Would you care to place a bet over which sells more?

Ultimately, it won't really matter, only 750 R&M are being made. Those 750 WILL sell out. If Stern makes a ST, it will sell way more than that just because they will be making more of them. There...debate resolved.

Spooky’s only making 750. So, I’ll bet Stranger Things. Lol.

If Stern was making both? R&M. Pinball buyers love HUMOR. Humor is rare when most licensed games are based on serious/action subject matter or music. R&M is one of the funniest shows on TV, and having it’s main funny voice guy doing custom callouts is going to be amazing.

Again, you total underestimate the show’s popularity with the pinball buying demographic.

That would actually be a good theme for game #4!

The show is great at creating rabid fans...just don't think that demographic spills into those that buy pinballs as well as you do.

How many Family Guys sold? Not many...despite being a good game. Compare the sales there to say Ghostbusters.

Could be a toss up to gameplay if it was on a even playing ground. The potential for great games is there for both these properties. I honestly can't speak to which is 'more' popular, but integration of those properties is crucial to have a good game, at least to me.

Thanks for the update: "I haven't seen this show, nor have many of my friends (I think). My teen kids have though; therefore, it must be geared toward teens."

I think you might want to use google on this one.

I've never seen R&M, but I'll give it a shot this weekend on Hulu.

I've been clawing my way through Season 2 of Stranger Things over the past month and a half, and it's like chopping wood. I can't imagine this as a pin, and sounds like it's right around the corner. Looks like the collection is safe for now.

Adult males 18 - 34.

People that rent. These are not pinball buyers.

https://fortune.com/2017/09/30/why-adult-swims-rick-and-morty-is-millennials-favorite-tv-show/

Family Guy sold 2500, which was respectable at that point of pinball when games like 24 and CSI were barely cracking 500 units sold. Iron Man only sold about 1000 & was considered a flop before pinball got big.

Look at the R&M thread & the excitement. It’s not 20 year olds yelling “take my money”. I’m 43. I’m buying one. I have tons of 40-something friends who are ultra excited and buying one. Anyway, don’t worry about it. Spooky will sell them all, you won’t have to worry about stocking them.

IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Spooky has a great thing going. They are making 750 games. They will sell out.

EVen their awful previous license of Rob Zombie sold out.

If Stern licensed Stranger Things and it sold 750 games, it would be a disaster. Spooky's smart business plan more or less inoculates them from the usual potential licensing parameters and pratfalls.

Again, most HUMANS are not pinball buyers. Pinball stats aren’t relevant to the overall stats of society. There are millennials who are millionaires from being on YouTube & Twitch. Those specific ones will buy a R&M pinball. Pinball “thrives” on an ultra tiny group of buyers. That’s all it needs. More than 750 R&M fans who can afford it exist.

The question of this post was which theme is better.

Stranger Things is clearly a better theme for maximum sales which was my point. But Rick & Morty geeks are butthurt over reality. Maybe Spooky will sell them all...probably eventually. I doubt an immediate sell out though.

And this is why I am in a quandary as I said to myself I would never pre-order anything again and then this happens - custom call outs should be insanely good.

Same. I normally wouldn’t, but this is how much I trust Scott & the team.

Google Trends for past year attached...one is much more popular than the other. Don't confuse number of fans with rabid fans.

Screen Shot 2019-12-06 at 11.33.52 AM (resized).png

I interviewed Justin Roiland in his new game, “Trover Saves the Universe” and he talked about how he voiced over 8 hours of ADDITIONAL audio for all the background characters, I think in total he has like 40 hours worth of audio in the game, so when you backtrack around, you won’t get the Skyrim “I took an arrow to the knee” from every single NPC (non-playable character for you old timers)
So Trover remains fresh because the audio isn’t dependent on you, if you walk away from 2 NPCs talking, and come back 20 minutes later, they will still be talking just like in real life, so the conversation is dynamic and totally unique. You would have to have far too much time on your hands for it to get repetitive.

So if they use this same concept from his video game for the pinball, you will have a MASSIVE bank of sounds recorded and it will be applied dynamically to make the game completely unique. If Spooky goes this route, which they most likely will considering Justin likes every project to be completely fresh and new, you would probably need a weeks worth or more of playtime on this game.

That’s not exaggeration either, he is incredibly passionate and like many of the good ol’ days, he would rather have something come out RIGHT than worry about deadlines and budget constraints.

I am still trying to figure out how you can have the name freakandgeek and not have seen any Rick and Morty

Viewers doesn’t always translate into pinball buyers. See my earlier post about Wheel of Fortune & CSI.

Ultra passionate fans = pinball buyers.

I really enjoy Stranger Things, but I'm just not sure how well it translates to pinball. It's pretty character driven. I agree with some of the above posters, a big draw would be the 80s music. Beyond that what do people want the shots to represent? I'm seriously brainstorming as I write this...obviously some gate to the upside down would be cool. I also think the Demogorgon would be pretty cool. I can picture callouts coming in over a walkie talkie. I don't know, I guess I'd have to see it. I just don't really think a game where you are shooting shots to collect each character seems that interesting. With that says my vote goes to Rick & Morty. It's funnier and you can just travel around doing "classic adventures" throughout the multiverse. The randomness of the show means you could almost design it backwards...come up with a fun mode then create a story around it.

I'm 50 and my wife and I love Rick and Morty. R&M and Stranger Things in barcades across the US is just the shot in the arm this hobby badly needs. Will be interesting to see what "currently relevant" titles will do for the hobby. With deeproot poised to launch, 2020 is going to be a great year.

