The amount of mistakes made with GTF is quite staggering. And really think it could have worked, but like announcing that game at same time as a bunch of other high profile licensed titles? Really? And then slapping on that higher price tag on top of that for an original IP?

And all the money they wasted on designing that stupid tank cabinet and gimmicks could likely paid to get some actual real plastic sculpt molds made to put in real toys into the pin instead of putting GIANT 3D prints dead center as the main toy in your game. Gonna raise prices on an original IP pin and expect to compete? While offering ugly 3D printed parts right on the playfield?

At the min the game should have been priced in line with their older titles, not raising prices and going all in on LE and Deluxe models.

I’ll never forget it. Was watching the reveal stream at home.

I wanted to go straight to a titty bar myself.

Yep, will never own a DI due to theme for me

These GTF ads that keep popping up in the thread from guys like Joe at Pinball star.

“LE GTF, $11k FIRM”

Really?

It's an algorithm. Folks are talking about GTF and AP, it's gonna show you related ads.

IMG_6879 (resized).jpeg

American Pinball is done! They really FUCKED up hiring David Fix....a guy with ties to the vending/arcade business and success with Dave & Busters & ICE but this guy knows nothing about running a pinball company! I'm sorry but that's a fact! They would have been better off with John Popadiuk.

Word on the inside is that Galactic Tank Force has sold just over 60 units out the door! As soon as word hit the streets that the game was a complete mechanical disaster in June 2023 consumers and barcades began canceling orders left and right.

They have no assets worth purchasing for any current pinball company out there. Stick a fork in them....they are done!

Some on the inside are saying JJP is next.....unless they can deliver a blockbuster smash hit with Harry Potter!

I knew something was afoot when their artist stepped on pinside to tell everyone they wish their wives were as hot as the main character of GTF, responding to the launch hate.

That little bit says about all needed about the minds behind the game and how they expertly marketed the game.

No surprise, I know someone that ordered a Houdini Deluxe edition over 14 months ago from a distributor who is still waiting on the machine.

JJP did it to themselves with the pooling playfield nonsense and complete lack of code updates.

Get a new man on the "inside". They've sold more like 200-300. Based on several things. Still not great just don't bring us any more "facts" from that "source".

That's a bummer. Houdini looks like a great game, same with Oktoberfest. The only American Pinball game I've played is Valhalla and it was fun seemed like a quality product.

Assuming there was any value in taking over this train wreck, who would be most likely:

Stern - have enough capacity at the moment to satiate the entire market plus some.
JJP - pretty sure the owners are sick of bleeding already
Spooky - in a sweet shot atm, don’t need the risk.
Barrels of Fun - most likely to benefit. Any spare cash though?
CGC - maybe, but they don’t seem overly interested in manufacturing pinball atm.
Play Mechanix - possibly, but like CgC, pinball seems like just a side folly - do they need the headache?

AP should concentrate on becoming a contract manufacturer. That’s the one area they seem to have sorted. For the rest of it AP suck. Barrels, Play Mechanix, Haggis, Dutch (until recently), Turner and every other plucky pinball startup all need manufacturing yet It’s the hardest part of the business.

Just a shame the market doesn’t need any more titles at the moment.

Hypothetical: If AP had positioned themselves as a contract manufacturer, and Play Mechanix had contracted with them instead of CGC, would Pulp Fiction currently exist in a less ethereal sense?

Of course, nobody wants a poorly 3D-printed cheeseburger plopped onto their playfield.

I think poorly-printed 3D sculpts actually make more sense in a Tarantino-themed pin than they do in GTF.

Jjp's decisions/action of late speak to a company that has turned off the comments section and doesn't want to deal with certain things whilst the walls are crumbling around them. We'll see, they in theory have marketable themes in the pipe, which some might say would be a first for them.

If that Tank bashtoy had been placed more appropriately on the PF, instead of dead-set in the middle, with no ball path through the tank; instead a useless robot that just pops out and does nothing.

That tank eliminates all the ball paths and shots in the middle 1/3 of the PF.

Then you add Fix & the cheesy cast with terrible script…

Most of us saw this coming.

Franchi art is the Only really good thing about this pin. Franchi Art looks awesome, is really well done.

But it's exactly the same as AFM!!!!!!

(except way different)

Anybody remember those days?

If I see gtf nib at a discount similar to what happened to those leftover ultraman I'll be all over it. I'll even take the tank version . Anybody blowing them out lmk.

And shoved really far down the PF. Oof. And let's make it a giant 3D print.

I had HotWheels and LOV and both were built like tanks and super fun games...They f'd up big time with GTF, hopefully they get back on track.

If they got the Sonic license and released that, it would save them for sure...But who knows.

I would add Dutch-Pinball and the ability to have a US manufacturing site. They can also offer at a cheaper price in the US and if it's true that they have the BTTF license, that's a great win-win situation.

Ah I think you are right. My apologies to Whistles for mis-reading his comment. my bad!

Agreed.

So all AP games were "built like tanks" EXCEPT for GTF?

I think that might actually be ironic!

Not true, some people, when they feel something is not in the best interest of the company, will say what they think, regardless of the consequences. They will support whatever decision is made, but they are not going to just nod their head in agreement when they don't think it is the right thing to do. They sleep better at night when they are true to themselves and don't compromise their ethics and values.

