Me with no money for any new pinball games just sifting through the drama:

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You really think this is about the queen?

Got a pal in the UK, can confirm, just about everything dealing with publicity and entertainment came to a complete halt.

well... depending on your expectation of press exposure, it could very much be a thing. Big topic to compete with and tone conflict... but I think a lot of it has to do with where you are in the world. Most of us in the states don't see it as a big sink... so we assume Stern is the same.. but what about the other parties involved? That I can understand and them wanting a more open field to play in.

I don't buy one bit about it being 'respect' - If anything it would be rooted in just good PR management.

I'd hope it was. If they're all pissy about some photo leaks and are using the death of their host nation's Queen as their scapegoat in their official press release, I'd say that's about as awful as it gets.

"On behalf of everyone at Stern Pinball and out of respect to the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we will be postponing our webinar and delaying the launch of our James Bond pinball machines."

Yup - if you don't have staff on site to keep the machines at least covered you get what you get

Machine should have been unveiled with short video prior to it arriving at the show in England - proper unveiling. Someone screwed with either planning the sequence of events or the pins were not properly secured and covered before the show.

If true makes you wonder wtf IAAPA was thinking carrying on with the show….

Advice for Stern, if leaks are an issue you better stick to controlled environments for launch.

Honestly ... what did they expect ....

Conspiracy! International Intrigue! It’s a Bond situation IRL.

Hey ok, you're the expert I guess.

All I know is when I was involved in setting up my company's booth at shows, we never put anything out there which wasn't supposed to be "out there".

There's a difference between what's expected of people and what's an actual requirement.

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How come there isnt some sort of Stern loyalty punch card, I want a discount on my next machine. even 10-15% off would be nice.

Actually come to think of it, if there was a Stern credit card with points towards machines, and front of the line access and first dib to machines, I would probably sign up for it.

Wow if true that's pretty crazy. And if true I don't really understand the reasoning. To "punish" people? I don't think anyone was surprised that photos leaked with the game setup at a public event. Stern knows everyone has HD cameras in their pockets.

As I said in a previous post I believe the Queen explanation because I have been in the UK during major royal events (one being Kate and William's wedding) and things like that really do take over the entire country. As significant as that wedding was the Queen's death is exponentially a bigger deal, so with Stern being in the UK I can see them thinking maybe this is not the right time and place. But who knows.

apparently, no one has heard of these large blanket like devices (I think they're actually called "blankets"). they can cover up objects as big as houses (or even larger.

if there were rules to be followed, why didn't they just put up some scaffolding around the booth area with cloth concealing things that weren't meant to be seen until the show started? I've been to plenty of trade shows where they've done this.

Just play in some pinball tournaments and you'll be eligible for the "Stern Rewards Discount."

to be clear and apologies for not making clear, the leaked photos causing them to not want to take any more risks around the Queen's mourning period which is a very sensitive time is what I was told the reason.

Why doesn't pinball just follow the footsteps of the auto industry? Dang, my second "compare pinball to cars" post today.

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Or why even raise the backbox yet? Leave ‘em down and shrink wrap ‘em to the cabinet. Maybe it was quite literally a last minute decision to postpone the show?

What's so special about the new Kardashian Land Rover ?

All they need to do is put black out tint on a sheet of glass and boom nothing to see !

I didn't know they had a Tim Burton paint job version.

The point is if you are going to have a game in public before launch, the cabinet art, backglass, etc. should be camouflaged and keep the glass covered when others are around.

“Sand worms… ya hate ‘em, right? I hate ‘em myself!!”

Ah ok that makes sense. For what it's worth Kaneda just dropped a podcast basically confirming what you're saying. He said his sources told him that both Stern and the James Bond license holder are extremely upset about the leaked photos and just pulled the whole thing, took the machines off the event floor and cancelled the reveal. And yeah they were already sensitive about the Queen's passing so the leak just pushed them to cancel. Sounds like you're probably right.

What a bummer. This should have been such a joyous moment for the pinball community.

