The OP was also asking about service and reliability. That was a concern for me as well and I ended up buying a Houdini. Here's how I evaluated this whole new company thing.

- P-ROC boards. API is using the Multimorphic P-ROC system (as is ACNC). This is an established board set with lots of people using it. This means easy to find replacement boards far into the future.

- Unlike Zidware, Dutch, Highway, etc., API never took a dollar in pre-order money and were able to finance a development team, set up manufacturing, and are shipping in reasonably good quantities consistently. They took on the financial risk so we didn't have to. There is little reason to believe that API will not be around for game 2.

- The quality has been stellar. No splitting cabs. The playfield isn't chipping. Boards are not failing. That's not to say there haven't been a few minor hickups but the overall quality as been great. Joe Balcer personally played each game for 30-45 minutes before shipping until the manufacturing line and quality control was consistent.

- The software was fairly complete at launch and we've been getting bug fixes. The code is already deep. You have more risk in the code remaining unfinished with a Stern game than API so far.

- The service department is fabulous. I've called API service (aka Jerry) twice and the service has been stellar. I had a plastic break and Jerry shipped me a new one immediately. We've had a couple service bulletins come out to fix relatively minor issues that some (not all) customers had such as the skill shot consistency. All handled quite professionally.

It can't be easy setting up a new pinball manufacturing company but API has impressed.