A 500 unit run?? He said he sold 2000 already!

"David Fix went on to state that Galactic Tank Forces on location are "earning on par or a little bit better than Foo Fighters at quite a few different locations."

LUL, ok.

My GTFLE arrives Monday! Hopefully the shipping company has not damage the game. This game will fit nicely in my collection of games. I was looking for something different than my usual Stern pin. Still a Stern fan though. I have a lot of Stern pins. They are amazing designs. I will post a unboxing video and pictures soon.

Same, except no idea when mine ships. Ok to wait until the ‘fix’ is installed though.

I remember people saying he said this. But where did he say it?

Lol! Just got back from wizard’s world in ft wayne, indiana. They advertised they had a GTF. It apparently only made it a few weeks and was pulled from the floor because it was constantly breaking. I call BS on earning like Foo.

It’s neck and neck, folks. One day Foo makes the most, the next day GTF! fires it’s way to top earner. The results are in and GTF! is the Winner! Expecting GTF! to clean up at this year’s TWIPY’s. American Pinball needs to add a fifth and sixth line at their factory to keep up with demand. They better start scouting locations for an even bigger manufacturing facility. Maybe Stern’s present location will be available soon.

David Fix didn’t officially say anything, so you won’t find it in a podcast. He was asked at Expo on the day after launch, how many orders AP sold and he responded, “all of them”. He was probably asked the question a few different times during the day. I heard him tell a friend, “we have orders for all the games”. He is not a moron, so he won’t be recorded saying it anywhere. But he got his message out and had plenty of opportunities afterwards to correct the record, and chose not to. I conclude he said it.

Switching the plan from building all signature editions, first certainly changed. It’s no big deal to me because I didn’t buy one. And in light of the huge problem revealed with the target bank, I’m glad AP has engineered a solution and will be implementing it now, at the beginning of production. That was the right decision. Mailing it out for the few games already made and sold, is also the right decision. Way to go AP.

The best news to come out of the monthly podcast was learning six GTF’s will be at NWPinball this weekend. With the mech fixed, carbon core balls installed and hopefully games set with correct pitch, we shall learn how the games performed.

That’s some used car salesman shit right there…

And just for the record I still fully intend on purchasing one of these at some point. The theme and aesthetics really hit home for me and the fam it’s just that like most AP titles I fully expect the opportunity to pick one up down the road for considerably less than retail.

Agreed. I also will wait and see how this plays out after a few more months.

Well, hopefully a few people but then new so that there is a used market! Otherwise we're all of of luck and the cows are doomed!

Any reports on GTF! from NWPinball?

I didn't see it on the floor at all and I went both Friday and Saturday.

I believe the claim that the game is earning on par or better than Foo Fighters, but I don't believe thats something to be flexxing about. Its just spin. If theres a handful of GTF's at pinball hot spots, of course a brand new game that barely anyone has had a chance to play, let alone play multiple times in a non show environment is going to be a top earner at first. Its easy to play a Foo Fighters at just about any regular pin location. So like, congrats I guess, but I don't think its that high of an achievement. Foo has probably been at Enterium since Febuary or early March and theres zero shortage of other locations in the area to play it as well. I'm curious if its out earning Pulp Fiction at Enterium because I hear theres a constant line for that game.

That is a very accurate assessment on any earning claims.

I had flown in for the weekend with my daughter and we looked for it because I really wanted her to play it. However it was nowhere to be found on the floor.

Nitro didn't have a booth at the NW show. They had a private suite in the hotel attached to the venue with a GTF and few other games to play. Access was provided through email invites to their customers. Sounds like AP didn't know that.

That’s too bad. We were excited to play! Real bummer a brand new game was locked away to VIPs at a show. At least when JJ at GEX does suite parties they are open to all!

Agreed, sorry you were unable to play it. To be fair to Nitro, they did make a Facebook post that indicated anyone could come by, you just needed to message them to gain access to the suite. I don't think limiting access of the machines to anyone was the goal. They didn't have a booth, and haven't for years, so they couldn't really showcase anything. That's why I thought it was weird when I read what was said by David Fix in the post above.

