No reason why the Pinball Industry cannot moving with the times and copy the film and gaming industries, when something isn't ready but you want to start marketing it to create awareness, release a teaser trailer and build the hype in the process.

The problem is that almost everyone apart from Stern releases info waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early. Hype only last so long by the time they are actually shipping Stern has released 1/2 a dozen other pins.

May the Fourth be.... nothing?

This is actually good news. I think it is good that Stern has decided to delay the release. They cancelled their slot at the convention as well because it was not quite ready. If more time is needed to perfect this machine, then so be it. Aerosmith was pushed back and I really think it helped make it more complete upon release(Stern should have delayed BM66). I would rather wait and get something special than having them rush and push out sub-par product. Stern please take your sweet time with this one....I will find something to do in the meantime to pass the time...

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Stern the kings of let down lol

I seriously doubt there are that many Star Wars fans who would be interested in buying a $6,000+ pinball machine. I can see them play it on location if they come across it (by accident) in a movie theatre, but other than that I don't expect any non pinball enthusiast to care much for it. Same goes for Star Trek and many of the other licensed themes out there. Even the rock band themes. How many non pinball enthusiast Aerosmith fans ran to the bank to order that game? If the fans of the license are not already into pinball, they don't seem to care at all.

It seems more like these licenses have become a necesety in order to sell games to pinball distributors. Gary Stern explained on multiple occasions that if they offer theme X to ditributors they are likely to order 1 or 2 (and the game will have to prove to be fun and earning first), while if they offer a licensed theme they will order 20. The licensed theme helps operators to get the first quarter as well. We've also seen that if the game sucks it won't get a second quarter. For the last decade more and more of these games don't even see a route anymore, but go straight to pinball enthusiasts. So one can wonder why these licensed themes are still required (aside from the fact that thinking they were required on each and every game was an incorrect assumption in the first place).

So is it a missed opportunity? Well, only a bit. Mostly to pinball enthusiasts who are into Star Wars, but they are already aware and interested in the game. That's not going to change. As the non pinball enthusiast die-hard Star Wars fans don't care for pinball that much, announcing the game today wouldn't matter much to them. Announcing the game a different date may actually result in more attention to it as May 4th is already swamped with Star Wars notifications.

What is far more interesting to find out, at least to me, is why the game isn't announced. Licensing issues? Licensing approval issues? Has the design team trouble getting it working properly? Is the code not far enough developed? Does it take much longer to get all the video footage integrated properly? Does Stern need to sell more Aerosmiths? Or maybe the game is ready to go, but they have plenty of orders for games to be build that they can afford to wait with announcing the next game as they're busy anyway? Who knows?

None of that stuff stopped them from the release of batman 66; because obviously Aerosmith should have been released first and not batman I guess they learned there lesson

We can always go to the movies!

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Speaking of movies I had the afterthought of Stern messing with us and actually releasing Guardians of the Galaxy and not Star Wars. GOTG would be an awesome theme! It's time for another superhero theme and I wanted a Superman or Justice League but the timing does not look right after recent BM66 release. Stern capitalizing on the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars makes sense and honestly is a slam dunk. Guardians of the Galaxy would be an awesome game, the soundtrack alone would make it worth it.

One lesson they learned was they can make more money by selling less games, but price them through the roof. But did they sell these games to pinball enthusiasts that care for the Batman 66 theme, or to non pinball enthusiast Batman 66 fans?

Stern:
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"Pinside, you must be so embarrassed!"

yeah that loop of the joker really kills it..
so very lame

Indeed, glue cabinet edges or mount Williams corner plates or swap playfields

Need to change the name of this topic to "Star Wars on the 25th?" As I'm pretty sure that would be the date to reveal a 40th anniversary edition pinball game.

Well after Stern got a bunch of emails and phone calls I am sure they had a come to Jesus discussion with Churchill cabinet company. From what I have seen the Aerosmith playfields look good with a nice clear coat and no ghosting. If I am wrong about Aerosmith playfields- please chime in. I am crossing my fingers on this one-literally.

So that's all you've seen? Can I teach you how to play so maybe you can progress through some other modes?

Boohoo SW is not ready. I'd rather give them 365 more days to finalize the toys and complete programming. On 5/4/18, Stern can announce Star Wars pinball - 41st anniversary special editions.

I just want to know if I can spend my SWLE money at Allentown or not!!

I just remember views of people walking around gotham city every time i looked up.

