That's a stretch, but man, I really hope it's not Metallica. I really, really, really hope it's not Metallica...

Metallica would be better than another superhero theme...

You'll be disappointed then...

I really hope it's Metallica. I really, really, really hope it's Metallica...

And a Tron LE none the less

We're going to fight about this on the podcast. You're going to lose.

For real... does that mean I will be getting a ferrari because I have a car in my driveway. How is having pinball machine in the video any relevance to the release of a metallica pinball? The guys like to play pinball...period.

Sources have been right so far lately. My guess...........Metallica.

It will suck!

Metallica like pinball. They are popular band. Borg likes Metallica and hates Kiss. Odds are from the rumor mill that Metallica is next.

And what else would it be? WOZ???

GREAT Find and Cool Video. He has a TRON LE, BSD and a South Park!! These are players machines. Good taste. Says He wanted to be a graphic designer ... or pinball designer maybe?

If this Superhero - Band cycle lasts much longer, we'll end up with Ant-Man and ABBA machines.

I will be shocked if their next pin ISN'T Metallica. Sigh.

James Hetfield already owns a Metallica pinball machine. One of my friends helped to create it.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/10/metal-on-metal-behind-the-scenes-on-a-custom-pinball-game/

-Mark

Take out South Park and I'll agree. That game is probably the worst game of the entire DMD era.

The sales disagree with your opinion. I'm not exactly a big fan of the game either, but it was a fairly popular title when it came out, competing with SW:E1.

-Mark

Sales do not make the game any better though. It was a hot license at the time, so it did well. SW:E1 is the same way. Very few people actually like the gameplay of the game, but its license buoyed it up.

Okay! Okay! Okaayyy!!!

Even worse than LW3 ?

Very cool. I hope if Stern does make one, it's not as cheesy as AC/DC.

or xfiles

Easily.

Still easy.

Agreed.

Obviously, the opposite can also be true. Cirqus Voltaire did not sell well initially, but now it's one of the hottest collector titles out there. (No, CV doesn't need a license, but perhaps if it had a licensed theme in 1997, it would have fared better. OTOH, Rollergames probably would have sold better and be more coveted today without the licensed theme. )

When something is called out as "best" or "worst" I just tend to look at it from all angles; South Park was definitely not a failure, so in my mind it's not the worst. There has to be another DMD title out there that was both a failure in sales and gameplay/desirability/collectability.

Oh, wait, we're supposed to be talking about Metallica.

-Mark

More info about a reveal date/periode?

Nothing yet, but it HAS to be soon. Don and I are recording a podcast this week. Usually a major announcement drops the day or two after we publish. So maybe Stern is just waiting on us so that we can miss out on another big news item. We'll get to it so you can all have your info.

We'll jar...you guys better get busy....we all want to find out if this is true or not...lol

The line up

image.jpg

Good gameplay is far more important than the theme. If Spidey were rethemed to Ant Man and AC/DC to ABBA, I'd still play the hell out of them. Not a problem at all. I bet they'd sell just fine too.

Hope I can say the same about your games some day. d

I hear Battery! Great song. I'm guessing Stern will make you buy the LE model to get songs from the first three albums. Buy the pro and its Black Album city.

No, they wouldn't.

Theme matters.

Okay! Okay! Okaayyy!!!
Even worse than LW3 ?

EASY!! LW3 is great pin!! My defense will follow:
1. Has a GUN!
2. Choose your song like ACDC. ZZ Top or two others.
3. Good video modes. Seem to be forgotten on new machines!
4. Police light
5. Great movies!
6. Shoot gun while playing MB (ie like the cannon on ACDC)
7. Metal ramp

I hope Metallica will be as cool combination of the collection he has.

2011-08-19_19.05.35.jpg

Didn't seem to help IJ4. And OZ has 1400 pre-orders. How many of those pre-orders you figure were based mostly on the theme?

I think that theme has a higher chance of harming sales than helping sales.

Seriously?

I said "theme matters". I did *not* say that game play doesn't matter! Think maybe game play had something to do with IJ4 not doing well?

As for WoZ, do you have any idea how many more people would have pre-ordered that pin if it were a better theme? You see people posting that all the time..."I would have bought one if it wasn't based on WoZ".

I repeat: theme matters.

That's kinda my point. IJ4 was heavily promoted by Stern before it came out. They knew it was (should've been) a great theme. Probably paid big money for the license. The art, sound and dots were all supposed to be the best (and did turn out nice). Only the gameplay totally sucked. They thought they had a golden theme, but the gameplay was lame, so the game tanked.

Theme doesn't matter if the gameplay sucks. Just as the theme hardly matters with a game that plays well, like AC/DC (ABBA) or Spidey (Ant Man).

metallica is so cheesy now ugh ! and i own a metal store ! i really do not think i could bring myself to look at lars and james long enough to own this game . with this second version of their orion fest lineup being announced in Detroit . it proves they will do anything to alienate the metal fan and that they detest the genre that made them famous . just my humble opinion . was really hoping this pin would be led zeppelin or kiss or iron maiden or rush .

As a metal store owner, I would have thought you'd be pining for actual metal bands (modern ones) rather than LZ, KISS, and Rush. There's some decent metal acts at Orion, though I'd certainly prefer they had more of them... unfortunately have to travel overseas to see the real metal festivals.

i love metal and classic rock . i just dont think any underground metal acts that i enjoy would make good enough titles to sell to the mass market ! thats why i mentioned the above bands . even though a rob zombie would look great ala monster bash , elvira .

Lets stop dicking around just make that Ramones pin already!

Some people will never get this. Of course there are less than desirable themes that are good games, but theme is always the first consideration.

Given the world-wide popularity of the musical "Mamma Mia!" (music of ABBA) I wouldn't joke about this.... It might actually make money for Stern

_{Post edited by vislor : Misspelled "Mamma Mia!"}

Were kind of talking past each other at this point.

Your point was that gameplay matters. I would obviously never disagree with that. I would also agree that it matters more than theme. That's why IJ4 tanked.

So a good theme will not guarantee good sales.

But a bad theme will prevent sales from being as good as they could have been even if the game play is good.

Face it, the best way to get max sales is to have a great playing pin with a great theme. That's what we all want. I think.

artist rendering

metallica_pinball.jpg

I hope he will be, I really really hope he will be.... But if they don't fix XM I wont buy it either so I may also be disappointed as well.

http://dirtydonnyart.blogspot.com/search/label/Metallica%20Pinball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yZCScl_YzFs

If Stern makes anything close to this modded Earth shaker I will be in. They are obviously pinball fans.

Yes exactly, the earth shaker mod was a great start, no way it should get screwed up