There still isn't really any "coming through". There's no complete, running MG on the blog. Just art, like we've always heard. And weird history.

This is why he's continued to get away with not delivering for this long. People see the bits and pieces he's got so far and go all gaga for it.

I'll accept "coming through" when there is a game we can play.

It's what we've been hoping and waiting for with the much hyped "lebowski reveals".

And with the way pinball works.... likely no production games for 1 year+ when that playable game is shown.

Hell, I'm waiting for my Full Throttle, Andrew Heighway has been communicating with me, he's got like 20 employees and a factory, and still behind schedule getting games out. He was showing a playable prototype at Expo 2014 and announced there a nov/dec release date for the game. At this time I'm hoping to have it end of March. If he manages that, he'll have been better than most at getting a game from prototype to production (5 month delay from original release window).

So my prediction for MG is:

-Possibly it finally shows up Expo '15. Customers get theirs by end of '16.

I'm not even guessing where that puts RAZA.

The 'BLOG' looks the same as it always did, I'm not seeing anything new that I wasn't seeing yesterday, what changed? Just that it's open to public viewing?

Exactly the problem, there's nothing new to report except him opening it up. I guess that's progress of some sort, but it's not helping us get our games.

The private owners group will remain. It has become a collective force for a lot of angry and worried people. Shit is happening right now at amazing speed. We have key players now that didn't know of one another and they met there. They each have individual influence with Popadiuk and are having a phone conference this weekend.

I have a torn rotator cuff from patting myself on the back for an idea I wasn't even sure would fly.

You must be talking about Bizarro World Pinside.

-Thanks for accepting my peace offering, Aurich.

Magic girl seems incredible. Owning one would be a true honor.

Almost like a creditors committee, except an attorney of the debtor is on the committee.

Seriously, though, I truly hope this effort produces real results and you all get your games. I'd love to see a happy ending here for all of the long-suffering supporters.

Rock on, everyone!

Kind of interesting. Not much for the lens-flarey animation on some of those samples, but the underlying art is good. Cabinet art looks amazing, and so does all the other art. Kind of like how we have seen with RAZA, Magic Girl has seemed to be a wierd amalgamation of "not-magic, but science and technology fooling people" themes. Looks interesting for sure. The "Sir Issac Newton Ball" made me literally LOL, and does he seriously have "Theatre of Magic Post" in text by the between flipper pop up post.. no way that makes it into production art.

If MG makes it into production, I would be interested in AIW, but only then.

Thanks for everything you have done (and not done!!) iceman44. From the outside looking in it appears the ducks are starting to find their places.

Also thanks to Mr68. And I think I get you posting style...

Though who is Ben Hidden, and what is his contribution in all this?

Thats so badass. Customers and designer team up to make the baddest pinball machines of all time.

The reason I'm hopeful is that the more John is willing to let people help, and just focus on what he's good at, the better things will go. We have a great community, full of smart people with lots of skills. Just gotta form up like Voltron!

Good job Ice.

My concern (not personal concern, but general overall concern) is that John may not have known how long it would take (obviously) and probably has no idea of the cost to make. As people have said it costs the same to design a game for a run 15 as for 1500 run.

There is a saying in the pharmaceutical industry, (I'm paraphrasing) if a pill costs 8 cents to make why do they charge $8/pill? The answer is that the 'first pill' cost $800,000,000 to make.

Not to mention the Pharmaceutical companies make an absurd amount of profits!

As does Coca-Cola, Apple, Google etc.. what's your point?

Would you rather have no new drugs being developed?

You think they should work non-profit?

hahahah touchy, must be in the business rai don't worry I love anything blue and would pay double!!!

I was going to write something similar...I hope they make assloads of profit. $ drives innovation and more research. It has to be worth it to them to keep innovating and finding cures for stuff. It's not all for the good of mankind.

Yes I too agree..... but god forbid any pinball manufacturer makes a shite ton of money!

PS forgot early Saturday morning = sense of humor washed away from night before

I wish the pinball companies did make a lot of profits, but it's not a huge business like the NFL who brings in 114 million viewers for one game. Where the gate just ticket sales of the super bowl is probably $100M

Instead an industry selling what? 10,000 new pins a year at a price of $6k/each maybe $60M all told with distributers and shipping all taking a piece.

Pinball is just not big business like Cigarettes where the combined 'profits' are $35 Billion a year.

My point about John, perhaps he figured he'd charge $18K per game for MG without knowing is actual overhead and time and BOM. He may not be able to make it on $400K ($18K x 23 pins). Hopefully this will be examined to see if it works out.

