Who's feeling bad?

The only way my distro stays in business is making a profit.

The only way Stern stays in business is making a profit.

If you like the Beatles, and can comfortably afford a Diamond, I'm super happy for you if you buy one.

Who cares if they do?

If my distro sells his two Diamonds for $25,000 each, and then chooses to quietly sell his remaining Golds for $5,000 ; why would that upset you in any way?

I just don’t see that much demand for this title at current pricing after the initial release. Not at entry MSRP anyway.

Beatles store manufactured that sell out IMO. They probably only listed one of each (Diamond and Platinum) hoping clueless fans jump on the Golds at 10k a pop.

Who cares if they did?

They can keep drop shipping Golds from Stern until the run is over.

I dont see much demand either honesty but what do i know? I was never going to be a buyer no matter what but im still disapointed the way that they cheaped out on this game and the way they are going to be pricing it, its a slap in the face to people imo.

I was expecting to see something really innovative and exciting with this being a Kapow game and it being the Beatles. This kind of reminds me of Star Wars and BM66 but way worse.

I expected SW to be really special and filled with awesome toys and we didnt get anything even close to that. It's a good game but man its star wars, it needed to be special. BM66 is a fair game but its a rehash of BMDK. I was expecting a brand new fresh design, especially considering the price. Add that to the fact that there was no pro model and that equals a major letdown to me.

Some games just have to be special and deserve to have a ton of work put into them. The next two games that need to be special is Munsters and Elvira. If they are duds im going to be sick, but on the bright side I'll be 15,000 dollars richer because i won't be buying them if they are a box of lights with no thought put into them. If you expect me to pay 6-10k for a pinball machine, you better find a way to WOW me!

Exactly.

Everyone has their personal distro that takes care of them.

If my distro can get $25,000 for his Diamond game, I'm not going to feel hurt that he would not sell it to me for $12,000

You've got to take your profit when you can.

CNN is certainly broadcast everywhere in the world.

Al Jazeera and BBC are both really good if you want to stick your antenna out further and gather info from more sources.

They are much less conservative and much happier than Pinside, you'll love it

https://www.rocketryforum.com/

A few dealers outside the States are reporting that they are sold out.

If the USA dealers say the same thing tomorrow afternoon, then it was a fun ride while it lasted.

If there are any Westcoast dealers still open, call one and see if USA is sold out too.

If the distributor said they were sold out. They are probably aren't telling the truth. Just trying to get a buying frenzy started.

While I agree with letting the dust settle, you are wrong about the 10 packs. Distros gobbled them up and anyone that passed had another distro happily take their allotment.

No coin slots, but I hear there are coin mechs...

He's not. I've heard this from several distributors. The 10 packs have sold out and did so before the call with Stern last Thursday.

I certainly do not know for sure, but who I buy games from isnt a huge stern distro and didn't get a 10 pack due to the risk and huge investment. Another distro took their 10 pack and they cant get me a gold through stern until the second run in Jan. I'm sure if I wanted one they could get me one through another distro sooner though. To me that sounds like the first 100 pack or 1000 games are all claimed by distros. Time will tell if they sell. I 100% agree with you on waiting and seeing. They may sell well and people can always get one from the Jan batch. It may be a flop and there will be deals to be had. Time will tell.

I heard that the Jan run is now sold out too.

Hats off to the Stern team.

You made the game that everyone said could never be made.

You sold out the game that Pinside said would never sell.

Sales are soo bad........how bad are they?..............sales are so bad that Gary is packin’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

All I know is as a Beatles fan and a pinball fan I wouldn't mind having one.

Greatest rock theme possible? The bottom line is that you can't really call yourself a rock fan or even a music fan if you don't include the Beatles.

Not only is it the greatest rock theme to never have been licensed for a pinball machine, it's the greatest most-coveted rock theme period.

In less than ten years these guys changed the world.

I remember in the fall of 1968 My Dad told me to drop everything and come into the living room because the Beatles were performing "Hey Jude" on live TV. He told me to sit down and watch this because "it might be the last time we ever get to see the Beatles play together". He was right. It was their second to last public performance. The only other time my Dad ever demanded that I drop everything and come watch something on TV was when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. That's how big the Beatles were and how earth shattering of an event their final performance was.

Here they are on a rooftop a couple months later in London in January 1969. The last time the Fab Four would ever perform live together in public.

Yeah the Beatles were huge back in the day, but not many people are nuts about the Beatles anymore sorry. Beatle mania is almost completely dead.

I wish I could find a gold for 5k. I'd buy it no questions asked and bring it back to canada.

Sorta like your brain.....

It's like you're channeling The Clash circa 1979!

London calling, now don't look to us
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust

Joe Strummer was a man ahead of his time, but who would have guessed he was referring to a pinball machine that would be released almost 40 years later ...

... comprehensive list of Beatles songs, tips for better Al Jazeera reception, the new Rocketry forum where libs hang out, and the joys of being a capitalist pig.
Seriously, the most fun I've had on Pinside in awhile.
#guessyourdistributorsallotment

True.

Are the sales completely fan driven or do ops want to route this thing?

100% sold out... Such a surprise that Stern knows how to sell pinball machines more than Iceman does. Crazy world we live in!!!!

