My guess is that it will be very simplistic code and light use of assets, probably closer to TNA than even Beatles. It makes no sense for Stern to dedicate a full animation and coding team for close to a year for a game with only 500 units. I think its likely that KME's next game got pushed back a few months along with everything else at Stern and he had some extra time to dedicate to this design, and they found a programmer with some availability to help him out. I think it will be a simple yet fun design with shallow yet challenging code (like TNA).

I think it would be cool if it was just a single ball game since every other pin released in recent memory is so multi-ball heavy. It could be a true throwback to the early Solid State days and be more fun to play dollar games on (Or $100 games) based on the target demographic.

If we're comparing single level games this game makes TNA seem like a good deal. There will only be 300 more TNA's than the exclusive Bond SLE when all is said and done. Will this game really be more fun than TNA? The music and co-op play on TNA is tough to beat and it has full playfield RGB lighting. Guessing this will be really fun to play too but Scott Danesi put so much of his heart and soul into TNA that it is hard for me to see Stern besting that on a "filler money grab" title like this even with the great Keith Elwin designing it. The cabinet pics certainly don't inspire confidence that they are putting the extra effort into this title.

PBR Can Crusher and Primus would have another word.

Over 500 will though and Stern knows it. I'm sure there are over 500 collectors in this hobby that have dropped over $100k on pins in the past year. It's also a down year because of lack of new and exciting games so there is pent up demand for a hot new game. Anything under $20k is leaving money on the table for Stern.

Maybe not 1 year but I know there's a ton of new collectors that came into the hobby since the pandemic and have already spent well over $100k on their collections which are mostly all LE and CE games. Pinside is only a small part of the overall pin market and there are plenty of people World-wide that have enough money where $25k is just a drop in the bucket financially. For many of these folks, pinball is their "cheap" hobby and the difference between spending $15k and $25k is negligible. If it's a cool and desirable game it will sell out regardless of price.

Those numbers don't add up either. Let's just say for argument's sake that Stern's cost to build one of these is $5K. If they sold 500 at $25K that would net $10 million profit. If they sold 250 at $15K that would net $2.5 million plus 1250 standards at $10K ($6.25 million), plus it ties up the line from making other games. Stern knows what they're doing. Like Levi says, If Pinside ran Stern they'd go tits up in a week It took Stern a long time to sell all 1964 Beatles games, I don't think they want to try pushing the market to try and sell that many of another single level game at an even higher price point. I think these 500 will sell out quick no matter what they set the price at.

I'm annoyed too and wish they were building more of them at a less expensive price but it makes sense why they aren't in this case. If they did make a $10k version it would kill the sales of the regular Bond Premium game since everyone would want the Elwin version if given the choice. Maybe this run will test the waters for Elwin to do a future cornerstone single level game if the demand is there.

What do you think the chances are that we see this layout again on a future title? I could see them removing the playfield LCD and using it as the new template for custom pins like they did with Heavy Metal or Supreme. The rule-set/score reels seem like something that could be adapted fairly easily to a new theme. Ideally it would be cool to see an original theme done with Zombie Yeti art to make a throwback game to early solid solid states with great artwork. A modern day classic that more than 500 people world-wide would be able to own.

Anyone know if there is a gameplay video coming for this with Keith and Jack Danger?

Looks like there are 4 multiballs in the game according to the rulesheet. I don't think we'll see much for wizard modes or movie clips which makes sense based on the era this pin is based off of. Does this set the record for lowest scoring in a modern pin? Looks like the points top out at 60k?

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For me it's not that I'm pissed off but it's disappointing that the only pin my favorite designer will have released in a likely 2.5 year time period costs $20k which is way more than I can afford on a single pin. I would have been interested if they had a version of the game for under $8k. I felt the same way when Stern took Lyman off of their cornerstone games and only had him on their high end releases for the last 6 years that he was at Stern. I hope the same doesn't happen with Elwin and that we'll see him on a cornerstone game in early 2024. In the meantime maybe I'll pick up a Scooby Doo while I wait. At least they still seem to give you value for your money.

