When did they confirm this?

Bummer. I guess there's always the possibility they could modify Whitestar in some way, but no improvement to sound will cost them some sales I'd think (though maybe Stern can spin it as protecting the interests of LE buyers by not making the VE inarguably better).

The only fact is that no one knows for certain if LOTR VE will happen. Even if Gary said tomorrow that they're never making one, given past his past statements on Iron Man that could hardly be taken as firm evidence that the game will never be remade.

Anyone making definitive statements one way or the other at this point is just blowing smoke.

But you posted an unsupported assertion. Unless you're ready to share the facts that have convinced you that Stern will never, ever remake LOTR, how is your post advancing the conversation any more than someone that simply says "LOTR VE will definitely be Stern's next game"?

I disagree on supply/demand -- there has been far more interest shown in LOTR than in any other potential remake by Stern. And clearly even with the relatively massive supply, there's sufficient demand to keep prices in the $5k neighborhood.

If your take is that we won't be seeing any VEs in the next few years because there isn't a game out there that would make financial sense for Stern to run as a VE at this point, you may be right. But if you're saying that Stern could make more VEs sometime in the next few years but LOTR is unlikely to be among them, which titles do you think would sell better? Can you honestly say there's a big pool of games that would have greater demand at ~ $5k to $6k?

Of course licensing could kill LOTR VE. But the same can be said for Tron, POTC, and BBH. Without specific inside information, licensing speculation doesn't strike me as a great reason to nix any given title as a potential VE.

"Entitlement"? Stern told us in a press release that we should "Look for future Stern Vault Editions" and people are lobbying for games they'd like to see get the VE treatment. Seems reasonable enough to me.

I agree that there's been "never ending speculation" though and at the least, it'd be great if people posted in the old "LOTR VE" threads instead of creating new ones.

Scared Stiff is unlikely to be remade anytime soon, at least in part because PPS hold the rights to a good number of other games that would likely sell better as remakes (AFM, MB, BBB and CC to name a few). You'd be nuts to remake Scare Stiff if you could be remaking AFM instead.

But Stern doesn't own the rights to those games. Not to beat a dead horse, but what Stern games other than LOTR do you see as viable candidates for VE treatment? Maybe Stern's not going to make any more VEs at all, but if you concede that there's a list of possible remake candidates at Stern, LOTR has to be at the top.

That said, it would be exciting if Stern bought the rights from PPS to remake some of the old B/W classics as VEs. Since they're already doing the assembly and all ...

Source for your unqualified statement? Otherwise you're just blowing smoke, same as the guys saying "LOTR VE is next."

Don't stop now, you're on fire!

It'll happen some day if they can figure out the licensing, the demand is clearly there. But Rarehero's right that if you want one anytime soon, you should probably just buy a used one, could be a while until they get around to it.

I remember from the last five times we had this conversation! I don't know why you think relicensing would be any more costly here than for the other properties Stern has made/remade. The obvious potential issue is if something's expired with the movie license and they had to get the Tolkien estate involved in any way they're presumably hosed, since the estate hates the movies and video games, and would presumably hate the pinball if they were aware of it. And then there's image rights (which could work out nicely IMO if they shifted over to new hand-drawn art).

Like it or not, well more than "a few" people would be interested in a LOTR VE, and from the many, many threads of this kind LOTR is clearly the top one or two game people want to see Stern re-make. And of course from Stern's perspective the logic behind making a VE is not the rarity of the game, but the price point. If used games are selling for $5k and there are 5,000+ of them out there, it seems safe to assume they could sell hundreds of new games at $6k. If I'm Stern, I'd follow that logic rather than rushing out to remake a $2-3k game like 24 or CSI just because they're rare.

It's inarguable that nice LOTRs can be purchased for ~$5k right now. So anyone that wants one today can get one. Of course the same could have been said for Spiderman, and somehow Stern remade that one...

Who's upset? Your arguments are unpersuasive but I'm not losing any sleep over it. As you say, they haven't remade it yet, and maybe they never will. But if Stern's going to keep making VEs at all, there simply aren't many titles that would make financial sense to reproduce before LOTR (again, unless the licensing proves impossible due to Tolkien estate or image rights).

No need to apologize! I'm not personally invested either (though I might still buy an LOTR VE if they did it right), we're just talking pinball here.

This guy gets it.

Maybe by the time you're ready to buy a third LOTR the option will be there ...

Production numbers matter only in relation to demand, my friend. By your argument TZ and Addams should be the two cheapest games on the market. Yet somehow they and LOTR (a comparative rarity) are priced about the same.

You may view a $5k pricepoint for a used pin as representative of "satiated" demand. But that's pretty high for a used pin. Instead I'd say that LOTR is a very popular game, with high pricing compared to other games of its era despite a comparatively large run.

Pin market is very much different today than in 2009. Since we're making silly arguments though, I'll blame this one on the dick beard.

And the Luci ed. is apparently $16,000 - why would Stern make anything else?!?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-nib-luci-acdc-premiumle

The Tolkien estate would actually never license movies and video games at all, if JRR hadn't sold those rights off in the 60s. The estate (his kids) HATE the Peter Jackson movies (and its hard to disagree with them on Hobbit, at least). Luckily the Saul Zaentz Company is much looser with the rights.

So the real question is can Stern affordably reup with New Line or whoever, and will there be image likeness issues requiring deals with all the pictured actors (that alone would seem like a deal killer, or at least necessitate a whole new art package). But if that all works out, LOTR VE seems like an easy win for Stern.

Per Gary’s earlier comments, no plan for any Vault editions to be transferred to Spike - they’ll be made on their original platforms.

People always say there are too many LOTRs out there to justify a remake. But if I’m Stern, I’d figure if routed games are going for $5k and there are tons out there, I can sell a good number of NIB remakes at $6.5k. Opposite situation from a game like CC, where so much of it’s value is it’s rarity. LOTR is closer to TZ and TAF, which are expensive despite huge supply because they’re very popular.

Besides TRON, there’s just not another obvious remake candidate other than LOTR. Doesn’t mean they’ll work out the licensing of course.