Wow some people called this one a while back

It will be tough growing the market when pins aren't allowed to operate out on location (outside of Hong Kong and Macao).
Or did Roger Sharpe go over there recently and convince China to change their stance on pins as gambling devices?

If the China home/collector market does get traction, brace yourself for the effect on our pricing.... affluent Chinese love love love to spend big bucks on luxury items they deem will improve their "face."

How will the people in China buy $5400 pro games? My only guess will be they build them there.

I believe China requires you to build there in order to sell.

I don't know, and I don't know why they are the second largest Ferrari market in the world either. The wealth gap there is exponentially larger than in the US.

If GSET takes bitcoin, they will find a lot of new customers!

Is that the goal, or is it to get pinball on location? We're the nutcases that buy commercial machines for our homes.

Good to know. I think I'll put all my classic B/W games up for sale on Craigslist in mainland China.

Duh, they're rollin' in all that iPhone manufacturing money...!

Maybe they’ll start making counterfeits and we could get nib games for $500!!!

And the new excitement for DOA games.

Will the pins over there have shorter legs installed?

Wow, stern starts trying to sell games in China to grow the pinball market and all of the ignorant Chinese nonsense instantly pours out of pinside. Have any of you posting this crap actually been to China?

More pinball around the world is a great thing.

There are ~1.4 billion people in China and they have embraced a certain level of capitalism. While their average income is still much lower than the US or Europe, there are plenty of rich people in China who can afford pinball machines.

Interesting that there is a pinball factory in China now. hmm.

Good idea but actually shipping the games into China might be an issue.

Well they tried exporting a bunch of NBA's to China and I am not sure how they liked them or what happened to them? They do love video, arcade games, and redemption. It will be interesting to see if it catches on or not. Mabye Stern should test the waters first.....

By exporting a 'Pin' version of Hello Kitty to place next to beloved Hello Kitty novelty game 'We will take 1000 units!'

Hello Kitty Pin.png
Hello Kitty Pin..png
HK Redemption.png

I think it will be a challenge to "introduce" pinball to a Chinese market. The only reason there is a renaissance of pinball in our parts of the world is a big part of nostalgia and home ownership for people who grew up in arcades and are recreating that experience at home.

Pacific Rim machine from Stern, here we come! Oh, and Stern, keep your hands off Godzilla, that one belongs to Charlie at Spooky.

When we were in Tansania (which was a very expensive holiday....), we met a lot of chinese people in the lodges of Serengeti, much more than US-Citizens.

So IF they want pins they will get pins.

My 1993 TFTC is a reimport from China. I've always wondered what the story on it was and how many they actually shipped over there in the 90s.

It's like when Yao Ming came to the NBA and it was mentioned there are hundreds or thousands of seven-foot tall Chinese athletes out there, so if the country gets the basketball bug watch out.

Point is when you have that many people, you also have a ton of every type of person, whether it's the wealthiest, poorest, tallest, shortest, least pinballiest or (potentially) most pinballiest.

It's all a ruse to get the rest of the WWE stock unloaded.

Seriously though, it could be great for pinball if this market opened up.

1) I think you're a little out of date here, China's economy is growing by leaps and bounds, and their population is so huge that even if their middle-class market is smaller than USA's in terms of percentage, it's still a big market.

2) China still has arcades worth speaking of.

If it catches on, growth of pinball in China would dwarf the growth here.

I would totally pay $500 for a Storn or Jersey Jake machine.

I'm sure most people are wondering if more cheap parts will find there way into our pins!! When Walmart came out,they reached out to a Paint brush co.that made the best commercial Brushes,and told them they would buy pallets of brushes to sell all over! Then,after the deal is done,Walmart says they gotta pay less ,cause there selling more! So,the co.(Purdy) made a cheaper product to sell,and lost the market!

Do not forget, they produce already a pinball machine in China ....

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Import duties are huge in China. So it's going to be an expensive exercise. But it appears to be aimed at getting games on location since arcades are still a thing. Apart from the mega wealthy, I can't see home collection of pinball taking off.

Having said that, its Hard to imagine the new importer won't be immediately trying to find a way to have them manufactured locally.

I personally believe NIB pinball machine is a luxury item. To sell or promote pinball in China, GSET may need to team up with a few luxury apartment developers. Just like what Tesla did.

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/buy-us5m-hong-kong-flat-and-get-tesla-car

On the other hand, I am not sure how many Chinese willing to buy a pinball machine and put it in their home. I was born in Hong Kong and all my Asian friends think I am crazy to put a few pinball machines in my house, plus they think all the pinball machine is the same, they don't know each machine has different set of rules. I hope GSET can crack the Chinese market. They need to keep "pounding the rock."

This is great news..kudos!

Thunderbirds is also made there