I don't believe it... and we put one of the first 3 GTFs on site in the country.. let alone in a lineup. Foo's performance was instant and constant.

What we have here is the David Fix marketing machine... probably telling everyone 'any buzz is good period', even if we're talking about the absurdity of their claims.

Glad they did open it up if you happened to see it on Facebook. I don’t use Facebook so I would have missed it. It just didn’t dawn on me that American would send a brand new game to a show and not have it on the main floor. CGC was there as CGC and had games on the floor. I wonder why American didn’t just come themselves rather than have the game in a suite? My daughter was bummed we couldn’t find it. On the other hand after the first day all she wanted to play was foo fighters. So that is probably our next purchase.

For the same reason they have distributors - to represent them regionally. Even Stern doesn't present at most shows, but uses Marco and Cointaker as their primary venue for show presence except at expo.

This is the role of distributors... unfortunately Nitro has their own baggage which means a conflict that obviously wasn't all that well communicated.

That’s a really good point. I am not familiar with the drama, but it does seem like there may be some. I just wanted to play a new pinball machine! I’ll have to try and find one local to me here in Colorado. Didn’t see one on the pin map.

Was AP not aware that Nitro is persona non grata at the show? Seems odd to send them games to have at the show when they are not allowed to be at the show.

The owner of Nitro was accused of some sexual harassment and unwanted innuendos/advances from some pinball people he would party with. They put him in the corner, let the wife be the face of the business for awhile, waited for it to blow over, and now Tommy is back from being in hiding. But clearly the NW folks have put their foot down over the past allegations.

Probably a too dumb to ask, to slick to tell situation

Ahh, ok. I am guessing American wasn’t aware of the history then. I am sure they want there games out in the public as much as possible.

Next Level out of Oregon is also a distributor for AP, but they were hosting Stern games with Marco. After Nitro and Next Level, you kinda run out of local distributors that people can use.

Literally every non design issue can be traced back to this guy. What is his backstory?

Obviously he has the passion for pinball and his age says probably for a while now.

He did marketing for redemption machine manufacturer ICE before landing similar job with American. Then fairly quickly became the president not sure what kind of vacuum was being filled during this time.

We have seen him say and promise many things that have not come to fruition but that is not uncommon for sales pedigree.

After seeing the heavily throttled and bungled release of GTFo along with an expressed disdain for Pinside criticism I would have expected some more effort to right the ship yet trends continue.

I witnessed a lifeline thrown by Fix when JGW was being a drunken ogre at a Pintastic forum any many subsequent referrals by John about Fix being pro Trailer Trash Pinball until it ended up being just that.

Bottom line is how can a solid pinball manufacturer with a decent lineup allow themselves to be managed by and in such a way and end up successful?

Well he's the guy in charge and they literally have one product to be pushing... kinda hard to argue he isn't aware of what's going on... especially when he's the one saying it or acting in it.

Was totally gonna buy this pinball machine til i saw that guys mustache. Big red flag.

I can only speak on Enterium because its somewhat local to me and its also sort of a pinball Mecca, I don't know how things shake out at your location. I just would not be shocked that a new game thats hard to find is earning better than a game thats relatively easy to find and been around a while. That said, I also would not be totally shocked if it was just BS either I guess though. I do agree with your overall assessment that its the Dave Fix marketing machine making wild claims.

Why do you think he doesn't impact also design decisions?

He just may. I was trying to keep my assumptions to a minimum. This is Pinside after all..

We reliably have the first or second copy of new titles in the tri-state area. We get virtually all the new games worthy of mention.

Nothing in the last 5ish years has been the instant BOOM that Foo Fighters is.. and that's with plenty of Foo Fighters around too. And I'm not talking 'oh 20% more'.. we're talking blowing past everything around it.

https://www.american-pinball.com/distributors/

in your area there is also:
Spokane Pinball
5908 E Broadway Ave
Spokane Washington 99202

AP needs to take a page from JJP's handling of the Toy Story 4 debacle. They quickly (and I mean QUICKLY) moved on to Godfather once it was clear they screwed up instead of wasting time and fan goodwill pushing a pin they delivered that was the Toy Story almost no one wanted. Josh has said Nordman's next design for AP is much better. REAL TALK: Let's just fill the few hundred orders AP has for GTFo and move on to Nordman's next one by late Summer/early Fall. Need to accelerate the programming? Well, Josh knows AP code. Maybe he'd be willing to subcontract as an assistant programmer on the team to speed the development schedule.