Stranger Things is of course a better license and in my opinion a better theme, I'm sure RM is a great show too but how you translate these into a Pinball game is what really matters. With SS, you have Hawking's Lab, you have the Demogorgon, you have Will's hideaway..all of these can be a central toy or sculpt...then there is the music, and all the memorable quotes. You have the struggle of defeating gov agents, the Demogorgon and escaping the upside down...What is the central theme of RM? Is it easily identifiable as SS?

IMO R&M is way more translatable to pinball than ST. If you've never watched it, I don't see how anyone can make an opinion on one vs the other and most of the people who are saying this haven't even watched it. I'm not expecting that everyone will like it obviously, but it is very as good a theme for a pin as any other tv/movie/cartoon. Ultimately it will come down to how it is integrated into the rules and gameplay. Both could be homeruns, both could be turds. Either way there will be people on both sides saying they are the best games ever and worst games ever.

Which brings up the old question ... if Spooky can sell all the machines in a month, shouldn’t they figure a way to churn them out faster than 18 months? Asking someone to wait 6 mo is about the limit of what is reasonable. Spooky needs to expand, in spite of what Charlie thinks.

If Spooky sells it, they need to build it, and that means quickly. Maybe their new model should be sell however many can be built in nine months. In which case Spooky needs more horsepower.

The ever evolving question of, build as you sell demand, or build ahead of time then sell (eliminating waiting). That is the problem with many people these days is attention spans and immediate gratification ends up in them quickly changing their mind to the next--

Oh look at the squirrel!

Both great themes. Stranger Things is losing steam after three seasons (and arguably went downhill quickly after the stellar first season). Rick and Morty crushed 3 seasons and with new episodes coming will be hot for the foreseeable future.

American Pinball has room for a contract game...and hell, I don't think their main assembly line is exactly going gangbusters on pinball at the moment either.

Yep, that's the if.

Charlie has been ridiculously upfront and transparent about this.

If he expands, he believes he'll have to contract. That means periodic layoffs. He doesn't want to do that.

Don't see the obsession with trying to convince him to bite off more than he can (or wants) to chew. Pinball is hard. Boutique pinball is REALLY GODDAMN HARD. People forget that because Spooky are the only ones in history to make it look easy.

And while waiting 6 months - 2 years seems like a long time, track record shows people will get their games and they won't see their money stolen. Again, this doesn't really seem like a big deal, but it is.

So let Spooky be Spooky.

I'll give you the Demogorgon, but I'm just not sure Will's hideaway (Castle Byers) makes a great toy. I mean, it's a stick fort. While nostalgic, it's just not that exciting to me. I'm a bit torn on Hawkins Lab. The building itself is just a big grey shell, but you could include some of the industrial elements and maybe a "Restricted Area" sign. I actually like the idea of the overall aesthetic of game being industrial with those tendrils from the Upside Down growing around them. Then have the main toy be a portal / gate which moves you between the normal world and the Upside Down. Maybe the Demogorgon could pop out of the gate at times both blocking the shot while being it's own target that you need to hit.

It's been addressed multiple times. Plus, if people are buying the games knowing they will be built over an 18-month period ... what's the issue? Charlie has promised slow and steady. They've gone from 150 to 300 to 500 to 750, plus they have Total Nuclear Annihilation with an unlimited run. They started in a business incubator and now have their own shop with a supporting building across the street. For a town of under 1,000 people that's super impressive. They obviously don't want to relocate, so they will likely remain a Boo-tique Company doing a low production game every 1-2 years.

whoops wrong thread

Both themes would do gangbusters on location and I'd happily add them both to the route. If I had to choose one though, I'd say R&M has more staying power; which is more of a testament to the weekly vs. binge release methods.

A Stranger Things season comes out and everyone binges it, talks about it for a month, then interest dies down until the next season. Rick and Morty meanwhile trickles it's episodes out, keeping it relevant over a longer course of time.

Keep in mind this is solely an operator's point of view, not an option on either show.

Man, if ever a poll needed a "Both" option.....

heck it's not an opinion, it's shown in the chart above!

Honestly..not sure I trust 'google trends' to tell me anything. I've never googled either show, and I love them both...

I think the bash toy should be a Demagorgon ripping Bob in half!

If I was building a ST pinball my bash toy would be an elastic wall that has the Demagorgon trying to come through it then finally popping out to start multiball.

I have no comment on how good R&M is, but am very surprised to hear that ST is "losing steam" after a great season 3 that was talked about everywhere and helped spike an 80's boom? And speculation all over the place about season 4 which may be the end given the age of the kids.

I live near Universal that does haunted houses for their seasonal horror nights and the lines for the Stranger Things house was looooooooooong, and a lot of their logos and merchandise was ST themed. ST is still big with a lot of anticipation for the next/final(?) season to come.

theme does not mean a good game. Seen many themes go way wrong. Takes some kind of magic to make a great game. Almost like a sort of luck if you will.
Some of the best intended games have fallen so short of expectations they never recover.

R&M is also immensely more RE-watchable, and you can drop into a season at any time.

Great great point.

You might want to view it to see what your kids are watching. Every other word out of the characters mouth is crude or takes the Lord’s name in vain. It’s brutal on the ears. The nasty language gets in the way of an otherwise cleverly written storyline.

Uff walked away form that one; fucking painfull.

I think people might be excited that Danesi is designing it, since TNA was very well received.

At least get the correct person before you get into all the Jesus talk.

Stranger Things may be the better theme. But I am more interested in Rick and Morty.

Stranger things does not interest me at all.

I'm buying Rick and Morty.

Which Lord?

Scott Danesi on design + the theme is going to bump up the pre-orders more than any Spooky game. Charlie's designs have received mixed reviews (RZ and ACNC).

Without question, their two most recent games are my two favorite Spooky games to date.

Was Stanger Things officially announced?