look for stern mandalorian pre and spooky#5 bse pricing to fall in line with fathom ME, coming in around 8999. even though charlie will have a year to sell his next game, he might undercut this price just to try and sell out 1000 games on day one. in that case, i believe he is leaving money on the table.

if fathom code is complete, then haggis can publish the ruleset.

fathom buyers confront marty over the lack of updates.

better take a closer look at those series tickets.

worried series tickets.jpg

Why are some of you only going back only a few months to discuss Haggis' latest failure to meet it's stated goals? What about the stated goals made over 2 5 years ago while in the midst of a global pandemic?

In their April 2021 Fathom release interview with TWIP, Haggis matter-of-factly stated they would be moving into a larger factory and foresaw no problem producing 50 Fathoms a month, which would have completed the entire build by the end of 2021. Despite being aware of their disruptive potential, they failed to acknowledge any unforseen complications from the factory move and/or ongoing pandemic. It was laughable for Haggis to later blame the pandemic for their failure to deliver games timely, as if they were somehow blindsided by the event. Instead, they told you what you wanted to hear in order to generate sales. And here we are today, 2024.

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Published April 26, 2021.

Manufacturing is scheduled to begin on July 1st, with the plan to build 50 per month at the new facility.

You can purchase direct from the Haggispinball.com store on April 28th. To reserve a game, you will need to put down a $1,500 AUD (~ $1,162 USD) non-refundable deposit
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TWIP: With this being a significant increase in the number of machines Haggis has produced, are there any concerns regarding manufacturing?

Damian: Not a concern at all. We are about to move into a much larger factory and are in the process of expanding our workforce. We already have an incredibly talented core design, development and manufacturing team working on getting the remainder of our Celts games out to our customers and are in a great position to commence production of Fathom Revisited early July 2021 in much larger quantities.
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TWIP: What was the most difficult challenge in remaking Fathom?

Damian: We have all been so excited about making this game nothing has really seemed too challenging. It certainly hasn’t been easy or straight forward at all but having such a great team around me it has meant that any foreseeable problems have been handled before they became major headaches.
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TWIP: Will Haggis still plan to do their own original games in addition to remakes?

Damian: Yes! The next original game has been in development for some time but we are focussing right now on delivering Celts to our current customers, then delivering Fathom Revisited. We are moving into a much bigger factory next week so we will be able to get machines out a lot faster and work on multiple titles.

My opening question was a rhetorical one. The point of my post was to share how disingenuous I felt it was for Damien to use the pandemic as an excuse as if he was caught off guard.

Haggis makes a superior quality product and I'm glad to see they stuck it out despite the adversity, but being over two years late on a stated 6 month build is a significant miss.

In addition, I believe they have painted themselves into a corner with this 5 game series of Bally remakes. I don't see games 3,4,5 being viable. They won't represent a value at Haggis' current pricing relative to those in the secondary market. I believe they shelf the program after Centaur.

I see nothing wrong with discussing/preparing for the day when the news regarding Haggis may not be very good.

Sounds safer than petting the roos.

A lot to digest. Much of it believable. Still a lot of vagueness, with few specifics. Comments without elaborating, like 'recapitalize' and "refocus our partner offerings".

The email basically reads, "we have, and continue to, encounter difficulties, but can't elaborate. Pinball manufacturing is harder than we thought. Further delays are certain. Everyone just needs to wait an indeterminable amount of time. We may be out of money."

The lack of specifics leaves many questions still unanswered. Perhaps even more questions than before, due to Haggis' new admissions. Uncertainty has heightened.The circumstances are not rosy. This is nothing like what people were told almost three years ago, in April 2021 when Fathom sales opened.

How many bailouts/white knights are left willing to enter pinball at yet another low point?

Stern has their investors. JJP has Abess. AP has Aimtron. Heighway had the Pinball Brothers, who then filed BK. Dutch got new customer money from those willing to buy/chance a TBL given the strength of the games theme/gameplay.

IIRC, Punkin's stance was something like, send the manufacturer your money and you takes your chances, that's pinball. When it comes to Haggis, he admitted buying a pin from them was a calculated gamble.

What about their landlord ?

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Having recalled an earlier comment suggesting Haggis may not be current on their rent, it was a legitimate question, not a rhetorical one.

Your proximity and position of support has led me to believe that you may know more than most regarding the situation at hand. Perhaps you had an answer you could share. I guess not. Relying on you as a source of information in this matter appears to be "Wayne"ing.

So, the "whole of the company" was posted as collateral for each of four or five separate creditors?

How did this comment regarding the number of Fathoms remaining to be built not garner more attention?

Any number around 40+ Fathoms outstanding would be a bit alarming and a significant miss on their estimate/promise to finish by years end 2023. With little money coming in from new sales, the cost and time to complete 40 games at this point seems pretty significant.

Since these games have most likely been paid for in full, the money for parts and labour to construct them will need to come out of pocket - and a potentially empty one, at that. Throwing out 6K/game, 40 games totals 240K.

Now considering time. Given the rate of production we have witnessed, it could easily be another 6 months to finish those last 40 games. That would mean 6 more months of recurring biz overhead and personal expenses. Further, Haggis is committed to some amount to cover free shipping for any remaining games.

It is possible that the amount of money and time required to complete the Fathom run may prove to be too much, while it appears any Centaur production may be months from now.

Disgraceful and disingenuous.

Promoting Haggis at this point is FOOL-HARDY.

They don't change my opinion, because I believe I put them in their proper perspective. They took 3 YEARS to make those 200+ games! Only 70 games per year. During that time they incurred 3 years of overhead. And, as noted, the margins on those games were compromised by higher costs for parts and shipping. Not a good case for profitability.

Remember when Fathom was revealed 3 years ago and Haggis shared they would quickly ramp up to making 50 games a month. Do you realize that if Haggis had achieved this reasonable level of production that as of today, they would be DONE making 300 of ALL FIVE Bally remakes, with months to spare? Instead they haven't even finished GAME ONE.

In addition, they have obligations re: collected monies on outstanding games. If 40 paid in full Fathoms remain @ 9K,
between season tickets holders and any deposits/paid in full on Centaur, we could be looking at the mid 400Ks. Is this money really gone? Are they current with vendors? And unless Damian is managing to live off his wife's salary and the residuals from selling his home security business, he may have needed to take draws for living expenses over the years, as Melbourne is an expensive city in which to live.

Haggis can make the industry's best built games, but if they are unable to do it profitably, then the business isn't viable.

One of the biggest omissions from the February "recapitalization" update was any indication as to when/whether/how often Haggis would be providing further status updates. Having painted such a dire picture after their miss of completing the Fathom run by 2023 years end, the least they could have done was to appease customers with something like "we will back the first of each month to update you on how things are going." Instead, they effectively told their customers to go pound sand, while leaving them completely hanging as to when they could expect to hear anything further. And now we have crickets. Why does the community apparently accept this, rather than insist on regular progress reports?

When Haggis told us they would complete all remaining games by 2023 years end, at least they provided a timeframe versus the openendedness of the current situation. Give us six more hassle-free months and Fathom will be done. FAIL. Based on their checkered past, that extension was a pretty big ask on their part and should have come with the requirement of timely updates . Instead, we waited; receiving little information regarding game production/shipping and/or the company's health, only to be surprised months later with February's 2024 update. We should have insisted on regular/timely updates during the second half of 2023 and Haggis should have been more forthcoming regarding their current and future prospects.

So what are we going to do now?
Keep sitting idlely by, waiting?