Keith Elwin is a tremendous designer and has had great success in his games so far, but much of that success must be attributed to the other team members that assisted on those games. For the incredible mechs in games like Godzilla and JP we have Harrison Drake to thank for his engineering, Rick Naegele is to thank for the software and implementing the rules, Chuck Ernst and his animation team for the display/animation, etc. The team working on Bond 60th is different and no doubt talented, but I don't think you can compare this game directly to those first 4. I would guess that the number of hours invested (especially on the programming side) are much less than for a standard cornerstone release. I have no doubt that the layout will be fun to shoot and it will be a great single level pin, but if you're expecting code and rules to compare with his first 4 releases I think you'll be disappointed.

I'd question whether 500 units even qualifies as a "super" limited game. 500 units is more than a lot of other games' full runs. I think most of American Pinball's games like Oktoberfest and LOV are under 500 units, quite a few Spooky games under 500 as well, same goes for Haggis, Dutch, Pinball Brothers, etc. Even Stern games like WOF and CSI are 500 units or less. If you want a single level game with fun and addictive rules you can still pick up a TNA for $9K which seems like a bargain in comparison to Bond 60th. And it's only slightly less "rare" at around 700 units World-wide.

I think that if you really like the Beatles game then you'll really love this. Rule-set looks to be on par with Beatles but the layout looks more fun to shoot. 4 opto spinners vs. 2, similar number of drops, spinning hat vs. spinning disc, etc. The artwork and trim package is far superior on Beatles but the Elwin layout should help carry this game and make it a fun addition to the lineup.

Beatles and Bond both have opto spinners

I'm sure Stern ordered the parts for 500 games many months in advance so that they'd be ready to go on the line shortly after making them available for sale.

has there been any indication that this is happening on regular LE titles? I can't remember the last Stern LE that wasn't sold out instantly to distributors, even at 1000 units. Distributor interest lists for titles is far greater than their allocation in most cases, if you cut the total number of LE's down distributors won't be happy when they don't have games to sell on a hot title to their best customers who have ordered LE's from them in the past. I think in Bond's case the delay to get the games out might have hurt some distributors that didn't take non refundable deposits, but for the most part it seems like the games were all spoken for day one.

That seems about right as TMNT was released in May of 2020 which was the early days of Covid. Since then prices and demand has shot through the roof on titles. I think Stern will keep pushing $13k 1000 qty LE's until the market solidly rejects them. I think we are getting close to the price ceiling where this happens but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe 2023 is the year? It seems like dropping to only 2 cornerstone releases per year will keep that demand up as people are hungry for new games.

Mando and Rush were selling for thousands over MSRP soon after release. They have come down since then. Zeppelin demand seemed cooler but I think it was still an instant sellout.

The rules look more basic than most 90's games.

Villain MB - Just hit the spinners a bunch

Gadget MB - Keep shooting the disc a bunch

Bond MB - Shoot everything to build up a progress meter and get a jackpot

Wizard Mode - The MB is basically just shoot everything for "big points"

Simple rule-sets are fun and some of my favorite games are early SS games with simple rules. I expect this game to be fun but comparing the code depth to games like STTNG is doing those games a disservice.

BondMBrules (resized).png

It's too bad this game was tied to a license. It would have been much better if they just named it Star Gazer II and kept everything retro along with a sexy art package. -Zombie Yeti could even do an art package similar to what he did for Magic Girl. The layout/gameplay on this game is a 10, the other elements of the game are mediocre at best. I would also ditch the playfield screen in favor of a small apron screen or ditch the mechanical reels altogether and just do a standard LCD in the back like Beatles.

I agree with you but in the past Stern was able to do this on a number of past titles for prices much lower than $20K. I think all of these were priced below $7K. Granted, some of the costs were shared with their lesser Pro counterparts so it's not an apples to apples comparison.

A few examples:
WWE LE limited to 400 units World-wide and no premium model. This game had unique code and extra wrestlers, additional wireform and flippers, spinning disc, new art package, etc.
Rolling Stones LE: Limited to 350 units World-wide. No premium. The game had magnets under the playfield, a powerball and sensors, controllable pop up posts. mirrored backglass, etc.
X-Men LE: 550 Units World-wide split between 2 versions. No Premium model. Game had nightcrawler pop up's, moving ramp, mirrored backglass, spinning magnetic disk, etc.