I'm judging it now because they want people to buy now. They're taking money now. Locations will be expecting coin drop soon. That's why.

Gotcha, sorry. was looking at the wrong photo.

No need to buy it now. Wait. It will be on the line for 3 years. I just don't get all the impatience of got to have the game now!

I'm not buying it now, but when you put a product in the market, the market assesses it. By not buying it, you're also judging now as 'not ready'. It turns out, we actually agree.

It's not a projection, on the Prem/LE it's a little physical diorama with action figures of bond and a scuba henchman mounted under the PF and it's just lit up when they want you to see it. The lens on the playfield is clear, which is why you can still see the darkened diorama even when it's not lit.

It’s exactly the same as the Creature area in Monster Bash.

Bond in a pond.

rd

Yep. Same idea, but not *exactly* the same because it's two figures and creature is only one - the creature torso.

Makes sense. The lens that you call it is what I was thinking was a metal-like plate. It didn’t really seem “clear” to me where I could see the darkened diorama at all times - I only saw the diorama when I sank the shot and it lit up which is why it made a negative impression on me. But now that you describe it, it may have been an issue with lights - you can see in my photo of the full playfield the bottom half of the machine was dark and I noticed that while playing as well that it wasn’t really lit up well…so maybe that particular machine had some lighting issues. I can’t really remember if I noticed the same thing on other machines (there were 4 premiums there but the times I played I might have been playing on the same machine).

I agree. I think I do want the game but ya - I'm happy to wait or buy used.

Will absolutely follow development closely though!

My comment stems from what looked like (in pictures) something other than the smoked plastic cover over the diorama. If that is still the plan then I'm ok with the lighting and how it evolves. This looked like a bait and switch on implementation of the hardware.

Did you watch the stream with Gomez talking about the game? I am sure he covered the plans for the area

I did. That's why the above comments and pictures threw me off. All good now that it's been discussed.

Yeah, tough to imagine how they make ends meet after all the Ferraris, houses, and women. If you make that much money, spend it all, and go bankrupt, you deserve all the criticism in the world (and more). Young or not.

Played quite a few games at Arcade Expo as well. Started out not impressed but warmed up to it after a few plays. Plays clunky until you get a feel for some of the shots. Even then, some shots are pretty tough. After a handful of games I was starting to get fairly long ball times. I never saw the underwater fight scene thing do anything. Same for jet pack. It moved around a bit starting jetpack mb but did nothing to enhance gameplay. I did like the physical ball lock. The pro looks pretty empty without the lock mech but still plays close to same. I would hold off buying a premium until code matures.

Well getting a new game is kind of exciting so telling people to wait upwards of three years is laughable, no excuse for code to be at .57 at this stage in roll out but incomplete code at release is becoming the norm with multiple companies at this point.

If I were you .. never order a CGC remake ....

I've got the Bond LE coming. Just because it's a favorite all time theme of mine.

Both Stern and JJP are in the process of killing the golden goose.

JJP F ed up big time with recent price and quantity increase, along with a lackluster game.

A BondLE at $13k, 1,000 of them.

In an effort to meet short term demand, raising price and quantity, these companies are hurting the long term appeal for short term gain. In other words, turning people like myself, a buyer of many new releases over the past decade, OFF.

I just read a report on Hasbro, the stock getting downgraded, to $42 from $73, because they are doing the same thing with "Magic, the Gathering" fans.

"Several players are getting increasingly turned off" by overproducing new cards, higher prices and more releases.

Same thing happened in the collectible sports card industry. And many other hobbies.

You are starting to see it now in the new NIB's and secondary market.

I get the allure of maximizing short term profitability. Longer term? The turn off is happening and the Golden Goose is gonna get sick.

I suspect it's partly why we haven't seen the Bond Elwin game yet. They can't figure out how much meat is left on the Goose bone.

Good points and I share the same sentiment. I am turned off at this point.

