Topper is included, but the bat signal projector is not. It can be purchased for a fee.

I have heard the number $50,000 bandied about as the cost of the licensing for previous stern games. Is it possible the Batman 66 license was just way more expensive than that? Like 100k or 250k? So they have to bust out this crazy price structure because otherwise the games couldn't get made? And thats why it's done by Ka-pow? It's possible that some games can't be made at the lower price point so in exchange they create this crazy LE structure to justify the cost. Kind of how like pinball arcade does its kick starters for licenses that otherwise wouldn't be commercially viable? Just spitballing of course.

As long as Stern still has a $5k ish pro out there for other games I'm not too bothered. I can't afford Batman 66 but it was never made for me anyways.

From what they've said, this is more of a Boutique release, as in the numbers they produce will be a smaller run than a normal game run. The economies of scale are going to be affected. That would also include the license fee spread across fewer machines.

And based on the picture of Gary posted earlier, they need a Kick Starter to get a book done? That makes no sense.

Chris

My guess is this is a specialty machine that is higher price because both stern and kapow need a profit, designed as more of a collectible table, and a pretty limited run. It's a cool table, but price is way too high, and its to early to tell if gameplay is not much different than DK.

11 minute video of Gomez showing Batman 66 @ Expo:

Man Lyman and Gomez are GREAT, GREAT assets for Stern

This is how you do a presentation!

I could listen to Gomez speak longer than pretty much anyone else in pinball.

It is pretty obvious from that video that Gary is driving the greed. I still can't believe they shut PinballNews out of the factory for doing their journalistic duty in asking about the reasons for the pricing. As you said Ice in another thread, Gomez seemed essentially a little shy and embarrassed when asked about the pricing.

Unfortunately, even though Gomez is VP at Stern, Gary seems to be the one doing the pricing and driving the cost cutting.

Shutting out pinball news was petty and arrogant, things Gomez and Lyman aren't for sure

In any event, like TWD and GB, this thing just hits me in the nuts again, in a great way

It's that feeling of pure excitement and anticipation of playing an iconic theme that you just heard Gomez say Lyman wants to be perfect.

Pricing, yep that's another story

I just don't know what you do about putting out an LE, that people want, for $8k, like GB and people fighting over it to get their hands on it so they can make a quick flip profit and sell it for $9500. Maybe nothing

It's kind of funny how they decided on 80 SLE's instead of the obvious 66, when they decided to bump up from 30

George emphatically told me the gameplay is dramatically different. The second ramp and spinning lock mechanism certainly back him up while we all conjecture prior to playing. I'm convinced that no matter what some of you won't be convinced. But like Iceman keeps saying- plenty are convinced and look forward to getting their game... and yeah while they will likely depreciate a little bit in secondary market, I think they'll still sell quickly whereas the competition doesn't seem as likely (TBL, Dialed In for example) to command secondary demand.

Star Trek the old series would look really nice with the new batsman style LCD and all. The cost for that license would be high I'm sure.

In this other video, George said that there are over 10 iterations of the Batman theme in the game (including the original theme).

He also said that, yes, the Batusi is in there as a feature as well.

This bullshit that they raised the prices because some people were reselling then for a lot more is bullshit. That is just a few people reselling for stupid money and most of us wouldn't pay that.

Let's say $50k is how much a license cost. You make 500 LEs and sell out and the cost is $100 per machine. Not even counting pros or premiums yet.
I doubt the Batman 66 license would be astronomical. Otherwise it wouldn't have been made into a slot machine. Of course, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I was under the impression that the bat signal that wasn't included with the LE is the little yellow plastic one in the back right corner of the playfield.

That's what I thought too...likely the projector too. About $5 total.

Sorry James but that is just crazy talk. Gomez said it himself!

You'd have to be a dumb m fer business person to leave that flipper $$$ on the table. Greedy? Call it want you want

This isn't socialist pinball here, you ought to know that

You are the financial guy and way smarter than I am so I'll take your word for it. And you are correct, it is a free market which means you can price it what're you want it. They have priced me and, I feel, many others out of the pinball hobby however.

you're out of nib purchases, but I'm sure you'll stick around the hobby

This game is looking better and better. Too bad an LE here will be just over 14K Canadian. It's only money though right? Now I just have to find an LE.