The Aerosmith playfields absolutely look better then other recent Stern playfields. The clear coat looks thick and there are reports that the game is dimpling far less then other recent Sterns which would be noticeable considering balls fall from the toy box, bounce off of Jackys head and get shot out of the Eleveator scoop.

Yes.... Stern is really behind the times. They should take a lesson from JJP. Shit, they could have started hyping this pin right before Episode 7 was released! Those guys know how to hype a pin YEARS before it's ready.... THAT's the way to do it!

Deadflip just posted this on Twitter. https://twitter.com/Dead_Flip/status/860123631694819330

Just incase it gets deleted. It's a GIF of Yoda falling off Luke, with "Too much, I know." as the caption.

What does it all mean?! Maybe an announcement is coming today and Stern has attempted to throw everyone off, lol.

What time are annoucements usually? about 1.5 hours from now?

Yes 1.5 hours. Or not.

Ok if SW is not there, I'll just get a new Ferrari then...

I am not saying the game isn't ready...you would have more up to date information than me. But I do think the release was delayed in part because of Aerosmith sales. Gary knows when SW is released, he will kill a lot of AS sales and while that game is selling strong, he would be a fool to release SW. You will see SW announced when AS sales start to taper off.

Prediction...

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May the 4th be with you!

IMHO,Disney+SW=$ .

Never gets old!

I don't think that's an opinion. That's the law.

It's not "required" as JJP just released the non licensed Dialed In. But IMO - it will be their last non licensed game. It's so much easier when you have existing images, sounds, dialogue, music and video to license rather than creating it from scratch. I own both WoZ and Hobbit and 4 Pat Lawlor pins, but I won't be buying a Dialed In. I don't care if it's the best layout in the history of pinball - if the theme doesn't grab me, I don't care about it. If Dialed In could have been a licensed game like.....Harry Potter, Star Wars, Nightmare Before Christmas, Back to the Future v2, Bladerunner, Call of Duty, BeetleJuice, Dragon's Lair,Robocop v2...etc, etc, I would have been on it like white on rice.

Knowing that the upcoming Stern is Star Wars designed by Steve Richie...you can count me in before I even see the layout.

In the words of Big Perm you need to quit playing with my emotions. Lol. Still hoping to see something today.

This is likely paramount to everything. The factory dictates everything else. They won't announce a new game until the factory needs to build it.

Short of their 30th anniversary dictating the Batman announcement. But that was a one off event.

I am Groot!

Everything I've heard points to Star Wars being fine and on schedule. The decision not to announce/reveal it yet is more a strategic one based on the performance of current games on the line. Make of that what you will.

There are still 24 hours in a day correct? Get yer pitch forks out at 12:00 5/5. Until then make sure they are sharp and at the ready...

Stern wants you to eat what's currently on your plate.

They don't want you waiting for Iron Maiden this fall, if they can sell you an Aerosmith today.

Pretty much, but I do think there are some failings in that mindset at times. If you have such a short announcement to ship window, it's not easy for people to plan and budget for these releases. That's really only an issue for the LEs, that tend to go quickly, but if people had a longer lead time they could be more prepared to buy the games that interest them.

I don't know, I'm sure Stern has all the internal sales data of how a new announcement affects sales of games on the line.

My thoughts precisely. I don't think it makes much business sense to announce a game that will surely take sales away from your most recent release. Maybe they weren't expecting Aerosmith to get such great praise and are cashing in while they still can. SW will sell because of the license even if it flips like a turd.

Stern should give this guy a game for free.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/health/darth-vader-hospital-tech-trnd/index.html

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Can't see stern announcing anything unless it's at a show or something where people can see it etc...

I think it's more likely that they're under the sales mark and want to keep from outright killing sales by announcing a monster title. I think Aerosmith seems to have sold hot at launch, but it's probably slowed quite a bit just due to the theme and all the Star Wars whispers. Just a guess...

I think it's actually the opposite, Aerosmith sold slow at launch and has slowly picked up with positive word of mouth on the fun gameplay.

Thinking about starting a thread asking if there will be any more Star Wars rumor threads

Counterfeit News Network

People will run out of space before they run out of money.

Pushing all (perceived) pricing issues, cabinet issues, ghosting issues, and unfinished code issues aside... Whatever Stern is doing works for them and makes them profitable to date. Plenty of enthusiasts are willing to drop $6000-15000 on a game they have never played before. We will continue to see all the issues I mention above, until the demand is not there. Star Wars will be no different when it happens. Was hoping to see it announced today, as I love playing the new pins out on location.