This isn't a licensed property. There are no minimum guaranteed royalties or upfront payments. What they have in parts is and development is all they have in it, and compared to the licensed disaster it could be, that's a pretty cheap escape hatch on a doomed project.

Incorrect. We were invited to have a booth at the show but cancelled when they could not accommodate our current setup.

I think it’s time to get off the Nordman train. He has his moment and it’s time for the others at AP to kick the can. The bar is so fn low right now it’s hard to f up more than this dumpster fire. Nordman has said his only interest is tinkering on jukebox machines for the last few years now and it’s clear fix is using him as bait.
Ryan Mcquaid pls enter the room…

I'm not ready to bail on Nordman yet, especially since Josh seemed to really like his next design. But AP customer (and want-to-be customer) goodwill is being burned like flash paper, only there's no magic in this instance. So the sooner AP cranks up the release schedule and moves on from GTFo, the better for them. Dragging this out will not help them. This JUST happened with JJP and they made the right choice by dumping Toy Story 4 and moving away as quickly as possible. Buy the hint, take the clue, AP. Move on - quickly.

Remember years back when he said David said AP hired a number of exciting, new junior designers? Shortly thereafter, it was announced that Ryan joined the team and Fix said he was one of those designers. Who are the others?

I just caught Fix's interview on the latest pincast. He described AP is a small company and inventoried the key staff. He listed on Nordman and McQuaid as designers.

He also claimed that there in fact was a secret winner of American Dream we'll manufacture your homebrew contest from last year's expo. He insinuated the winner had not been announced because it was for a game that would require a license and they didn't want to repeat the Sonic Spinball mistake of making an announcement before securing a license. He also said the winner had been notified.

We know it wasn't Elf because the Elf guy posted on pinside that he was upset that he and others had spent a bunch of time and money to get to Expo with an American Dream ready game without there being a declared winner. Anyone have a list of the other homebrew contenders with themes that would require licenses which might be the secret winner?

Maybe Cuphead

That would be a cool theme.

Was Nightmare Before Xmas there?

Well, we've also heard there's been huge amount of turnover at AP lately, so even if they hired designers "years back" whose to say they're still there (they probably aren't)

First of all Toy Story is a awesome game after making a few key tweaks to the game. I think Its a top 5 game for me. Second the jury is not in yet on GTF yet IMO. When I played it at Expo I really enjoyed it. It keeps you on your toes and gives you a huge rush when battling the tank. Code is not finished yet and I'm going to wait and see.

I'm not saying you personally can't enjoy both. There's a lid for every pot. But in the case of these two, the market has decided. When you can get a beautiful, barely used Toy Story 4 pin for sub-$10k, judgment has been rendered. People asking more than that are destined for the "Not Sold - Decided to Keep" camp. JJP made the wise choice and bailed almost immediately. They knew. The market just confirmed it. Denying GTF is in the same predicament will do AP no favors. They supposedly have a winner in Nordman's next design. Fill the GTFo orders they have and get on with the next title as fast as possible - there's a clear spot in late summer they can have all to themselves for a proper reveal where they don't have to fight 4 other, better, pin announcements for mindshare. Fighting an expensive, losing battle to make whole milk out of Fairlife isn't a winning strategy.

I think if he'd used any other game to compare than Foo Fighters it would have sounded at least half way legit (except maybe Pulp Fiction). As flynnibus sais, FF has been out for a while longer, plus it's everywhere, plus everyone know it will be everywhere. GTF is earning because it's the rare novelty game at the moment. I'm pretty sure Pinball Circus is one of the best performing games at PHOF (when it's working). Doesn't mean the game is any good nor was it a sales success.