I have 10 top 20 machines. I'm thinking I have enough

A lot about the game selling strategy was talked about from Gary. Stern will have 3 cornerstone games a year. Corner stone games would be Ghostbusters or Star Trek. They will also make some specialty games, 1 every year or 2. The specialty games are designed to be sold to high end pinballers and the collector of the the theme of the game. Here for example, they are going for the Batman fan-attic.

Also Gary talked about another guy that is high on the team. His back ground was from Topps sports cards, and some kind of background in slot machines. This new guy has a big back ground in specialty collectable sports cards. They are using that background in pinball machines now. Each one of those super LE's have its own special toy, making it unique. That is the collectable part of that game. Something no one else has. Some of the LE's will have that special toy also. I am not trying to justify the price, I would not purchase one myself, just passing the word on.

Gary said the next cornerstone game will be announced in January or February.

Gary did not comment on this, but what I feel is when the next cornerstone game comes out, it will have a similar price structure to Ghostbusters plus a bit more for the LCD screen. At the tour it was mentioned it is not the price of the LCD that is a problem, it is all of the high resolution programming takes so much longer then the DMD programming.

Yup. News flash. Prices are raised and that sucks. But, be real, NIB games are *not* the only part of the pinball hobby.

I love the fact that Stern has something for every market niche

Cornerstone and Specialty options! Love it

Dude from Topps gets it

I just bought two Topps 1966 Batman Black cards. PSA grade 9

The "population report" per PSA showed 8 and 11 in those grades. Collectors pay MUCH more for limited higher grade

Been doing it for decades

I'll post pics when I get them

PSA 8 grade had say 48 of them so they cost less

And if you go to the PSA website you will see about 8 different variations of the Batman show that year

It's simply taking people's money if they will willingly give it :/

I agree with the majority, the pinball pricing is getting way out of hand, but what is the answer? If we all decided that the cost was just too much and didn't buy them I fear that the price would most likely just go up "because stern/ sleazy Jersey jack will want to protect their bottom dollar and if sales are down the cost would most likely go Up To try and make up for the loss Ultimately pricing themselfs out of business. I honestly think the happy number is somewhere between 4k and 6k. Its not as much as a gamble for ops. And still caters to a lot of collectors. 6k being on the high end for L.E/ collectors editions etc.. I will never buy a "L.E" OR SPECIAL EDITION " of any sort of thing from sleazy Jersey jack!!! And to be quite honest I'm surprised that anyone is! If you preordered a woz le. You had to wait a couple extra years, then deal with light board issues, quality control, etc.. only to find out that they would skrew you over and come out with an even more "special" Edition . Making the value of your original LE lose value. Now they just did it again with the hobbit. I preordered the smaug le. And was told it would be out with the final movie....yeah obviously that was no where near the truth. I'm so happy i backed out and now they have another "special" edition..lol seriously though! Jersey Jack...even the name sounds sleazy.. And being a business owner that is bad business!!! You shouldn't skrew over the ones who helped build your company.
I saw a list a while back someone had compiled showing pin pricing from I believe Simpson's pinball party to now. And in the last few years it has grown tremendously . The big question is are we going to see a cap or are they going to keep this up?

Sorry for the rant

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Here is what Stern is attempting to do with BM66 for starters

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What pisses me off is the SLE should be the LE, the LE the premium and the Premium the Pro. That could at least justify the Pricing. But the SLE price hike is truly laughable.

Guessing the pricing strategy on this is mostly Ka-pow's doing. But if they sell everything, no question Gary will be implementing it into the next in house launch.

Even if Batman was double or whatever, if they could sell 1000 pins (70 sle, 500 le, xxx pro) $100,000 license fee would only be $100 per pin, instead of $50.