EDIT: I was just looking at more recent numbers, the US cigarette market was something like $66B last year with half that as profit. Lets say the US (new) pinball market is $66 million (probably less than that). That's 1000x smaller than the cigarette market.

damn i was hoping you were in the business, took my hint, and my little blue pills were in the mail

OK, sorry I was not sure, I'd heard some people say that, but I had not heard it officially announced.

I couldn't sleep and my doctor told me to take Viagra and hot chocolate at bed time. The hot chocolate is sedative and the Viagra prevents me from falling out of bed.

Kids, don't smoke, play pinball!

They discovered a Viagra for women? It's called cash.

I disagree. While there was never much of a possibility for him to make a profit by designing and manufacturing games with total runs under 100, if John's wife can pay his bills this whole situation starts to make sense. It is John's hobby and passion, and rather than designing a game for himself he is doing this for others without profit in mind. I'll commend him for his contributions to the hobby as they are over and above what most people would do.

However I think most of us can agree, it's also a real shame that all the of those beautiful MGs will wind up hidden in a just a handful of basements around the world, with no possibility to reap the cost benefits of manufacturing at scale or meeting demand if the game turns out to be as good as its potential. It's a lot like Tesla motors making 50 full sized luxury electric supercars that can go 500+ miles on a charge for $250k each and calling it a day. It is a far greater benefit to the world to make millions of these cars for @$30k, so that everyone can experience true innovation and art which would help expand the hobby. Tesla had the that scaling plan from the outset, but John leans toward perpetual exclusivity.

Just an FYI, the NFL is a non-profit organization..... somehow.

just the league office. The owners are for-profit. FWIW

To be clear: The entire NFL is not a nonprofit. Like many modern corporations, what we think of as “The NFL” is an entity composed of various subsidies, including the for-profit NFL Network (the cable and satellite network owned by the league), as well as 32 separate teams. In 2012, “The NFL” netted $9.5 billion in revenue through TV licensing, ticket sales and merchandise; the vast majority of that money is funneled through the league’s teams. The teams are subsequently responsible for paying “dues” to the league’s office, which manages rules, oversees referees and conducts “player safety research.” The league office received $326 million in dues in 2012, the most recent year for which such data is available. Only the league office, run by Goodell, is considered a nonprofit.

Rodger Goodell's salary last year was almost an much as the entire domestic market for new pinball sales.

IMO, that completely defeats the purpose of these limited run "boutique" pins.

Plus a "pro" run implies that these things can be run on an assembly line and cranked out like crazy. Negative.

I have to say, even *I'm* optimistic hearing that he's willing to let other people help with he "boring" parts and have him concentrate on the design side.

But, can he stop himself from changing things, or working on some toy, instead of working on getting the game *done*? Is he willing to have someone else manage the project timeline?

Reading the now-open blog, he apparently had the playfield done in 2012! 3 years ago! Phew.

Great post!! +1,000,000

At a certain point you just have to say "Screw it, good enough!" and release something.

The trap people fall into is "It's taken this long, so it has to be even better!" and the tweaking cycle continues. Like a snake eating its own tail.

Finish something and save your improvements / what you've learned for thr next project.

Actually the best route may be to keep these two games limited as promised. Deliver and amaze and then open up Alice as the big run.

Surely you aren't comparing what JPop is doing to Heighway?

I agree Dave.

At the same time, we are really getting ahead of ourselves!

Sounds good to me. Hurry the fuck up.

To paraphrase Jersey Jack:

John should make Magic Girl his "worst" game (from the new company).

Draw a line in the sand and get it out, and the next games can be better and better.

Ok, then what about the AIW folks who already put money down on an idea of a limited run? If you're going to keep you're word, keep it. If you're not, don't. Either he keeps his word on production numbers for each of his first three titles or blows them all up. Buyers of MG can't act like they are somehow more entitled than the RAZA buyers or that somehow they should be given deference when others should not.

"Printing presses" doesn't sound very boutique to me. Sounds like a shift away from John's vision.

If it's going to be about sound business practice and ROI then the MG and RAZA folks need to come to terms with opening up those runs.

If Jersey Jack knew what he was doing he would have hired JPop when he was available but that probably wouldn't have worked out because Jack is willing to release unfinished product and John is not.

This statement is rediculous. Let's take a company that is manufacturing and selling pinball machines and bash them but praise the guy that can't get one game made. Makes perfect sense

Can you imagine what WOZ would have looked like if JPop had designed it?