he finds a job somewhere. And I do hope it's outside of pinball because he had his chance. He had his dream gig. He had the reins at American. He made decisions I would not have made. And now we're at this point where I think they contractually have to get Cuphead out sooner than later. but then I think it's over. I don't think we ever see another pinball machine from American Pinball. I think they're done. All right. Am I missing somebody? I feel like I am. I'm missing Dutch Pinball and Dutch Pinball X, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I'm seeing this game go out the door. I'm seeing the photos online. It looks beautiful. The game always looks beautiful. it is better to look at than it is to play but you know i've always said this people buying this game know what they're getting melvin's a really good friend i see people being like kaneda said ross is probably next when it comes to dpx you probably should trust what kaneda says and i know like people like oh well you know over here they said like come on guys we all know that barry is not going to have Back to the Future ready in time. And when all the Alice's are made, they need another game on the line. So I fully expect 300 Raza's will be next and then Back to the Future. Back to the Future is going to sell whenever. It doesn't matter when Barry releases it. I think what Barry's going to have to get smart with, and I will talk to them and counsel them on this, is they need to not just take unlimited orders and make people wait 10 years for their game. I think you're going to see 88 SLEs for a super high price. He's going to sell everyone instantly. And then I think he's going to cap it. Like we're only making this many. Look, if they said we're only going to make 2,000 back to the futures, they could charge 15,000 for each and sell out easily, easily. Jersey Jack is going to sell 2,000 Harry Potter CEs for 15 on top of two other models and they're also probably going to make like 4,000 CEs so they could easily sell that many Back to the Futures I think it's going to be a special game I just don't know when and it's not worth talking about it too much on a daily basis because it's so far away all right I think I got everybody I didn't talk about Home Pin. In summary, leave your political BS at the door. We all tune into pinball and pinball content and buy pinball machines as an escape from the world, from the media, from the bickering, the whining, the Gen Z moaning about life. The modern world has turned everybody into a complainer, into someone who's not enjoying life. People don't want to drink when they're young. They don't want to have sex. They don't want to do anything that brings enjoyment. They want to look at the world and complain about everything. They want to divide people. And what Colin did is just a typical Gen Z move. And he's trying to divide everybody. And it's lame. And that's why you're here. It's why Canadian Pinball Podcast doesn't get into that stuff. It's why we have the most subscribers out of all the pinball content creators out there. We've got the most here because we are the most open-minded. I don't allow people to bully or spew hate speech. I don't let people go off on political rants on my Patreon chat. We are here to talk pinball. And like I always say, let's be hard on the games, not too hard on the people. And that's what we do. Have a great Friday, everybody. Kaneda out. guitar solo you