A company that in a little more than three years went from absolutely nothing to having designed, developed and produced three games, built a factory that was doing 20 to 25 games a week and had moved into a bigger facility, not sure I would describe it as "a mess". I would describe it as start-up company with great potential, that needed themes that NIB buyers want and better marketing, neither of which has happened. I would argue that it was not a mess then, but now three years later . . . and if the rumors are true, it appears that all of the potential has been wasted.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have pinball code to go write.

I think all of you that pop up on every manufacturer/new game thread saying how x company should've done this or should've done that now have a golden opportunity. Pool your money & resources to buy American Pinball! Then, effectively, Pinside will be running a pinball company lead by several hundred pinsiders who always know best. What could go wrong? Please make this happen. Put your money where your mouths are!

Thanks for all you did for American Pinball 1.0!

I really wish people would understand that we are on American Pinball 2.0. Stop talking about your Houdini, Oktoberfest and Hot Wheels like they were built by the same company. Fix came in and cleaned house. LOV and GTF are the new American Pinball.

Agree. I own Oktoberfest, owned Hot Wheels, and nearly bought Houdini. AP impressed me a lot from the start. High quality pins at a comparatively low price point. Hell, Oktoberfest is at least as loaded as any JJP LE. Nobody was complaining about the quality or the prices. All they needed was a good licensed theme to hit the big time sales-wise. Then they made GTF. I don't know WTF they were thinking. They basically asked Dialed In to "Hold my beer." A guaranteed sales flop regardless of how good or bad it turned put to be. This is like when Zingy Bingy killed Capcom pinball. I am genuinely confused as to why so many pinball companies have made terrible choices on the most important aspect that drives sales; the theme. It doesn't seem that hard to know what the community wants or doesn't want. I could do it. I'd do it for free. Call me anytime. Someone in the room should've said "Hell no! What are you trying to put us out of busines?" when this rediculous idea was floated. GTF never should've made it past the white board. There are dozens of licensed themes that would've sold 10x better.

There was that seminar they did about GTF where one guy would repeatedly say, regarding the lame dialogue in the game, "Yeah, that was my idea, it was supposed to be a temporary placeholder but I pushed to get it to stay in the game!" which he said about a lot of stuff with a proud shit eating grin on his face.

People are basically saying every decision they made is the problem. To me, that's the biggest one. It's a general issue when you keep the pinball division small and let laziness prevail.

I’m in

I said the same exact thing when I saw Elton John.

GTF is a great game. When will they go on closeout?

+1

same (positive) feeling as you about Houdini + Oktoberfest + Hot Wheels
and than something really changed with LOV & GTF... but not on the right way seeing the situation today

There's this idea some people have that AP is great at making games, but that's not true. At least not any more.

The problem is not only that they struggled to sell GTF, they struggled to build it. Many of the relative few people who were actually willing to buy it were waiting months. It took them a year to make like 300 machines.

There's nothing of value at AP except maybe a few of the remaining employees.

I do hope one of them grab the artwork assets, disk images, and model STL on the way out, so that people can keep these games going in gold shape for a long time

Don't forget, any pinball company that also wants to go out of business can buy AP and they'll get to release Food Truck!

When American Pinball was formed, Keith Elwin wasn't currently working at Stern.

what-nani.gif

Two different views. Yours from within. Mine with contacts with them and what we read.

They seemed to get rolling, and change direction. Move to new building and make plans for more production and contract building. Then seem to go by the wayside. Bring in Nordman to train other game designers and make more games per year. And pull back.

Have great people ( like you ) and don't use their potential, like Sherlock Holmes. Pull Balcer off the 4th game and have him sit in his office and don't let him at least help assemble games.

They have accomplished a lot in three years. Pretty amazing for a start up from nothing company to now. I hope they pull it together and keep rolling. Still a lot of potential there.

And that is great news. Eager to see what you are working on.

LTG : )

Is there any official word from AP that they may be up for sale? Seems weird to be completely on the down low unless they already have some potential buyers.

The complete silence or them not outright disputing the news is kind of damning

It’s a horizontal wall which is closer to the flippers than it should be. Didn’t even angle it.
Or as I would’ve liked to see instead of the robot popping out, a path opening through, maybe to the pop bumpers with a bonus… just thinking out loud.

Cary Hardy posted on FB (in a post I think he's since deleted) that according to his contacts there this has been a long time coming and expects AP to be making an official announcement themselves soon. He said the word "liquidation" should be being used if they are honest about the situation.

Yeah, being a contract manufacturer (even on the side) for Dutch would be a huge win for AP AND Dutch. Fix their throughput issues and save on time and shipping to the US, which is probably their largest market.

There are no potential buyers. No one is buying a failing (if indeed it is) pinball company. Any remaining talent can easily be poached by competitors. Leftover parts inventory will be auctioned for pennies on the dollar (possibly sold right back to the supplier, a la Deeproot).

The reality is, and it's unfortunate, there are a lot of pinball companies trying to live the dream of making pinball machines that are panicking right now, even if they aren't showing it.

Hypothetically speaking always felt Spookys theme/licensing choices matched with AP build quality and talent would have made for a real promising pinball company.
Both have had challenges, Spooky appears to have learned and thriving while AP kept doubling down. Sad news if this is it.

In the GTF thread you can see where things went from excitement to apprehension. It’s palpable.

Any distributors that want to sell the game way, way below MSRP CONTACT ME!!!

I think the problem with GTF was that they were giving us what they thought we wanted rather than what we actually wanted

I haven't deleted anything. I also stated they would make an announcement when they "are ready" not "soon".

The fact remains this is essentially a leak. It wasn't supposed to be made public this soon. There is still a lot in the air right now. Anything could happen...