Quoted from iamabearsfan:To me JJP was kind of analogous to Jaguar. Why did people continue to buy their games with problems? Because they were so darn cool in so many ways (still are to a large degree). People were willing to look beyond those issues to play and own some of the best machines out there. Especially when JJP was new (i.e. WoZ), JJP games were ground breaking with their LCD's, electronics, and big screen experience. Jaguars weren't much different for a lot of years. Their designs were so unique that the market overlooked the fact that the products would break easily. Their cars broke down all of the time. Trust me, I owned several of them for years and experienced this first hand. BUT, you were able to get service and get the things fixed and Jaguar service was pretty darn good. This is where JJP is playing with fire. They have arguably let one of the best techs in Lloyd slip through their fingers, whatever the reason may be. IMHO This will have larger impacts than all the previous issues combined. People want to be heard and helped. At least for this Pinside group, LLoyd filled a huge hole for JJP. JJP has big shoes to fill now and at a time when they are selling more units than ever.
I will be watching from the sidelines now to see how this all plays out. Having someone to talk to that you can trust is everything to me. I need to find that connection again at JJP.
One last thought, anytime private equity enters, the secret sauce of whatever got that company to succeed is in jeopardy. I know a lot of you are throwing Jack under the bus at this time. Please keep in mind he only has a fraction of the say now that the PE guys are in his house. I have seen this movie play out time and time again. I hope JJP can weather this storm. I really do. I love their products and their innovation. They pushed the pinball industry to do things differently at a time when the products were pretty darn stagnant.
He told owners that THEY were the source of the issues regarding recent playfield problems. He threw HIS BUYING CUSTOMERS under the bus. After saying something that impetuous without merit, he doesn't deserve a bus to be thrown under; he deserves an aircraft carrier.
If Jaguar said "well, YOU'RE the reason the transmission stopped working correctly!" when all I did was turned the key, go to put it in gear, and nothing happened or erratic shifting started occurring on a brand new product, I'd be completely flabbergasted that a company (the figurehead that the company is named after no less) would make such a ludicrous claim, and I'd fight tooth and nail to get that problem fixed on the free, or I would sell it for a loss and never, EVER buy a Jaguar again.
People are putting less than 100 games on these machines and having issues, which I would guesstimate is having transmission shifting issues before your first oil change on a new Jaguar. Would YOU be ok with that?
JJP is on borrowed time. How they put out 3+ games with PF issues and still survive is beyond amazing - no one is going to sell me lemonade and expect me to say that it tastes like fine wine. And don't get me wrong, I got to play a Wonka on location, and it was a really fun game. It wasn't $8000+ while my PF chips and art flakes off worth of fun to me.