My question is, now that Stern has set LE pricing at 13k for Bond, can they retreat from that and sell future LE's at a lower price? LE's are going to sit unsold with future releases, particularly for average themes. Venom comes to mind.

The economy is already shifting and I doubt unless it is a home run theme and game like Back To the Future, Stern and pinball manufacturers will be able to hold these price points going forward.

Don't think there is any retreat on the price. Would be more likely to reduce the number of LE's below 1000.

I am afraid your right. Their solution will be reducing the number of games they make to maintain these prices. The result will likely be fewer buyers and fewer people being exposed to newer pinball and games in the future.

Their greed may have led to backing themselves into a corner that instead of expanding the hobby, will lead to contraction going forward.

Gomez said the "new pricing" is set for new titles going forward as well. How are they going to sell 1,000 LE's at $13k of Venom? Or most other titles. They aren't.

Reduce the quantity in the future? I think they will have to reduce both price and quantity. What goes up can and will come down as more people get turned off.

BTTF? That appears to be another grand slam theme.

These guys are going to have to be flexible in the future.

Some people keep saying that 500 of a Bond, single level game, at $17k-$20k is a small number. It's NOT. . They are about to find out.

[email protected]

Yeah, the issue is that when you increase the price you really can't go back without sacrificing margin or BOM. Companies avoid reducing margins like the plague. Also, reducing the number of LE's lowers the overall contribution margin of the game a whole.... so... guess what would be sacrificed?

They somehow made it and prospered up to this point. Prior to the significant price and quantity increases. Without really improving the product measurably. In JJP's case, some argue that they went backwards in "BOM".

See any commensurate upgrades to the games with Stern?

You can always do it... to a point. I think JJP found their point, and I suspect Stern will in short order.

I played a bunch of dollar games on it at Expo. Friend of mine put up 2.7 billion and completed the current code with nothing else to do but hit Jetpack multiball and Bird 1...even with that, we kept playing and it didn't get boring at all...very fun shooter

What stood out to me:

1. Skill shot not really there for rollovers, full or autoplunging almost guarantees the ball drop into the lane 6 rollover, I'm sure this will be tweaked - a good option might be try not to get lane 6
2. Full plunge with left flipper allows for some unique skill plunges around the orbit to the upper or lower left flippers
3. Lock shot to physical lock felt great and almost too easy from the right flipper, left bricked up on the gate mostly
4. Left eject area depended on the game setup, sometimes led to chaos, other times straight into pops, some machines would launch right into the cenetr target and SDTM, seems perfect placement was into pops
5. Flow was there and felt very good overall. Right lower ramp for Villians was trickiest shot to nail for most
6. Talking to Tim Sexton while we were playing dollar games at 3am with him on Dracula, Flintstones and Zepplin (yeah we were glutons for punishment ) after the tournament and he noted the code is early and the bonuses will definitely be balanced...we were getting some crazy post drain blowups
7. Overall fun game and felt very good. Have faith in the coders, I think this game wil be a blast when fleshed out
PXL_20221113_072805412 (1) (resized).jpg

All good points, but not sure Stern and JJP are still in the process of killing the golden goose. All the pinball enthusiasts I know, are no longer enthused at these insane price levels. No one, I mean no one I know has ever or would ever buy from a scalper. Those crazy high one offs are few and far between, but get a lot of press in the minds of Stern and JJP, so they price their products posing as the scalpers themselves. Maybe they want to cut production runs and demands to a small snail crawl? Distributors are going to suffer, just like they’re are doing with Beatles and now TS4 and soon to be Dogfather, Elton John, Venom, Foofighers, MOTU and even Jaws. Dust will be inches thick on all those games till they discount them back down to reality. Has even Bond LE really sold out to consumers, not just Distributors?

I have a bond le order. What was it again, 13k?

Godzilla le was 10500 and rush le 11500, right?

I was 10400 gz. 11200, rush. 12900 bond. I see my psychiatrist tomorrow

Relax and do what I do, just play them on location. I'm having just as much fun with my £1 game as anyone who owns the machine.

