Awesome, I wonder how much it's going to cost....ohhhh

nice. Love to see new pins coming to market and new technologies and ideas as well. Very nice.

Per the website:
The first P3s to go sale will be 250 special edition models at a price of $9,995, although this can be discounted by $1,000 if the full amount is pre-paid by 1st November, 2012.

For those who prefer a little more time, anyone ordering and paying in full by 1st January, 2013 will instead receive $1,000 in discount vouchers, worth 50% off a range of Multimorphic and PinballControllers.com products such as game apps, upper playfield modules, replacement parts and controller boards.

Anyone not taking advantage of either of these two incentives will be able to claim $500 of discount vouchers if they pay in full by 1st March, 2013.

Finally, if all 250 P3s are sold by 1st March, 2013 then one lucky buyer will be selected at random and receive their P3 for the princely sum of just $1.

The special edition model will include a number of unique items such as a signed certificate of authenticity, a special edition machine plaque, various unique animations and artwork, access to a private P3 discussion group and a special edition P3 T-shirt.

Special edition buyers will also get the opportunity to supply their own audio and video elements to be integrated into a mini-game which is unique to the special edition model.

Production is not expected to begin until the fourth quarter of 2013

WOW, 10 grand! Holly f**k nuts.

Oh, I really want it.

I would like to play one but I do not want to own one. 'shrug'

Cool integrated concept I want to see 3rd gen.

Very cool.

It'll be really interesting to see how the upper portion of the PF works out. It's a really good idea, I hope they can pull it off.

Wow. But I just can't. Already in on three that don't have games yet. It looks great, maybe next year. I hope they sell out in a week, I would love this platform to succeed.

Ok, this is insanely cool. This is what williams tried to do before management decided pinball wasn't profitable enough. Even cooler that the software could potentially auto-detect (no more jumpering).

Bout time! matrix is so much harder to diagnose. Also, sounds like shorts are isolated to each board section (say 4-6 boards under a playfield), which protect the CPU.

Superb! no more manual adjust a screw, and probably much more precise measurement in multiple directions (with potentially variable tilt adjustment in each axis, and probably cheaper).

I know this is said everytime a new pinball manufacturer comes along, but this time I believe it more than ever. If I were Stern, I would be VERY worried. Pinball has been clamoring for technology like this for a long time.

In for one if I'm the "one lucky buyer"!

As much as I like what they're doing, I am worried about all these people who have never mass-produced games before and have not publicly announced what resources they have to bring products to market, accepting large amounts of money on pre-orders.

The only person who has pulled this off ever was Gene Cunningham, and he was rich and didn't need anybody else's money to fund the production (and some say he lost $300k in that deal). The same thing goes for Jersey Jack. He has the money, the team, the infrastructure. Wayne Guillard from Australia that promised MM? He didn't have the resources; 10 years later, he still hasn't produced a game. JPop? He's taken money on a second series of games before producing even a sample of the first series. There are a lot of people out there now, sitting on top of a lot of peoples' money, without delivering products. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Me, too.. I know I'm fairly new to pb.. but what's the deal with all of these "new machines" coming out... has anyone received a single Jpop (zombie theme right?), JJP Wizard delayed again and again and again.. Predator pinball.. now P3... MM repro from Australia.. Isnt there someone else also promising a limited batch from England?
Is this typical for pinball since Williams went out or only a very recent phenomenon?

This looks A W E S O M E !!!!!!

Looking forward to playing one and hopefully owning one someday.

How did you make that whole post? You're quoting yourself but have nothing previous to quote from?

And what is the theme of this game again - generic outer space? Tougher to get behind a nebulous theme rather than one so well-defined as WOZ or XMen.

viperrwk

Harder sell with some generic theme like 'outer space' at least for me. I would not be interested in this first attempt. Hope it does well.

This thing is right up my alley from a tech point of view. Pennies being saved now. Tax time right around the corner.... I AM IN. See yah on the forums over there fellas.

Good info. I personally have no interest in throwing down 10k up front for another unestablished company. I don't think you should have to pay the game off in full 8 months before production. To risky.

I have been watching this very closely and think they have more innovative concepts. They have features that are way ahead of other companies- ball tracking, lcd that interacts with ball, modular ramps, see through flippers, no more switch matrix, etc...

The only problem I see is lack of artwork. I realize it will have themes, but pinball has always been playable pieces of art. It might end up being the funnest game ever with relations to shots, and have by far the most modern features, but it isn't very attractive. This could be the easiest thing to fix.

Quantum physics!! A rip in the space/time continuum.

I really like what Gerry and Multimorphic is doing. I don't want to discourage anybody from pre-ordering if that's something they're comfortable with. Of all the pinball developers/designers, I think nobody deserves more support than Gerry. I think Gerry's effort is the only pinball group that's actually operating with 21st century technology. Everybody else is doing retro games.

I just think this pre-pay business model the new developers are doing is precarious. I'd rather see these guys hustle to get some investors rather than have their own potential customers finance their start-up.

