And you know this how?

You dont think that maybe Andy had a bunch of start-up investors pump the money in to take FT to market?

Also, seeing as the Aliens deposits is quite a recent event, how did these deposits pay for over 2 years of development, putting together a fairly impressive factory, and taking a fully functional FT out to the US and then another to France for these pinball/trade shows?? Do you also think Andy got the Aliens license for free?

The deposits right now just show that there's a confirmed market for the Aliens title, maybe that puts Heighway pinball in a stronger position with their backers.. Also, this isnt quite the same as taking practically full payment up front on a machine that then doesnt get produced for a year or two...

I can see exactly why you'd say something like this, bearing in mind the events of the last couple of years with certain other title(s), and if heighway had been taking large deposits a year ago for something way off of being produced you'd have a very valid point.

Fact is there are obviously people with money backing this project, and as hard as a start-up in the technology sector is (As with any start-up, its soul-destroyingly difficult - believe me I know from my own businesses!), this company is not structured to rely solely on deposits for its survival - what it does rely on is showing the capability to get sales and thereby maybe increase investors confidence in the enterprise, hypothetically..

If you knew the kind of figures it takes to get this far I think you'd be surprised.

Exactly, the Aliens announcement at Expo was clearly made because it was/is the BIGGEST possible platform to the BIGGEST potential consumer market that Heighway Pinball was attending anytime soon. And lets be honest, the publicity from announcing such a huge license has brought more attention to the company and their other title which is about to be released, Full Throttle.

The Aliens license was signed and sealed a while ago, a number of people have sat on this info for quite a long time, and even the Bacardi machine run was right back at the beginning of the year, but for various reasons this info couldn't be shared in the public domain - so whilst a lot of people just viewed Heighway as a boutique small-run type affair that probably wouldn't get past title 1, a number of us have known for a while what was going on and just bided our time.

Amusement machines have been produced and shipped out of the fully fitted/staffed factory, major license holders have been spoken to and deals have been done, and others are in the pipeline, big-name designers (Such as Nordman) are onboard, and FT is about to start being produced and sold pretty imminently. Heighway have designed their own boardsets and are integrating different technologies into their pins, which are currently not considered 'industry standard'.

All of the above was NOT funded by some sort of pipedream that involved taking full up front payments from customers a year or two years in advance.

You know, I shouldnt say this but Im going to anyway, Andy first announcing Aliens overseas and also not being able to attend a particular UK show recently seems to have led to some of our own (British) countrymen getting a little bit put out, the few UK posters on here (And other forums/groups) seem to be proportionally the more negative ones and I just don't get it - your getting a UK Pinball manufacturer, thats a bit of a result surely??

Who pre-ordered it and paid in full then?

What happened when the title was pulled/changed to FT ?

Did you buy it, does the company owe you a refund then and your just not saying?

So none of the above then? Ill take that as a definate 'no'.

And yes, if you read above you'd see I do have a small interest in it, made that very clear when the other Aliens thread was started, in my pretty much first post on the topic I put my hands up and said Im an investor.

However, that doesnt make me blind to the fact i dont particularly like the theme of FT and am unsure if I want one myself or not, motorbikes racing do literally nothing for me. Until i get round to play the latest version of it I cant say either way I guess. Tho I do quite like fast pins

And Im not overly defensive, I just dont get why more of the UK crowd arent getting behind this more, i find it really odd. And again, I suspect it has a lot to do with the no-show at northern lights..

Will it be delivered by April ? Hope so, if thats what the team are saying, but I dont work in the factory myself.

Im 50/50 on pre-ordering anyway, aside from the topper beacon things Im probably just as happy to wait and get a standard one.

Is that balanced enough for you?