Unfortunately, until someone else can offer an full featured game at 5000, then we are not going to see real competition. They also need to make them at a reaosnable pace.

EVERYONE else is still going after collector market.

I think we are at the start of some big things and it is more a multiple blows sort of situation that may cause Stern to ramp up quality and bring down prices.

I know if I were Stern, I would be killing the competition right now by selling full featured PRO models with better quality (they dont want to put out shit, but it is obvious that bean counting hurt them with some recent titles) and lower the price to 4500. It is obvious they can sell for that and after the slow price inflation the past few years it is the perfect way to control perception.

Current other players:
Spooky >> the boutique market but does not appear they ever want to grow to a beyond 1000 game per title run. They are a hit to Stern but a different market focus. Still hurt them and cause reaction, but not much due to scale.

Heighway >> obviously delivering on scale is their current hurdle. If they get to 100 games a month then they are a big deal and major player. They seem to be addressing things and planning big. If we see them with blockbusters like Aliens and a reasonable pace of production, then they will cause motion.

American Pinball >> too soo to be known entity, but thus far have proven the ability to make stuff happen quickly. It will be a while till we see what really comes of Houdini and their ability to make quality and scalability to many machines. That said, given the background they are a major player but impact is a few years out.

Homepin >> obviously also taking the Heighway approach of building for the long term and future. When they really get moving they will be a force and could also provide a pricepoint in the PRO market or better to force market.

JJP >> still marketing to the collector and pushing forward the full featured games which is great. I hope they have a blockbuster title around the bend to really get them to the next level. Again another major player, but not making impacts due to price/ market they are looking for. WOuld love to see a full featured game at JJP level for 6500 or under. I think then they start taking market. People can do the mental gymnastics to gor from a 5100 Stern PRO to a full featured JJP at 6500 pretty easily (similar to what people are doing already for Alien/ heighway)

Interesting times and let's be honest... without GB being a great selling theme things would have likely needed change quicker. Stern should be thanking their choices on that one as it likely saved them at the perfect time.

Most choices I have ever seen and possibly the most options to buy new games ever?

even 5500 (like it could have been) and they would be very concerned

lol. CGC is targeting people willing to over pay for inferior quality/design for nostalgia titles because they are largely incapable of working on or restoring an original. How many remakes are even feasible in your mind. They dont own capcom rights so you are limited to Bally/Williams titles. AFM was the easiest to design and build and cheapest by far based on work previously done, assembly, etc... After possibly MB and CCC they are done. CGC is the closest product to Stern by far.

JJP is a completely different market. They are building new titles, pushing innovation in pinball, taking risks with cool unliceinsed titles, and bring in back great talent along with developing new talent.

if they are smart, they will do this NOW!!! If they sleep much longer on getting agressive with pricing, then others will have a solid foot hold (some already appear to and are planning for the future)

???

In this year alone my options of games to buy include:

Woz, Hobbit, Dialed in
Full Throttle, Aliens
Rob zombie, Dominos, Jestons, Alice Cooper
MMr, AFMr
Houdini?
Zombie Pitch and Bat

am I missing anything?

I cant imagine they are even close to 90% of the market.

What are your numbers on this? Curious where it comes from.

In rough math the past 2 years we know 2000plus WoZ, 1000 plus Hobbit, 150 AMH, 250ish RZ, 1000 MMr, 200 FullT?, a couple various others. For simple math just say 4000 games to round down.

You think Stern is selling 40,000 games in the past 3 years even? I see NO WAY they are doing those numbers. Even antedotally, GB is their proclaimed best seller of recent and possibly best seller ever. There are only 262 pinside owners. 212 on route.
In comparison WoZ has 867 pinside owners and 129 on route.
Hobbit has 428/60

The math does not add up.

Stern might be 50% of total market now a days and that is being generous.

and ther ONLY games in that list that more than a few would buy.

GoT
GB
Met
SMve
TWD

they are batting less than 50% and spend ALOT of time and energy putting out some duds. Toss on their the QC and pf issues and things have changed my firend.

They are seeing shrinking market share even if the market has been growing the past few years. The market only grows so far. That is when market share matters and those that have built for the lean times will make it.

sorry, I did not intend to bias the number. I forgot they split the games like that?

Do they not split Woz into the different versions also?

I actually think there is a distinct possibility that we see two of the wmaller players merge into one company in the future.

I predict some things will change in the next few years and the companies that are agile and prepared will be the ones to survive.
Keep in mind this is partially the model Stern and Spooky are already beta running.

Boutique games designed all or in part with other design people/teams that they then manufacturer.

I would not be surprised to see JJP and or Heighway push forward in this avenue as they get more scalable production lines and then need to overcome the next issue which is cycle time for development vs production.

I think DI is going to do well on location.

non-licensed theme is still approachable to many and JJP games have shown to be route monsters in the past!

(I am still amazed how well Woz does o route, but it does... We have Hobbit on route and is does very well!)

seems like some good numbers.

thanks for the summary

serial numbers are public knowledge and you just have to pay attention.

Some go through the effort of cross referencing can # to pf # and have put int effort to get decent production numbers.

I think you are experiencing the wonders of JJP doing a great job marketing!

I have found lots of new to operating types that have JJP games they bought. That combined with thus far all JJP games do VERY well on route means lots of play combined with higher than average poor technician maintainence = you see down JJP games.

There are a lot of them out their is one off operator locations.