If X-men does great (which I know it will do great) they will maybe consider the comic route.
It's all based on sales and how quickly they will sell.

Well, Gary stated at the NW Pinball Show that whatever themes they do have to sell well overseas. He stated that the international distributors drop $300K - $500K on a title they like and he said he needs that -- he is a business.

This statement was in reference to someone asking about a Futurama theme which he more or less indicated was unlikely because the humor in Futurama doesn't translate well overseas and so it's not a theme that would probably sell well in the international market.

So, it all depends on the theme and whether it does have global appeal.

Gary is pretty sharp and wise,He's been in the biz a long time and knows how to play the market and what to expect.

AC/DC, Rolling Stones, World Poker Tour, Wheel of Fortune, Sopranos, CSI, 24, Ripley's Believe it or Not. I'll stop but I can name more in the last 10 years.

I'm glad they are doing it after the comics.

He just didn't say that at the NW Pinball Show, he says it at every talk he has given when somebody asks if they will do a non-licensed theme.

It is highly unlikely Stern will do a non-licensed theme. The only chance would be if JJP does one first and it sells big.

Well,He's still around building/selling Pins after all these years so he is doing something right

Statements are often made in business to appease a certain group, or placate them, when the real reason is something entirely different.

AC/DC is nowhere near as popular in the US as they are in the rest of the world. So Stern follows up with a title (X-Men) that is going to be way more popular in the US than anywhere else. Makes sense, and you don't saturate your markets.

I would like to see a COMIC BASED Batman machine.

I doubt what JJP releases will influence Gary on the unlicensed theme front. Remember he ran data east in 1991 through Sega through stern now. While Williams was releasing unlicensed themes at this time, neither data east nor Sega did.

Totally agree. I said the only chance which is slim to none. Again highly unlikely Stern would ever produce a non-licensed title.

If they did a Dark Knight Returns pin, I would be sooooooooo there.

Not to nitpick, but he founded Data East in '86 (not '91). They started out doing non-licensed stuff for the first couple years, but yeah, he's said time and time again that they're not going to do non-licensed stuff again.

Joe K was mostly the one bringing licenses in, and Gary would sometimes veto them. But Gary definitely seemed lost when Joe K left for gaming (Sharkey's, HRC, back to Harley, etc). So it's pretty clear who was bringing in the licenses. DE/Sega had some of the best licenses if you look back at them. The games didn't always come together under Sega, because of BOM/time constraints, but the licenses were there (the odd X-files excluded).

It seems he's finally done with the dud licenses and has someone (Gomez?) with an ear on the street again. Not that all their license choices between JoeK-Gomez have been terrible, but they still had two terrible licenses for every hit. Looks like they're on a roll now, though. Recent license choices have been stellar.

They also bungled a couple of good licenses like TRS and Avatar.

I think comic based batman would be amazing especially to have a dc comic based pin next to a marvel comic based pin. Although dc is pretty strict w their licensing so it is doubtful.

While Stern has shown they would do a comic theme it still is a huge license with a good following. I highly doubt Stern will run an original theme within the next 3 years. But hey who knows? Anything is possible.

Sharkey's Shootout, Striker Xtreme and High Roller Casino?

Considering how those all sold, it's clear that they won't make that gamble again. They all bombed.

X-Files is the one that you'd say is odd? It was one of the biggest shows at the time and had the sci-fi element like TZ did. I'd say Baywatch was a much odder choice because while the show was ridiculously popular, translating that theme to pinball in some sort of compelling way was going to be tough.

And it clearly was.

And really, I don't think it was BOM constraints. Those Sega titles from back then were absolutely freaking loaded with stuff. I have two - Batman Forever and Viper Night Drivin. They both contain four ramps (although on both, one ramp is much more minor than the other three), molded random stuff on the playfield - Batcave, Devil's tower, and so on. Sega for me was really hit and miss, but I don't think it had much to do with low BOM.

