Quoted from Darth_Chris:

I don't consider myself a Stern basher. But when they come out with a machine you could buy half that price not even 7 years ago .............that's pinflation at it's best.

Quoted from Aurich:

Dude, no offense, but you're not exactly price sensitive at this level of purchasing. You can afford this.
I feel like you're losing track of people who are feeling price sensitive about pinball. You got upset with me when I said that I didn't feel like Stern games were enough value at $8000. That's a lot of money!
Here you have people expressing disappointment that the game is going to be around $6500 shipped. Not MSRP, real shipped price.
It's a lot of money too. Is what it is, Stern might have overreached, or maybe that's just the realistic cost in 2016 for this game. No idea. But the money is what it is too, doesn't really matter why.
Maybe they'll sell a ton, I dunno. I don't wish them ill or anything. But anyone who thinks people shouldn't be upset that it's come to a remake selling for this much just doesn't have the same financial concerns that some other people do.
This hobby is enough of a rich guy's playground already. Many buy Pros because it's what they can justify. The way the price trends are going you have to wonder if there will be a base around to keep buying everything. I sure hope so.
I know that for me this kind of cash is gonna require something more in exchange. A repackage of an old game with old DMD dots, no color changers, or anything else that's actually "new" isn't enough. Doesn't mean it's a bad game! Or a bad package. Just that it doesn't really provide enough value for someone like me.

Quoted from Rarehero:

-The hardest part about making a machine is designing it, building whitewoods, building mechs, testing, redesigning, etc. That step is GONE on this machine.
-The new comic book art is ABSOLUTELY stock Marvel art from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books
-The playfield art layout is EXACTLY the same as the original. Everything is in the same place, just "re-traced". Comic buildings instead of the photo-realistic ones. Ultimate-style spider symbol where the movie-style one was. Cartoon Doc Ock arms where CG arms used to be. It's a "new-ish" art package. Not a lot of thought was put into it, IMO. More creativity was put into transforming Family Guy into Shrek. The translite and sides are right off of a comic book cover or page.
-Music is the same...so, they didn't have to pay a musician for new tunes.
-So, really the only "budget" that really went into this game was new animation for the DMD & new voices.
It definitely seems like this game could have been priced lower based on what it cost to bring to market...and it seems like it would still be insanely profitable on its own merits. Still, Stern is in business to make a profit...and perhaps they need a little "padding" from a game like this to cover for flops like WWE. Maybe less sales at a higher margin are more important than more units at less profit.

Quoted from Aurich:

If not a style guide then it's still Marvel "stock art" from their library, none of that was actually drawn for the pin. That's more likely, a style guide will be more limited, it's unlikely to have that shot of Doc Ock's back for instance, that's not a hero pose for that character. Won't see it on a package or plate. More likely there's a big library of images they keep for this very purpose. Probably every page of everything they do is digitally accessible. I bet without word bubbles too, so keeping it there was probably on purpose.
That's maybe why it feels so traced, was easiest to just replace things 1 as best they could, since without new drawings specific to the shape of the pin it was about fitting what you could.
Nothing wrong with that! It's a collage of pre-existing art, but that's just a medium, doesn't make it bad. Either Stern got to pick through their library, or, more likely, the artist or someone at Marvel picked out a bunch for them to use. That's the common way, studio hands you a folder of approved assets, and you go through them and collage up parts from it along with your own art. It's how I'm doing Alien, not putting it down.
Just saying that's how this was done, it's pretty obvious. (It will be obvious to anyone who knows this stuff on Alien too, again, not casting stones. Just explaining how these things are usually done.)
So given that I doubt Stern had any choice to but to use Ultimate Spider-Man art. Wish they'd been allowed to dig deeper back into that library man. The old character art, especially for the villains, was way better.
Disclaimer: I'm speaking for myself, and not Heighway Pinball, who is not my employer. Just to be clear since I brought up Alien. And I'm not critical of Stern's method, just trying to explain from experience how this stuff works to everyone.

Quoted from pinnyheadhead:

So what is your tipping point of value on this pin anyway? If this was $7500 US? $8500? At what point will you not just be happy that pins are being made becasue the prices are too high? .
The truth is, this how crashes start. Manufactures start to limit their supply and raise prices instead to make the same amount of money. They say, "Let's make less pins at higher prices! We worked really hard changing the art and dots on this SM and we have been underpricing our pins apparently and need to get top dollar for our home run product we make and hard work we do on changing this art out! Let's keep testing the market on price!"
This less product at higher price shit goes on for a while and people, like you, say they think raising prices is just fine with the as long as pins are still being made. Keep them coming! People start to get off on stuff being more limited beacsue they like to "collect" pins and they only drop like $500 in price right? If SM was $3800 when pinball was less popular 8 years ago it should be $6500 today. Right? They work hard on this pinball art and dot stuff!
So all is great for a while, but then a bad title comes out and another that plays poorly and then perhaps peoples homes and stock portfolios go down 5% or more a year rather than going up 5% or more. I dont know when, but it is coming. People will sell a pin and take a bigger and bigger hit out of the box. $500 hit is nothing for most, but mabey if you are down $1000, $1500 or $2000 it could be a big deal. People start to say I will just play the 1-20 pins that I own and not buy a NIB this time around or next or next. Maybe they will buy a HUO at $2000 less! People who run routes will just repair their games and not buy new ones also. This causes less people to know anout pinball, so you cant attract more of the "take my money!" crowd that has no problem with prices going up.
Gary was all about how pinball needs to be played on location for it to survive in the future. Location this, location that, blah blah like a broken record. Then he comes out with this great kid/family game that is great for on location play and pushes the price up on the folks that buy the games for on location play. It is a missed opportunity. IMHO.
To me pinball should be like an appliance type toy, like an air hockey table or Golden Tee, more then a "collectable". They should be used for entertainment and make a little money on location. The more pins you make and sell the better because more people will play and pinball it can survive a down market with the larger numbers of potential buyers who enjoy it.
Pushing the price up and up will lower demand at some point. The reason demand is lowered could happen even if your product is great. Shit happens in this world. Maybe pinball is not that important to people anymore. Once pinball does take a drop and it will for whatever reason, I do not want it to fall hard because I love it. Most of us, myself included, do have a price that will be on to high to buy NIB pins anymore or somethig in their lives changes and they will pass. This SM at $6500 is just to high for me so I will not consider it.
Honestly Paragon for $1200 is a complete friggin bargain as I think of it again now.

Quoted from Wolfmarsh:

I agree, the math just doesn't add up.
If an OP purchased a game for $7500 and charged $1 a game, split with the establishment 50/50, they would need to have a minimum of 15,000 games on the machine with zero maintenance cost to recoup their investment and start earning.
I believe Stern could really change things up by forming an "Operator Success" group that focuses on making sure operators are maximizing their earnings from the machines. Possibly put in some alternate outcome based model where Stern only makes profit when the operator makes profit.

Quoted from T7:

The calculation for a toy/home use is simple.
The math is not so simple if you are trying to earn a living off of it.

Quoted from AJB4:

So serious pinside question.... Is SM VE going to get it's own rating or is it going to be lumped in with the current SM rating... or like the black spiderman and out there in no-man's land???