Quoted from RussMyers:Everyone buys games like Jurassic Park and Godzilla from Stern KNOWING the code won't be complete(ish) until 12-18 months from game release.
It's actually a very clever financial strategy. If you buy a game with complete code, you're more likely to move it on quicker, because you've played it to death and there's nothing else coming to make it better. So, games flood the marketplace and Stern (or whomever) lose a few new sales as people sweep up the discounted deals.
But, release a game incomplete with the constant promise of a 'code update' every few months, will keep the game much longer in your collection, allowing Stern (or whomever) time to shift all their new games to maximize profitability.
It's the classic strategy of 'dangling a carrot in front of a Donkey'. Sorry to say, but if you're falling for it... then you're the Donkey.
Coding a pinball machine isn't that hard or time-consuming. And no way in hell should it take any programmer a year to code just 1 pinball game. HWN is a very simple game of pinball compared to anything JJP is producing, so 6 months to finish the game code completely is all it should take (I could probably do it in 3).
Now you see how the strategy works. Your HWN isn't going anywhere because the code is coming... soon. Eeee-aww.