I don't get what anyone has an issue with on either of these, but it's all good. Maybe in a few years, they will get cheap enough that I just can't pass them up!

Not an issue of movie or non movie title. The real question is whether he will ever consider a non licensed theme. And that has no relevance to X Men

Mad max

I can tell you now anything Avengers licenced at the moment will be movie based and movie based only, just take a look online or in your local Disney stores, there are rumours they are even launching a tv show and new "comic" line with artwork that resembles all the actors likenesses in the film, Disney/Marvel hit it BIG time with Avengers they know that and I'd imagine they will be very protective with the licensing - movie based all the way!
Looking at the money Avengers made at the movie theatres I'd say a movie version would out strip a comic style 3 as there is a mass global fan base now for the movie and people will relate to movie imagery. Plus xmen is not original art it's sterns usual collection of images photoshopped but this time they have done a damn fine job of it xmen is gorgeous (well the pro is) but doing the same with avengers people will just walk past it.

They need to get some gaming titles. Halo, COD, God of war, Madden, ect...ect....ect.

BF was before Sega began restricting BOM, notice it was one of the last with a screened field. BF still looks like a DE game and it was probably the reason Sega began cutting costs- could you imagine that BOM today? Sega cut the costs every single year, that's why the playfield art process had to be cheapened. X-Files was 'odd' in that the license choice wasn't a good one because the game tanked, theme didn't resonate, I don't think Europe knew it, etc. Viper has maybe the cheapest looking playfield print/art that I've seen on a Sega. The cheapening of the BOM was subtle at first, and became more dramatic as time went on. It was most visible in the playfield art after BF/Frank though.

Nowhere near as popular? Almost 1/2 their dates (~80 out of 167) for their Black Ice World Tour was in North America and it was the third grossing concert tour in history.

AC/DC is popular everywhere Now if you were talking about a license like Nascar...

I would be shocked if we ever see a non-licensed theme from Stern again.

The fact is, the time to produce a game at Stern is much more compressed than companies had 15 years ago. Creating a theme from scratch takes more time, since you need to create all the assets you need. Not to mention known licenses provide a instant hook in attracting people.

Now, I certainly think there are some themes that transcend this, a pin based on Zombies could certainly work since there is huge amounts of material to indirectly choose from.

I definitely agree. Zombies are peaking right now, while vampires are on a down trend. Weird thing to type out, but it's true lol.

Also, can a moderator fix the thread title. It's driving me bonkers!! Consider "other"? movie titles maybe?

So we wont see an Abe Lincoln vs Vampires table?

I do not think so....as there is an instant marketing "wave" once they jump on a license. good or bad it saves a ton of time and money for them, as companies today make products to break out of the daily nose of our info culture.

One one hand, yeah, the playfield art for Viper is miserable - I'll also gladly point out that the plastic art is goofy too... but honestly, how much of a cost is playfield art really? Maybe they saved $5,000 from not having an artist actually make it from scratch, and a couple bucks on the process per machine, but I don't think of that as much of a BOM thing at all.

Add to that Viper had THREE flour scent black lights, two "rubbery racoons on sticks" that could have easily been cut, a custom molded Devil's Tower, and four custom only-for-this-game balls, and you've got a game that without even looking at the ramps everywhere clearly has a lot of stuff that could have been cut still in it.

And with the playfield art, something that doesn't show up in pictures and doesn't work due to age in most of the machines is that the game had used mylar to interact with the playfield art. The yellows glow nicely when the blacklights are on, but in the mylar they made invisible except in blacklight headlights for each of the cars. It was a really cool effect when the blacklights turned on and it looked like the playfield changed to more of a night vision.

All right, too much VND geekyness coming out here. Regardless, my point is just that I really don't feel like it is a good example of the cheapness of Sega at all. In fact, I don't think there are really any Sega games that I felt like were barren. Art I don't necessarily like doesn't mean it was much cheaper to make.

hahaha, This has to be an auto-correct error right?