no chance its below 8000 for standard or 8500-9000 for "LE" - whatever that means ultimately.

yes - very firmly I do. There is no business case for them to build them and sell them any cheaper! They will justify the price with some new bells and whistles, LEDs, ColorDMD, whatever but 100% yes - you wont see this machine for less than $8000-$9000 no matter what.

I tend to agree with you. I think the whole remake business model relies in an 8,000 minimum price point and the intent is to obviously target games for remake ONLY if they sit at or above that cost for current existing units. I agree that AFMr might miss the mark because its not going to work within their pricing strategy unless they lower their price (and cut their profit margin) since very nice AFM sit at 7500-9000 roughly.

I think they will still sell a few at 8000 - operators who want an AFM with (hopefully) modern NIB reliability, people who don't want to do any work on their own games or want perfect pristine games, people (and there are plenty around here) who just have to have every new game if for nothing else but bragging rights - they will spend the 8000 for an AFMr without hesitation. The 2nd half of the market? not so much.

They should have honestly skipped AFM and gone to MB, CC, or other Bally Williams games that reliably sell for closer to 10k. That's the sweet spot. They need to continue to provide that value proposition of "hey - you want MM but cant afford 12k? well guess what! Ive got a BRAND NEW one for you for 8000!!" That same conversation cant really be had with AFM - which to your point, is going to have an impact on the marketability and the profitability of this product.