Thats like telling a smoker that patches work the same...

I remember my first NIB...WOZECLE...." limited" to 1 of 1000 way back when....then my AFMrLE," limited "to 1 of 1000.

JJP killed the " limited" concept w 100 versions of WOZ imho, but kept them afloat ( sort of).

Stern held the line a long time w " limited" versions ( check out the TronLE remake bs threads)...but think they are also just bending with the times.

This hobby....

I was trying to be generous on “in the process of” killing the Golden Goose. The next several titles mentioned above will confirm the need for them to adjust.

The flood of flippers are dwindling and the people willing to buy from one has tanked.

Agreed, and the only silver lining I see in all this for the hobby itself....

So is this the week they start the build?

I thought they had Bond on the line last week? Well at least they showed a European cyclops

I got a chance to play a bunch of games on James Bond - I was hoping to get one, but I'm not so sure after flipping it.

I have a more detailed review here: http://pinballhelp.com/first-impressions-james-bond-pinball-do-we-have-some-problems-with-this-layout/

In a nutshell, it gave me Avatar/Ghostbuster vibes in terms of playfield layout. There are some problems I'm concerned cannot be addressed merely with code. Especially the pop bumper exit which feeds the left outlane/slings... it creates a common situation where the ball can drain without getting a flipper on it, and the lower kicker amplifies this problem by sending the ball back up to the pops.

The center lock shot is much harder than it looks and easily bricks and is unnecessarily frustrating.

Same thing with the left ramp shot. And that looks like something that is important to multiple game modes - very difficult shot.

My initial impression is, this is not a game for casual players. It may be better suited for technical/tactical players. I am not convinced you can bat the ball around willy-nilly and get anywhere, and even trying to "shoot the blinky things" might be difficult with so many tight shots and key shots that are far right or left.

After playing Godzilla, I'm reminded you can have short ball times and not piss off the player. With both Rush and Godzilla, when I lose the ball, I'm disappointed -- usually in myself. But with James Bond (not unlike GB and STTNG) often when I lose the ball, I'm cursing at the game because I didn't think I got a fair chance. That's how playing Bond feels. Lots of critical shots that are very difficult and a playfield layout that is un-merciful if you make a mistake.

BUT, in fairness, I kind of felt the same way about Deadpool and that game turned out superlative, so I'm anxious to see what happens with the code. Right now, whatever version was at the Houston Arcade Expo, is far from ready for prime time.

Another one to add to the growing slogan list...

Bond on a wand
James Dong
Bond in a pond

These names shall live on forever

It's all good-I love my Mick on a stick

Have these shipped yet? It seems like an awesome long lead time compared to what it usually is. I just wonder what caused Stern to announce the game so early?

500 SLEs will sell only because Keith made the game. Super exclusive. Agree Venom will never sell 1000 LEs for $13K +.

I can't wait to play a pro, hopefully soon.

GZ and Rush definitely both feel pretty fair to me, I too also usually disappoint myself with play on those. It will be interesting to see how I feel about Bond.

I was swearing at my GB pro last night for this same reason.

Looking at these prices makes me think we're getting James Conned.

You say you are turned off but at the same time still buying an LE. All the short/long term is bubble bursting nonsense. Few people care about the LE numbers as long as the game is a hot title. Great games will sell period and hot games will sell well for years.

Bondage table?

The 1000 units + unbalanced price increase did make the LE a bitter pill on this one. I’d hope the LE numbers are cut a lot on smaller IP releases and/or something is added (topper) to make the next LE worth the premium price.

but it feels more like james 'caan'ed,
given the amount of misery people are experiencing.

Stern will never add anything to make it "worth the premium price" but ya - I could see lower numbers like 500 of something like Venom.

They had to coincide with the James Bond 60th anniversary events.

Dogfather? As in Godfather? And Elton John?! First time im hearing about these themes.

I've seen MOTU a few times now. Who said this was gonna happen?