I've done start-ups before. Nothing ever turns out the way you expect, but if you have a small number of investors who are hovering over the business, they understand and roll with it, but if your "investors" are your customers, that's a lot of extra pressure.

Also, we can see where these pre-pay business models are back-firing. In the case of Stern, they know they're going to get $x amount from people pre-ordering LE models sight-unseen, so there isn't much incentive for them to make sure the games are as good as they can be when they've already been sold before anyone's even played one! Now people are sitting on top of games they pre-paid that have been out for a year or more and still have unfinished code. And as long as Stern continues to sell-out pre-orders, where is the motivation for them to make the games 100%?

Hope this is just the "early adopter penalty" at work, and not representative of the actual price point they're shooting for. Otherwise, guess oh well.....throw any idea of being appealing to the majority of the community right out the window.

*edit* Oh, and the whole quoting yourself from the past, and talking to yourself.....funny, but doesn't really engender a whole lot of confidence when you're already having to market that aggressively. Please return to being a human, not trying to emulate some corporate marketing tool/shill. Thanks. We respect you a lot more for that than ridiculous antics.

Or just type this:

<blockquote cite="#355058">toyotaboy said:</blockquote>

I am soooo excited for this, but as someone who is willing to buy a machine, I just can't pull the trigger on that amount of $$$.

I truly think that this is the revolution that pinball's been waiting for. I hope to own one......someday.....

Later,
EV

P.S. Toyotaboy's "self quotes" are actually quotes from the Pinball News article.

Only recent. It's what happens when a bubble forms in your market. Basically it starts as:

a) company is producing a product in a niche market. Sales are decent, nothing special.
b) interest in product starts an uptick. Company starts producing more
c) other people start noticing uptick. They start trying to produce their own products. Meanwhile, original company starts making their product fancier and with fake collectible appeal
d) prices continue to rise on everything, old and new products. Lots of denial that there's a bubble, prices will continue to rise for a long time still.
e) market becomes saturated with new products, old products, collectibles, etc. People get frustrated with all the new products, as they can't afford or collect them all. Collecting becomes less fun. People start giving up on collecting and selling off their collections.
f) market crashes
g) only company a) is left, demand is a shadow of where it was at point a).

That's the way these things usually work. We are at point d). I'm sure there will be follow up posts to this saying we aren't in a bubble as well, further reinforcing point d). The only question is how long it will take for the market to move to stage e), it could be 6 months, a year, 5 years, but it's going to happen at some point. There isn't enough money in the hobby to support all of these ventures while also making old prices rise. The trigger will probably be one of these manufacturers taking in a ton of money and then folding before making a machine.

+1 on all of this. At some point the pinball community will tire of financing these new ventures. All it will take is for one person to lose $10k on a game they never receive and then the contraction will begin as Taylor suggests. If pinball were really profitable where are the VCs to pump money into companies like Multimorphic which is changing the game? I can speculate but I don't know the answer. Bottom line is that perhaps pinball is destined to be made, supported and live on only through the hobbyist community and not financed by companies looking solely for a return on capital and that's the only way you'll see new technology like this. (Not saying this is a bad thing BTW.)

viperrwk

IMHO

This first pin may be like a first generation navigation system or portable phone or digital camera such as it costs a lot to make and not a lot of sales to cover the r&d so the first units cost a lot and are not all that great but after a while they are out some years the get better and cheaper and will sell in numbers. I do not see a lot of people wishing for the good old days of first gen navigation systems or portable phones

Also if this is a DIY or generic no name theme there is nothing to stop a future next gen from cloning the theme and so you are left with a bragging right of havi g a first gen sorta like a PC before the PC clones came out, kinda neat but not anything noteworthy especially as this is not a real theme pin such as Predator is and its so early in the process and they are just saying something like a generic outter space theme you know it's going to be such like the asteroid game just really doesn't fire me up so far for $10k I dont see it

This is kind of where I am, honestly. Not the "selling off" part...but the collecting part is kinda "bleh" now. I don't feel like I should be obligated to support all these dudes and buy every new expensive game that comes out - especially "investment" style where you really don't know what you're gonna get till you get it. I kinda just wanna chill w/ my collection, play & enjoy it...maybe even whittle it down a bit.

That being said, I do think P3 is pretty amazing...I hope eventually it becomes a mass market product with a lower price tag.

This right here.

Maybe Im confused by the whole thing and read it wrong, but is it just going to be a generic blank playfield with downloadable 'games' that change the rulesets and whats displayed? Im on the fence about this idea if thats the case...

-$1000 if prepaid by November 1st?

That's what makes it awesome actually...it's one unit that can be UNLIMITED games. Very cool.

P2K could have been like that as well. And while P^3 is really cool, P2K's ability to have different playfield configurations in a standard cabinet, with playfields that caused the ball to react to the projected FX, puts it slightly ahead of P^3 right now in terms of true pinball playability. If those folks can figure out how to make the display impact the ball in addition to the ball impacting the display, they'll be in new territory.