Iceman seems to have disappeared now that his wish for this machine blowing up in Sterns face has failed.

I dont think that i would declare the Beatles a huge success just yet. I personally hope that it is because i want Stern to succeed and do well so they can keep pinball alive and growing but im not so sure about this Beatles thing.

Trying to understand the pricing structure. Are distributors being offered a 10 pack for $70,000? If so that is not a bad deal for distributors. People say it should be closer to a $5500-$6000 machine but I feel they are not taking the cost of the license into consideration.(It is probably $1000 high-because of licensing cost?)
I thought Stern/Ka-pow were going to sell direct at ridiculous prices, but it looks like they are leaving it up to the discretion of distributors. If that is the case-I say more power to the distributors. For many years distributors have been forced to take certain amounts of allocation from Stern. Problem with that is that some themes are duds. Distributors get stuck with stagnant inventory that affects their overall overhead. Now instead of making $400-$1000 per machine they can make some decent potential margins on a highly desirable theme. I am against Stern selling direct, but I have no problem with distributors selling for what they can get. It is good for the overall health of a brick and mortar distributor. Not every Stern game is successful for distributors and I feel like Stern is throwing them a bone on this one. Stern is successful because of their devoted distributors.

after listening to the podcast, joe really comes off as someone who is a very angry person. during that interview, he continues to tell everyone to "lighten up" but then proceeds to bash JJP (too many f*cking rules according to him) and other companies for their products

I guess in his mind, it's ok to piss and moan about things outside of [his] project, but it's not ok for anyone else to express their opinions. and the whole thing about the coin door appears to come down to, "yes, you can add one for an additional cost", but at $7999 MSRP it doesn't come with one

Its absurd if the game doesn't automatically come with a coin door. This isn't a HOME MODEL.

I’ve asked my distributor 5 times about this, yes 5 times. He assured me it will have a coin door with mechanisms. I’ve bought games from him previously, why would he lie? I think he would know at this point either way.

Did he call anybody out by name, or just use vagaries?

He was vague but mentioned deep code and intimidating games. Could be interpreted as a shot at JJP POTC, it is deep and complex but has a flow chart to help you out! Lol

not by name, but there was definitely a few digs at PotC. he repeatedly bitched about having to pick a character before even starting the game and that the rule set changed based on the character that you selected whereas the beatles harkens back to the days of just shoot the flashy lights

to me, that's a typical move to try and take the spotlight away from yourself and try and cast it on someone else, however with joe it's didn't quite work because you could hear both the arrogance and disdain in his voice. like I said previously, he just came off as a very angry person.

instead of talking about the positive aspects of the game and why they made some of the changes that they did (which would have been nice), he just spent the interview time complaining about pinside, internet people hiding behind handles and how this isn't anything like seawitch (because [in his words], it has better flippers)

I must not have been listening to the same podcast, as I definitely didn't hear a "very angry person."

Joe does appear to favor a certain kind of game (accessible, 80s-style) which seems OK by me. And his criticism of "too many rules" and "picking a character" could have been a reference to JJP but would apply equally to anything Dwight has coded for Stern. Those happen to be some of my modern favorites but I didn't take this as him attacking JJP, other Stern games, or me personally. Maybe he has a point with this whole "lighten up" thing.

this was the podcast that I was referring to
http://www.head2headpinball.com/2018/11/05/episode-68-joe-kaminkow-on-the-beatles-pinball/
joe's interview starts around the 9:30 mark, and starts to get a bit controversial after the 15-16 min mark, 16:10 min mark for the JJP dig

I think that one of the nicer parts about the beatles is how they update the design by eliminating the original flexible ball guide that the initial plunged ball pushes to get into the playfield proper (this guide works well on a nicely tuned sea witch, but seems to fail miserably on one that isn't) and how they changed the orbit trajectory (from the flippers) so that you can make loops better (but then it seems that they killed this change by stopping the ball at the top of the loop with the magnet because according to joe, you don't want have endless loops (around the 14 min mark)

I think the best comment is "we were trying to make a game that wasn't overpriced"

For a game that's allegedly so amazing Joe sure spent a lot of time justifying it during that podcast.

They didn’t kill the loops because the magnet isn’t active all the time. I recall someone mentioning it is used to help get into the modes.

This is probably closer to the truth

Shit loads (resized).jpg

No way do I believe this. The Beatles live on. Best group ever.

The pin? Ehhh.....

Jack also hilariously trolled Stern by posting a pic of himself at the Cavern Club in Liverpool the day Beatles announced. I thought that was pretty good Pwnage.

These guys are all big boys and they all take little digs at each other. What would pinball be without the bitchiness?

WE ALL LOVE IT!

Last night I did a service call for a couple to fix their neglected machine. They had no idea people still made pinball machines. When I mentioned The Beatles and its price tag, they didn't bat an eye and were mildly interested. They were well off with their kids out of the house and looking for toys to buy. (Also it was a lucrative service call for myself and now I'm trying to find them a Pac-Man arcade)

People are really underestimating how many rich people think pinball is a cool toy, and overestimating how many of these things Stern are actually building. Finding 100, 250, etc. rich people looking for toys isn't as hard as some people are making it out to be.

They will all sell out instantly. Great looking machine, modern twist and plenty of Beatles collectors. Stern has done another great job.