Sadly, although Jared is probably reading all of this feedback, he's not going to pass anything on to Gary. When they announced that they were going to "ship overseas orders around September 15, and the North American orders will ship about a month after that to coincide with those first machines' arrival in Europe"--the truth of the matter is that ship has all but sailed.

It's too late to go back to the drawing board if they hope to maintain those ship dates. One could make the argument "Well, JJP did that, they took the feedback from the community, why can't Stern?" The truth is, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Going back to the drawing board takes time, which will result in delays, and buyers will be unhappy with that aspect of their purchase instead.

Fans of the series have been chomping at the bitt for a Game of Thrones themed pinball to be produced for years. Despite a two year development window, it looks quite frankly--rushed as hell. It's disjointed, sloppy, and it honestly doesn't even look like Greg Freres bothered to watch the show before slapping together that generic artwork package.

I'm not going to insinuate that JJP has served their customers any better given all of their delays--but take a minute and just look at the level of detail on the finished product: http://www.pinballnews.com/games/hobbit/45a.jpg

There are so many subtle intricacies that genuinely captures that the spirit of that universe. None of that detail exists within the Game of Thrones playfield artwork, and there is nothing that even makes you think that this game is actually Game of Thrones unless you recognize the house names. Take those off of the playfield and read the description of gameplay again: "Play as a Knight representing one of the seven houses. Battle the other houses to rule the throne." It looks and sounds like a generic medieval game that got some branding slapped on to it at the last minute.

I was really looking forward to this title. I saved up, and stopped myself from buying other pins because I really thought that after two years this one would be worth the wait.

I could care less about the cabinet art and the backglass at this point. At least they have some semblance of the actual franchise. I don't even notice those now, or the lack of an LCD (which before the reveal I thought was going to be my main sticking point), when compared to the "artwork" on the playfield. The cabinet and backglass are the least of my list of disappointments..