Exactly what I said. You literally need 1 guy there to make sure the pins are covered.

Complete lack of attention to detail. It's not hard!

If that's the case ... it's all on stern
Like others said, not that difficult to keep hidden until the show opened

100% agree it's on Stern. If they felt so strongly about avoiding leaked photos the game should never have been setup in a public space before the official reveal.

It's almost like...a secret agent took spy photos...

Unless it’s some sort of special situation with labor over there…maybe Stern people weren’t allowed to do the setup, or didn’t even know when it would be set up? There are certain parts of this country where unions or state/local ordinances will not allow for you to move your own furniture and whatnot. Maybe they had no idea it was happening. The fellows setting up have no idea that it’s anything special, then a passer-by happens to look over and…. “Ummm…” click! click! click click click!

I have been to many a trade show - have never heard of one where employees of a company aren't allowed to be with their own equipment.

Even if not the case - it could have stayed in box. There is no excuse.

I hear you and am usually with you but in this case "his sources" also told him there's a rocket in the upper left, a jetpack Bond that moves around the playfield, two ramps on the right, etc before any of those photos leaked. In this case he seems to be in contact with someone close to the event.

Does anyone know FOR SURE that Kaneda is in the USA right now?

Sounds like licensor is a bunch of cry babies.

He'll be doing a live remote condolences from Epstein's island following Prince Andrew.

“The name is Fuqueup… Major Fuqueup.”

Based on the artwork. That might be what they have done.

Everytime I look at the machine, I am shocked at how atrocious the art looks. It reminds me of the crappy old Sega clip art so much. It's hilarious.

I've owned Deadpool pro and prem I think the pro is a great game but it doesn't play faster than the LE/prem.

The drops might slow down that part of the playfield on the LE/prem but on the pro every left orbit dumps off into the pops instead of a fantastic flowing orbit shot back to the right flipper.

The pops dump off on the pro slows the game down way more than the standups vs drops on the LE/prem. I could see the argument for the pro being more difficult because of that but not faster. I love the disco loops.

indeed, I've been excited about this game for almost three years!

no.

"Man, we're so mad you guys got to look at what the game looks like from some amateur photos! We'll show you, we won't show you our professional media for a whole extra several days. So there!" -- Doesn't make any sense.

I’m guessing that the show was scheduled around the same time as the intended reveal but then the reveal was delayed by a week as previously explained. Stern then realizes that the games are going to be seen before the delayed release and asks them not to be shown.
It’s not terribly difficult to understand unless you start adding things like “I heard Stern pulled the games because of the photos that were leaked!” -and maybe Stern would have let the games be played if it weren’t going to ruin the reveal?
I’ve been to an event previous where some items were in an area with signs, forbidding cameras and recording devices.

Well, that explains it! Ha!

Me viewing the leaked pics from a few days ago. (Yes, I want one!)
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Security had one job…
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Very late to the party here so I know the chances at this point are slim, but if anyone is aware of a distributor that still has an LE slot open, please PM me. From what I understand final numbers haven’t been provided to them yet, but thought it would be worth a shot getting on a list.

Hmmm. Not entirely true. Some sport has cancelled but many businesses can’t afford to just cease activity. A lot of us have carried on as normal tbh. I’ve been to 2 gigs in the last few days, restaurants and bars packed round here enjoying the last of the summer.

You can see the photos were taken during setup of the games (there is still foam and a level on the PF ).

You normally don't need to create separate stealth booths to hide stuff unless you are being super paranoid.. you just cover it up when you are done because it's not hard to keep people away while you are standing there. But here we have photos taken during that setup period. For all we know, this could have been someone besides Stern setting up the game (distributor/vendor) and they simply didn't keep people away as Stern might have intended... or even people within their own group sharing the photos.

Common Example: Distributor handles receiving and setup.. Stern folks just roll in to confirm things and man the booth.

TLDR - Maybe those involved simply weren't as diligent on privacy as Stern was expecting them to be...