Leaks and bullshit podcast talk and "controversy" is great in a tiny niche hobby like Pinball. I argue that such a culture of discussion and debate is necessary to promote such a tiny specialized hobby.

The leaks were great for promoting releases from a certain company.

A loose cannon like Kaneda was great for promoting releases from a certain company.

Whether his commentary was good or bad, Cary Hardy was great for promoting releases from a certain company.

Ain't no such thing as bad publicity. Fuckin' wake up, boys.

The tighter a certain company squeezes everybody's balls, the less interested - collectively - the pinball community becomes.

In the end, who really does give a fuck? Pinball is a toy and we all love it, but it's costing us all a fortune (even the rich dudes amongst us).

At a certain critical mass tipping point of these shitty little companies force feeding the pinball community who we can - and can't - listen to (and I include a certain company here because in the grand scheme of things they're a fairly small workforce with fairly small sales figures)...we tap out and lose interest.

Shall this be The Last Podcaster left standing?!

I swear, sometimes listening to some of these remaining podcasters approximates the act of slowly being force-fed excrement. Listen to them critically. An insult to our collective intelligence.

A true member of the Army! A real mensch...a man of sensitivity and a true master of repartee and criticism - not driven by blind, obliterating ambition as he stomps on us with his muddy BUY! boots and gleefully notices that he is the only one left at the party who hasn't been pulled aside and "handled".

Warning: VERY adult content! CHASE your children from the room!

No comment! Draw your own conclusions, friend!

IMO, those mega-companies who own the rights to this recent release couldn't have given a rat's ass about the leaked photos.

This was a proactive move by the company in question. I'm getting the impression it was personal and most likely motivated by emotion.

IMO, this company should learn to chill out and let the Pinball Community do whatever it likes -- good or bad.

Publicity. Bullshit. Podcasters spewing their nonsense. It all makes this tiny Pinball World go round and keeps us interested. There are usually 6 or fewer "professional" releases a year, total, in the Pinball world...that sell in any kind of realistic numbers (and by numbers, we're talking a few thousand units TOPS and usually a few hundred).

This isn't the video game industry, where releases commonly sell in the millions.

Many of us need something - some noise - some sound and fury - to keep us interested.

As I stated in another post, no such thing as bad publicity.

A certain company is angry and cares enough to directly come after people.

You think this is some random marketing guy making these decisions?

88 Pinsiders participating in this thread. Let's do a loose estimate and say multiply by 10 the number who are reading/lurking and don't want to post.

How many machines does this company sell? Soft sales, probably a few hundred. Hard sales, maybe a few thousand.

Many operators are offline or struggling in the current health crisis (and almost certainly more lockdowns of arcades to come with Wave 2, 3, etc). This leaves the HUO market as the current Golden Goose as it were.

Do the math: 900 readers of this thread is a significant chunk of the Target Market.

IMO, these moves restricting content and banning criticism in the media stink of generally declining sales to me. The timing of these moves, coinciding with the general collapse of Operator purchases of machines is uncanny. IMO, somebody with some power is concerned about sales and is scapegoating particular individuals because they believe these individuals are the cause of these decreased sales.

This is misguided and is just leading to decreasing customer loyalty and goodwill in the community.

We are not stupid. We know what's going on.

I never said Stern would be bankrupt in a month.

And...to be fair re: your comment about Pinsider autoerotic whatever crap you sprayed at me...we see you posting and standing up for the Army in every thread that deigns to criticize this company.

If you don't think this is personal, if you don't think people high up at Stern are involved in these moves, if you don't think people are being pursued and hunted down -- IMO you are mistaken.

Don't believe he'll send it, zpin! I ordered and paid for a SDTM shirt, waited a year. Was told several times over the year it would be "coming".

It never came.

Greg was nice and offered to give me back my money, I said just keep the money.

I love catnip, makes me crazy!

I don't like hustle...just endless naps on the couch