Nice find on the trailer! Very interesting indeed, and that Smaug oughta sound killer on the JJP system!

I for one, bought WOZ because it had a lot going on, and I felt I was getting my money's worth. Some people see the new Stern offerings and feel they are getting their money's worth. Not me, so I will pass. If Jack starts to cut back, so will I. I let my money do the talking. So far JJP hasn't disappointed me. When and if Stern lifts their game, I will purchase from them again. The only allegiance I have is to the manufacturer that produces a fun game at a good price. Some people have more disposable income than I do, so more power to them. Some see the Sterns as having value. It's all relative. It's just my perception only, and that becomes my reality. Others obviously have a different perception. No-one is right, just different value interpretations based upon each persons value base.

You've only seen the pro of Star Trek in action. JJP has no equivalent to Stern Pro models. Better wait to see the Premium/LE in action before making such a broad statement.

The only knock on JJP is paying for your game 2-3 years before you receive it. There are still a lot of people waiting for their LEs to ship. If I had not sold my LE I would still be waiting. I think the game is fantastic, they just have to move games out faster to the people that paid for them.

That's more than a knock. lol.

He's right as I bought it and I'm waiting for it to arrive, lol Fingers crossed its coming this month Tom! Hopefully with the factory up and running, the platform in place, time to work through issues and an entire team assembled TH will be a much quicker process. Can you see JJP getting the first batch of Hobbits out before the end of next year? With the 3rd movie delayed until Dec 2014 I think they can pull it off.

Agree 100%. I had no problem buying a LOTR LE for $5k. If I had room at the time, I would've seriously considered a SM for around $4500. The recent releases (ACDC, TF, XMen, etc.) have not grabbed me, and I see declining quality along with rising prices. And the price for new Stern games is even harder to justify when I just bought a really nice WPT for $2k just 2-3 years ago.

With JJP, pre-orders aren't necessary. If that aspect bugs you, just wait for the game to be released and buy one then. Thankfully, the LE and regular versions have the same gameplay! (Something I do not like about the Stern Pro vs. Premium/LE distinction.)

Pretty sure the Hobbit will be on a much more predictable time schedule than WOZ was. There was a LOT built up and learned by JJP in the WOZ process, more than we will ever know....

Like I said, when stern lifts their game. When I see it I will buy. When I see the LE and if I see things have changed I will buy. It's my perception, until I see evidence of a change. I haven't seen the ST yet. That may change my perception. Time will tell.

The question is what will Benedict Cumberbatch cost for custom lines ... and are they too slow (audio speed) to be incorporated into a fast pin. I for one would prefer lines from Ian McKellen as Gandalf or some of the other actors, although I am a Cumberbatch fan. He kicked a$$ as Khan and his role in Sherlock shows him to be an amazing actor.

I dunno.....If Smaug going to be the main interactive toy......he needs to speak!

Agreed! At least they can use lines from the films!

I didn't see Sherlock, but I was convinced after seeing his Khan performance, that he was acting circles around the rest of the Star Trek cast. Which was actually quite fitting plot-wise, as he is a superior being and all. Acting included!

I would love any custom speech in the Hobbit, but I am not holding my breath. I would be happy to at least get true movie clips from the movie, and not sound-alikes.

We didn't have any custom speech in WOZ because everyone is dead....but the Hobbit is brand spanking new. JJP spends the money necessary it seems so far.....so it seems reasonable we will have custom speech from at least one actor from the movies.

I spoke to jack directly about this. Prices have risen with custom actor voices in video games. Speaking of the hobbit, They want $100k. So i wouldnt expect it. Kind of a bummer

EDIT:
Here's the exact response from jack regarding custom voice work from the actors:

3. Will there be custom voice work from the movie actors?

Doubtful, they want $100k

/Endquote
I guesss Lloyd says it best "...so there is a chance"

That does blow!

Speaking from experience VO actors are expensive (more then ya think price wise) and if you want a big name actor it's REALLY expensive, but you get what you pay for.

To keep cost down it's good to find a versatile actor that can do multiply characters. Pinball VO is done in the same fashion, pick one good VO actor to ramble off 2/3 characters lines. I can see this being a mix of VO from the 3 films and possibly one narrator for game specific VO lines.

I hate fake voice actors. Better to just lift the lines.

yes, you can fit the real film lines as best you can and integrate it into the game, but you will still need specific call outs to explain whats going on in the game Shoot here, Jackpot, 3 more to go etc. .

Right....but they can be generic. I don't want a fake Ian Mckellen of a fake
Benedict Cumberbatch saying these lines....UGH!

We can't be that far away with autotune, to be able to feed recordings into a computer and then make anyone sound like that actor.

He has 1000 LE hobbits?

100k for actors for their call outs, i think when they raise the price 100 a pin (standard and LE), then i think nobody has a problem with it.

Maybe it would sell even more pins. Certainly not less. Look at Stern (not bashing), they raise the prices and you get nothing extra. But they still sell like pancakes.

I think it could work.

Which buyer would not want to spend 100 extra for real call outs when buying a 7000 dollar pin?

If 100k is the price, i would be very surprised if jack does not go for it. And i think it will be a bad descision to not do it. Maybe not in sales, but in quality for the pin. Cause it does mather, a lot.

Having the custom call outs in LOTR is a huge draw for the machine in my opinion. If JJP could get at least one of the actors to do some custom speech work for TH that would be awesome!

Just heard from the update that they are working on new cabinet art. The previously shown cabinet art will not be used. Looking forward to seeing something a little more custom.