It really is a shame P2K was terminated so early. I think had Bally/WMS had time to put out a half-dozen titles, we would have seen that technology mature into something amazing.

DEFINITELY see the coolness of the idea. But I hope it doesn't turn into the generic shovelware of pinball. With a bunch of half baked games.

Will there be an open development kit so you can make and distribute your own games? I kind of like that idea, a kind of physical virtual pinball.

I guess thats more what Im wishing this would be. Im hoping the standard playfield layout doesn't make the different games seem like a plastic cover for your iphone. Looks different but essentially its the same inside.

It is an exciting concept. I hope there are enough buyers out there to make this a success. For me, it is a bit too much risk at too high an entry price.

I think it will not be an easy sell. This is not like Predator or WOZ, games folks can relate to through what they have played in the past. The level of innovation here is the main strength of the machine, but it also makes it tougher to sell. But maybe because they only need to get 250 of these out the door, it just might work. I hope so!

Finally, if all 250 P3s are sold by 1st March, 2013 then one lucky buyer will be selected at random and receive their P3 for the princely sum of just $1.

Thats awesome right there and also how you can play on-line with it.

This is the part of the contract that is bugging me so far:

Refunds:
Refund requests will be honored until November 1, 2012, at which time payments become non-refundable except as set forth herein. Refund requests must be received in writing, signed by the same person who originally placed the order. A 5% transaction fee (based on the applicable purchase price) will be deducted from the refund amount. If for any reason we are unable to fill your order, a full refund will be issued.

Oh, and of course this part:

All payments should be made out to “Multimorphic, Inc.” and sent to the address stated above. Missing a payment deadline will result, after a 15-day grace period, in a cancelled Pre-Order and forfeiture of all amounts previously paid. Applicable shipping costs will be due prior to shipment.

"forfeiture of all amounts previously paid." <---- SERIOUSLY?!??!?!?

not sure that would hold up in court (would it?), I don't know but it seems like bad PR if you didn't refund the money.

Wow, so the games have to be paid approximately a year before the games are even slated to go into production? And no refunds allowed even up to 9-12 months prior to the games going into production? And making a payment late results in losing all your money? I can't imagine that last part being enforceable without some kind of special contract.

It's questionable if people will be able to use credit cards or Paypal on these types of transactions. There are laws/rules in place regarding revolving credit accounts for transactions that are not immediately resolved. If I remember correctly JPop had problems having people use Paypal for his pre-orders.

Glad I'm not the only one that popped off a few expletives with the price.....

Think investor not customer. How many people want to invest $10k in a startup pinball manufacturer? And what happens if they don't get the 250 orders and they spend all the advance money in development? Where will they get the cash for refunds?

viperrwk

This part bugs me the most. I'm down to throw down serious cash on something quite unique and cool but man that sounds rough.

It could be written by an over zealous lawyer to protect all areas, but seems a bit much.

This unrealistic and possibly illegal refund policy provides an insight into how they perceive their relationship with their customers. I have had good feelings about this project, then the price came a bad surprise. Now we have this ridiculous refund policy for a launch pin that is an insult. What are they afraid of?

You can say what you want about Jersey Jack's delays, but any time I want my money back I can get it. That is customer service. It also shows a manufacturer's faith in his product.

My thoughts exactly... WOZ,predator,and BHZA lol...

Liked your deductions except this one, as you laid out a possible, foreseeable scenario that could come true.

Basically, anybody that disagrees with you proves your theory is correct.

Thank you all for voicing your concerns about the refund policy. The intention was to solidify our commitment to building your machine and your commitment to purchasing the machine, but I now realize that the policy was unreasonable and ill-conceived. It is wrong of us to ask you put to much money at risk without allowing for a refund, and I apologize for asking you to do so.

I have therefore amended the policy such that after Nov. 1 2012, only the deductible is at risk. Those who ask for a refund before Nov. 1 2012 will get back all of the money they paid so far, and those who ask for a refund later will get all of their payments back except for the deposit. We will refund the deposit as well in cases with extenuating circumstances. We'll have our 2nd prototype at PPE in September and at Expo in October; so those of you who can make it to those shows can put some time on the machine before committing to the pre-order.

While we are a start-up and operating under the same constraints as most start-ups, we are attempting to build our business responsibly. Pre-order money is not intended to cover R&D expenses. Rather, it is intended to cover the production costs of the machines being ordered, and we are already in the production planning stages so that we can ensure the machines are built consistently and reliably and that they live up to all of our standards.

We absolutely value the feedback you all provide and continue to enjoy the excitement the P3 is generating. I can't tell you how excited we are to be able to bring this machine to market, and I'm especially grateful to those of you who have already pre-ordered. I also can't promise we won't make any more mistakes, but I can and do promise we'll do our best to remedy them as quickly as possible.

Always feel free to contact me directly with questions or concerns:
[email protected] or 77-gerry-pin.

Sincerely,
- Gerry Stellenberg
http://www.multimorphic.com

btw is your name pronounced as "Jerry" or "Gary"?