I think the community needs to recognize the reality of the situation and the history of the industry!

As long as the obligation to refund the preorderers and pay off the vendors owed exists no clear thinking person (businessman) will invest into this. That's the reason for the "credit-system" they are offering and the price hike involved.

The alternative will be to sell the IP and use that money to equally pay everyone who has money in this by prepayments or supplier credit. I have no clue about how high his debts are, but most probably everyone involved will only get a tiny fraction of their investments back in this scenario.

Really feel deeply sorry for the fellow pinheads who have invested money in this project.

I'm pretty sure Roman will custom cut some sheets when the games ship to EU...might cost 50€ extra, so it's 199€ then...

Because law enforcement would remind you that you would be stealing from all the other prepayers etc. that have money in this. You could force them to sell the proto and evenly divide the proceedings between everyone having money in this....your share will be very small.

How is this kind of thinking - "I want this machine as indemnification for myself" - and not caring the least bit about the others invested in this better than what JPop did?

You really need to open your eyes to business reality. Companies go bankrupt all the time, people lose most of their investments, the IP is bought out and someone else finishes and goes live with the product - in some cases even making a fortune on it.

A big part of the problem is mentioned by yourself: "...invested hard earned money in good faith...". Tell any investor, businessman or non-pinball friends that you invested hard earned money in "good faith" (and not much more than good faith) and be surprised by what they will answer.
You bet on the wrong horse, you invested in the wrong company, you believed in the wrong person. All natural concerns and clear thinking was thrown overboard in the light of a shiny & rare new toy. A lot of this disaster originates in the wrong and somewhat naive belief that an artist and pinball designer must be competent to run an economical challenging business. I think it's safe to say that artists are among the ones to been known to typically have less connection to "hard facts business" than most other professions.

Now it seems that someone with the necessary financial potential and business competence has stepped in and is trying to evaluate if the IP is worth going for, if there is still enough interest in the machine, if it is feasible and what it would take to produce the machine. Thus the presentation & the "offer" to the original prepayers.

And don't be fooled by the emotionally loaded comments about no one wanting this machine due to it's history. If it is released it will be one of the most collectable pins ever made and the value, depending on numbers produced, will probably go through the roof. Not despite but because of it's history. I'm not saying it's a good move, but if a pinhead friend called me saying he just got a MG I'd jump in the car immediately and be there lightning fast.

Whatever, I still feel deeply sorry for anyone invested in this. There really is no "right" solution to this situation, either way it will cost you a lot of money which makes me very sad.
Maybe the single positive effect of this will be that future projects in pinball will have to be approached in a far more professional and thoughtful way leading to more healthy and realistic endeavors. After the pitchforks have been tucked away again, that is.

This must be the absolute low point in style I've ever seen in any thread. Really, this is disgusting.

I'm voluntarily ejecting myself from this thread!

He said multiple times he messed it up (given, not himself alone), he admitted to be mentally slow and an idiot.

What else did you expect to happen? A release date or an offer for reimbursement to the pre-orderers? Or an interviewer that insults his "guest"?
Nate gave him the chance to tell his version of the story and shed some light on what lead to this fiasco, and that's basically what JPop talked about.

That's a very valid question.

The outcome of the legal action will be much more interesting than a lame interview.
Anybody know when this will be going to court?

That's kind of the essence of what JPop is about - the arrogance of creative people.

It seems he's at least to some extent understood that there's more to running a company than a good idea alone. But he still hasn't overcome the arrogance of focusing on the completion of HIS game as opposed to the damage he's done to others and getting that right rather than the machine itself.

But hey - it took him 10 years to finish WCS, so he still has 5+ years to finish MG...that's the main message of all his talk.

I do get your point Whysnow and agree in general - but as I've written in the other thread: If this thing plays well and costs below 7K noone will care about the few people who took a hit with JPops previous projects and rip the games out of APs hands.

Good God, you're the same guy that made a fuss because you (incorrectly!) thought calling someone a pussy would refer to female genitalia while you were calling people "dicks" which does refer to male genitalia, right?

Have you not proven often enough to have very limited linguistic sensitiveness.

How twisted does one have to be to think of special needs children when reading "special k"? Weird. Just really really weird.