By Todd Russell
There’s a Blackfoot song called “Highway Song” that is playing in my head over the last week: “Another day, another dollar, after I’ve sang and hollered. Oh, it’s my way of living, but I can’t change a thing.” I disagree with this last bit because one person can start change. I’ve seen it in work, seen it in life and, powers willing, we’ll see it someday in pinball.
Maybe we already are.
What I’m talking about is incomplete games being released for $10,000. The biggest offender is Stern and they can clean it up by skipping whatever game they’re planning on releasing next and finishing some code of their last 5 of 6 games that are still incomplete (D&D, X-Men, John Wick, Jaws and now King Kong). Yes, we talked about this last week: More Incomplete Pinball Releases + Champion Pub FX Tourney + Humpday Wednesday S2E7 and it will be a topic I discuss at this coming week’s NW Pinball Show with other pinfolks. Spreading the gospel, if you will, that this bad for the future of pinball. It’s especially bad for smaller companies that will not be able to weather the storm of less people buying new pinball games at launch and waiting to see what the games are like once finished.
To shift to a different business for a minute: Disney. They are having some real problems right now because they refused to listen, time and again, to their fans. They remade movies with agendas instead of a focus on telling good stories. Disney is supposed to tell wholesome, family, good stories, that’s what they used to do best. Instead, they became too often about delivering an agenda and preaching to people just wanting to escape into good stories. Fan backlash ensued. They aren’t buying into it. Boycotting. Now look at the headlines.
We don’t want to see anybody lose jobs here at PGM, but if you run your business poorly, the money will start to dry up.
This brings us back to my concerns for pinball. It’s not to bash the companies or be toxic to them. I want them to survive and thrive and delivering new products — expensive ones — that are incomplete is a recipe for failure. Time will tell if I’m wrong, but there are signs already that, with some exceptions they have new game fatigue.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
9AM World Premiere Listening Party for AI Kills: Stillbirth album – the entire album will play once from beginning to ending
So, let’s get to some brighter topics like a world wide listening part for AI Kills Stillbirth. Today, on the show starting at 9am PST, the listening party at Bandcamp will also be live streamed during the Humpday Wednesday show. You can RSVP for this free listening party at Bandcamp here: https://aikills.bandcamp.com/merch/stillbirth-listening-party
Side art for JJP Harry Potter revealed – the Wizard edition looks *very* Potterverse
Let me lead this section with I haven’t read a single Harry Potter book or watched any of the movies, but I do recognize and like the art for the Harry Potter Wizard Edition from their official teaser video:
This art says Harry Potter to me. I’m still going with this will be the biggest game Jersey Jack Pinball has done to date. About the only things that can sink this game’s sales are bad gameplay and broken and/or terminally unfinished code. Time will tell on that.
June 5 JJP is launching, see: https://jerseyjackpinball.com/pages/pre-launch. Unfortunately, we’ve learned this game will not be at the NW Pinball & Arcade Show
King Kong debuts at #7 on Pinside Top 100
Skullbox Zaccaria Pinball Score Chasing: Granada EM
PGM Tournament Game: Grimm Tales – Pinball FX
SEARCH ID# DnyO4um0a0
Last week leaderboard champ for CHAMPION PUB: RBWings
Here is the custom song created for RBWings called “Champion Pub Winner (Rbwings)”: https://suno.com/song/c9dbd26d-55a0-4520-9733-43590f095a0b
What’s Happening in Your last week of Pinball?
Your turn. What have you been up to the last week with pinball — real, virtual, whatever pinball you’re playing? What are you playing the most? What do you want to play that feel you’ve neglected, if anything? What news has happened that turned you on … or off? The comments await on anything pinball-related.