I was typing a bunch of stuff, some of what Ryan said and some of my own observations after having played the game a few times, but I'm not into justifying or coercing.

What it comes down to is you should play it and decide if you like it or not. I would very much encourage you to do so.

Platform-wise, writing off the entire concept and the possibilities therein based on your impression of the layout of the first game is not a very far-reaching view. Imagine if people were all "Wrestlemania is terrible, this new SPIKE platform is terrible and Stern can never use it to make a good game". Or if the legacy of a video game console was judged entirely based on its launch titles.

That I can answer, there's something there "to see" but it's meant not to be seen. The "floating" assemblies above the playfield are mounted on a clear piece of lexan or acrylic or plexi or something. Not sure what the material actually is. In the video this can be seen as the mostly transparent sheet that slides in with all of the assemblies. It's pretty quick.

Lexy is just the start of things here. It's part proof of concept, part demo, part fun traditional game with an ok theme and very nontraditional art and lower playfield versatility. This video is about the p3 platform, not just the launch title.

As for LL:EE, it is going to appeal to a few sets of people right now

A) People that want to tinker with it themselves. I fall into this category. For the purchase price you're not just getting the game, you're getting the game source and the ability to meddle with it as you will. The ability to base your own hobbyist games off of this framework without the time and engineering investment required of current custom games is what draws me in.

B) People that think it is a fun game and want to play it. This could be theme, ruleset, flow, feel, variety, gimmick, Nordman fan, what have you. I'm also here, after playing it a few dozen times. It's a really fun and challenging game. Spooky got their artwork bashed on AMH as well, and they're selling pretty well by all reports based on how solid the whole package is. I personally think the story, gameplay accessibility, mechs, audio, and cool-factor on Lexy are superior to AMH. AMH wins on theme, humour, and lightshow.

C) Operators that see the investment in a game that has a the potential customer draw and ease of maintenance as a solid investment. It'll still break down, but downtime (and money loss) is minimized.

I'm sure there are other categories. I definitely fall into A and B.

This goes back to the console argument. This is like saying that Final Fantasy 7 would only be marketable to people that've already bought their launch PlayStation along with Street Fighter: The Movie: The Video Game. Wow, looking at those PlayStation launch titles, they were pretty bad. Wow. Rayman's OK I guess.

I see where you're coming from on the "limited run" angle, but I disagree that that model will be healthy for the hobby moving forward or that the limited-ness of AMH alone is what is selling them. Maybe I'm wrong. I have no idea how many LL:EE games or p3 machines Multimorphic wants to or projects to sell.

If you want to develop your take on a "killer app", limit it to 150 games, lock the source, and launch it on the p3, then as far as I know you'll be free to do so (more or less, I have no idea on any specifics, licensing, approvals, or anything else). No one is saying you or any potential customers would have to purchase Lexy to get some other P3 game down the line, just that you as a game developer would have a much better starting place and some pretty innovative tech to help you along.

You could do the some similar game without the p3, of course, but as many others have stated, "making pinball machines is hard". P3 looks like it's going to be well positioned to take care of the first 90% of the heavy lifting with regards to hardware and manufacturing and allow the creative types to flex their ideas. At least I hope that it works out that way.

I agree with that, I was using the game developer as my "A" example because it's the additional value proposition it would take to get me personally to buy this game NIB (take a look at my collection, heh) and because this thread is about the platform and the new video demonstrating how you could design new games.

All great points Rarehero! I agree that we're not following one another 100%. The back-and-forth is fun, at least for me.

Yet some more of my internet opinions and observations. It's the internet so we're all right, yeah?

Absolutely. All day. I would also say that the p3 is incredibly advanced tech compared to the other home pinball platforms. Sony I will give you, but we're talking about an industry where "Sega" and "Nintendo" are Stern and Jersey Jack. Price-wise I don't think that's been settled. Last I checked $10k was the "estimate" MSRP for the p3 plus two games risk-free no-money-down pre-order option. If games are roughly $1-2k each that puts the p3 itself around $6k-ish, or $8-9k for the single game. That's in line with other pinball manufacturers right now. We'll see where it goes. My original FF7 comparison was more to illustrate the point that if the right game comes along, people will buy the console to play the game.

150 copies of a given software-only video game is probably the salt left in the bottom of the can of peanuts to anyone in the video game industry. I'm not sure that's as true for the pinball industry. Both BBB remake and AMH took a lot of doing to get out the door on that scale. One was at a loss as a labor of love, one seems to be the start of a solid business. I think there's room in the world for both of those types of endeavors. Either way, Multimorphic would get their (I think) deserved cut for the hardware and software tools they intend to provide.

Mark Ritchie had some interesting observations about the p3 and game development in general on Coast 2 Coast just yesterday. Definitely worth a listen. I don't know this for a fact, but once more games are available I believe the plan is that you could order the platform with any game Multimorphic is willing to ship with it, or maybe without any game in cases where you're going to get the game elsewhere or already have a couple games and want an extra cabinet. I'm just speculating here. How much extra does Microsoft charge for Halo special edition consoles nowadays? Camo trim and extra bling for the win!

Ever encounter Rollers of the Realm? http://store.steampowered.com/app/262470/

Not affiliated with those guys at all and haven't played it, but it came to mind when you said that. The third video on that page is an interesting developer interview and concept summary.

Definitely! Everyone has their strengths and what one person can do alone is limited.

It seems like Gerry is positioning Multimorphic to be "part of the team" as well, rather than just another vendor.

Well, once again - the current "maybe" price is $5,000 per game for the two-games-in-one-cabinet option. But yeah, anything-thousands-of-dollars is going to be sold to people that are already into it or people that have enough money that dropping that kind of cash on expensive things that they are mildly interested in is is regular thing.

There's also the operator angle though. Being able to swap out a dated theme like CSI for Walking Dead and being able to cover the costs in a fraction of the time has to be appealing. Heck, just being able to stick a couple "games" in the trunk of your car and swap them around between bars or whatever on your route until you can figure out what works would be awesome. We'll see if it works.