It's greed. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the difference between the Dialed In Collector Edition at $12,500 and the LE Edition at $9k. They look like the same machine minus a few autographs.

The $12.5 version includes lunch with Jack and Pat. What's not to like?

After seeing them in person the SLE is the true LE and the decals look amazing. They are a thicker/harder material and don't wrap around the corners like their current decals. It really stands out where as the premium and LE look similar with exception to the side rails which might be an accessory you can add. Not saying the decals justify the $15K price but it's a drop in a bucket for some people compared to their other expensive hobbies and interests.

There is no way to justify either B66sle or Dialed In Collectors Edition prices. Seems you get a little bit more on B66sle, but $5k more? So theyre both as bad as each other.

The major difference is there are no collectors who want a collectable version of Dialed In. At least as a theme, B66 is collectible (not $15k collectible, but still). Anyone buying Dialed In is buying because it's a good game, not because of theme and collectibility.

Somebody else said and I think it's correct, if you want to get rid of flippers, get rid of the LE. Sell a base game that everyone can buy and then offer all of the additions as accessories to buy separately. They could even sell a version of the base game that had all of the options already installed for people who don't want to do that. It's the LE that makes people try to flip them for profit. Raising the price just hurts all of your potential customers not just the flippers.

The LE model has almost killed other industries like comic books and trading cards in the past.

No, the playfields are the same. The super LE has a little projector on the back of the topper. The LE topper is the same, just without that little projector. The connections are there, and Stern rep said it would be available for purchase.

Is it too late to get an order in on one of the LEs? I watched Batman on TV as a boy, obsessively so, which makes me a card-carrying member of the group Stern is targeting with this one. I'd even be down for one of the $15K SLEs, had I known about them in time. Looking at them, though, I think I actually prefer the artwork on the regular LE.

If I could "kit-bash" one of these, in order to come up with own my dream machine, I'd add the inside side decals, extra toys, and possibly the enhanced speaker grills to an LE, and call it a day. Do we know if any/all of these options will be available on the after market?

Anyway, I'm down for an LE, if someone can help point me in the right direction. The last NIB pin that I bought was ST:TNG, some 23 years ago, so I'm a bit rusty as to what is involved.

Maybe you should put an application in to Stern. You might still be able to get an SLE.

I thought it was funny that Gomez said in one of the podcasts that they were pricing and labeling these pins to cut down on the flipping. I think it was more a desire to get in on the action, and rake in the dough the flippers were making. What the heck do they care if someone buys and flips a pin? It is still a sale to them. I like the pin, and I have a lot of respect for Gomez..... but that is about as far as I go. They are really working on alienating a lot of customers.

That's exactly right.....the end result is the same - end user pays $15k for game regardless.

BM66 is Gary Stern's favorite machine.

If 240 people would pay $9500 for the le

Why would they sell it for $8k?

Buy the 7600 premium

I think you meant 120 right? Aren't they still available in Europe?

100% agree. Just seems odd for George or Jody to come out and announce they're trying to take the aftermarket profiteering out of play, as if it's of some benefit to the end user. By all means do it, but don't try to pretend it's for my benefit. I'll be still paying the same either way.

Thanks for posting that. Very cool.

One thing that I really agree with Gary on is when he said "I want you to think about this beautiful game without that backglass in it. That is pinball, and it is absolutely stunning artwork."

While I do love the big LCD in my Hobbit, I also really like the size of the LCD that Stern is using because it still gives you a very nice sized backglass (well, translite) vs the small narrow one you get with the JJP pins. It's a tradeoff obviously, but there are definitely pros and cons to each approach. The size of the LCD screen on Hobbit can be a bit overwhelming while playing, whereas the smaller LCD on the BM66 will be easier for the player to see.

The more I see (and hear!) of BM66, the more impressed I am, and the more I want one, even though it would be the premium version due to pricing.

Def not for our benefit

The 240 are sold out and in distributors hands. The 120 in Europe and Canada need some kind of rebate program that passes through to the end user. Doesn't matter what version it is. Those guys are getting pummeled