From the update:
'Jack checked in on the Team at our Midwest Campus last week. Everyone is busy at work on The Hobbit with the creation of the interactive Smaug mechanism, the design of the various game mechanisms, and building up whitewood games. Jeff Busch now has access to the assets of the first and second movie and he is working on the cabinet and playfield art. The cabinet artwork that we have used in the mockup will not be the final artwork we use on the game.'

Rent it. There are two seasons out on DVD and the third will be out this winter. It is on BBC and PBS Masterpiece Mystery as one of the show rotations. Three shows (about 90 minutes each) each season. My favorite show of all time, bar none. It is a big hit in Europe I hear.
Absolutely brilliant.

Ok Solar, thats nice inside info. I think its a good thing, not that the cabinet looked bad, only the hobbit letters were a bit difficult to read.

Do you know when we can expect some new info on the playfield? Or maybe a whitewood video?

Thanks for posting.

Couldn't agree more with this comment. It would set this pin in a company of a few pins with great call outs. This pin will easily sell at least 2-3000 units being conservative. That makes the per pin cost $33-50 per pin. Definitely worth it.

Cool, I will check it out. Something has to fill the breaing bad void...

Having an actor do custom call-outs for the Hobbit would be so cool, I really hope it gets done.

I played one of the Lord of the Rings xbox games (the two towers, maybe?) and it had most of the original actors for their character's voices. It was, literally, the best thing about the game. Hearing John Rhys-Davies, Ian McKellan, etc do original lines from the game was simply amazing, so immersive, and it felt like an expansion of the movie rather than an offshoot game.

Even hiring a SINGLE actor (for Gandalf, Thorin, Smaug, or Bilbo) would be money well-spent, as that character could essentially be the 'narrator' of the game, making all the pinball-related call-outs. It would be a real selling point.

Well, there are 1500 TH LEs... so that's only $67 per LE. Let's say Jack plans to sell an equal number of standards (at least), that $100k drops to $33 per game. Considering the preorder price was $1000 higher than WOZ and the base price is up $500, it does seems doable...

If you have Netflix it's available to stream.

I'm not sure what the $100K would buy, but it would seem JJP could hire an actor or two for pinball callouts like "Jackpot!" and "Get the extra ball!" etc., for much, much less dough.

I know what it would buy. it would pay off my house. I'll do the callouts for anyone that wants to pay off the house for me. Hell, i'll even do my creepy mummy crypt voice for it if they want me to.

Well said! Like you said anyone from the movie doing custom lines would help. I know of at least one line from the film that may be used and that is "Step Into The Light". I can imagine a mode where all lights go off, Smaug says that lines and then a flame effects from the back of the playfield to the player is shown off.

Just noticed one more cool thing. Apparently in addition to the doing the voice of Smaug actor Benedict Cumberbatch will also be doing the voice for the Necromancer. I can definitely see JJP using some of those lines as well. I'm still wondering if one of the pop ups or the area in front of the pops will represent the Necromancer.

One other observation on the VO's. You are going to have to pay someone to do the work. So the number is somewhere under 100K to get it done "correctly".

So the uptick may not be as bad when you look at it that way. I do agree with others. When I think The Hobbit, I think Epic. VO's can make or break a game.

The audio portion of a pin is very important. Please JJP, don't cut this corner.

I would honestly throw in an extra $50 or more on the Hobbit purchase just to have some actors' voices on the pin. It would be a big improvement.

I am pretty disappointed with the callouts on ST. The audio from the movie has a lot of background noise, and the custom callouts sound very different from the rest. (I am not bashing ST; it looks like a fun game. I am just not a fan of the audio or dots).

STTNG has the voice callouts perfect IMHO.

The story I was told was that the actors were paid $5000 for their voice work. Now that was only for one actress specifically, maybe some of the others got more, but it seems like in those days the VO stuff wasn't nearly so expensive.

Overpaid Hollywood goofballs......and their greedy agents. Why they think they have to be multimillionaires instead of just a schmuck doing their job is beyond me.

Par for the course with modern day hero worship. Same with sports. Priorities are WAY out of whack.

Meanwhile children go hungry...

I am in the camp that I would pay to have the real voice actors in the game. What would be the best way to convince Jack that this is a preferred route?

I would hope that the success of LOTR pinball with its custom voice work by some of the actors is enough to show JJP that such voice work can mean additional sales.

Ask him to read this forum. Alex ... can you help?

And people who actually *contribute* meaningfully to our society don't have any self-aggrandizing "award shows." Which is why I refuse to watch crap like the Emmys, Tonys, MTV Video Awards, etc. etc. etc. Just a bunch of shallow entertainment providers telling each other how great they are, while people like doctors/nurses, policemen, firemen, construction workers, janitors, etc. actually make a difference in peoples' lives.

And teachers buy their students school supplies out of their meager paychecks. Ask an average American who Kim Kardashian is and they can tell you her whole life story. Ask them who the Vice President is and they have no clue. ---- So sad where the priorities of this country have settled.

Back to original Voice Overs -- expensive but what a difference to have the original actors voice.

Bumping this biotch. Let's get back to discussing the Hobbit Pin!

Anyone else think that more info about The Hobbit will be revealed at this weeks Expo? I'm thinking we are going to hear something new

Would hope to hear a bit more about the game at least something new.

An update at Expo or just before, would be a wise move. Create a little more momentum for the company & the TH.

Any idea how many THLE are available for pre order? I'm thinking I gotta have one these next the LOTR I'm adding to my collection in a couple months.