Might have missed it, but is there a monthly fee for Insider Connect support?

Regards

I'm still not clear if a monthly fee will be required for Insider Connected, like there is for Scorbit, can someone please clarify ? I tried to find the information, but did not see a clear statement

If a fee is required, then the value add over Scorbit is rather low, since I would prefer a single user interface that would work across several machines (not just Spike2), plus allowing me to transfer the unit from machine to machine (with appropriate adapters).

If no fee, then this makes more sense as this become an integral part of the Pinball experience

I'd actually prefer the complete other way around. Fixed fee, all add-ons free. I certainly don't want to pay a monthly fee to get access to new content.

It is RS485, as can be attested when looking at the node board schematics.

So yes you can have a splitter, although it's not recommended, but if a the end of the chain (or beginning), it's not a big deal

Kind of lost track, are they shipping insider kit to home users now?

/rant mode on

Insider connect requires a modified apron for the reader, which is frankly awful looking. OK, no worries, just put the reader in the coin door using some community made 3D model. Yes, but... In Europe, Spike 2 coin door does NOT have the opening that is being used to fit the reader.

And a US coin door is 200 euros, and it's not available...

So I have a choice between not installing IC, or install IC and ruin my apron artwork with this awful integrated reader. Or not update the firmware and stick with the older one to ensure I get Scorbit compatibility (because of course Stern disabled Scorbit support in the latest release of the firmware), but in this case I lose some bug fixes that were not made available.

/rant mode off

If anyone has a practical solution to this, I'm all ear.

I think I'll end up adding an opening in the cabinet bottom, route the cable and reader externally to a suitable location outside of the machine. And use a mechanical splitter to share the reader across machines.

Ah many thanks, that's indeed much more cost attractive. Not sure I understand what else is needed however from your post?

Am I the only one thinking this whole Google Wallet / Apple Wallet thing is a blessing in disguise ?

Because frankly, all it brings, today, is a QR code accessible from within an application. Stern could have developed an application that would provide QR code along with more advanced analytics on games, easier to access leaderboard, rather than integrate the QR code within a Wallet application.

To me this is an indication of longer term plan around monetization. If they have users using Google Wallet, then it's a very thin line between the current situation and collecting money for various use cases. Things like DLC for home users, or paying directly your game on location (and thus taking a cut on the operator benefit).

Once you're enabled in Google Wallet, it becomes your credit card (provided of course that you have enabled that, but chances are you did if you are using Wallet in the first place). It's straightforward after that for Stern to use Google Wallet or Apple Wallet to process payments.

And that's my point: operators do NOT want that. But if Stern manages to drive Insider Connect through the players (so IC games get more play than regular non connected games), they have leverage to push the operator to accept some kind of profit split deal.

Personally, I'm absolutely positive this is the direction Stern management is taking. Time will tell, but I'm pretty sure, given the new CEO profile (he's coming from Disney+), that some sort of monetization plan IS in development.

IMO, they're taking the reverse path. Remember that the CEO is the guy who was in charge of Disney+ launch, if there's one thing Disney was expert at, it was leveraging their content to force customer hands. See what they did by withdrawing all content from all other streaming services, to make it available only on their own, create content which tie to the bigger picture of MCU, which is (somewhat) required to understand everything (ie watching "Dr Strange 2" without having seen WandaVision make little sense to the watcher), etc... The result: Disney+ grew customer base by 37%, up to 134 Millions subscriber as of end of 2021. Two years after launch. To give some perspective, Netflix has 221 Millions subscribers, and it was launched in 2009. Yes, you read it right. Granted, Internet and streaming was not as widespread as it is today, but that gives you an indication of how fast Disney+ was able to grow.

Back to Stern, in this instance, I bet that they will slowly create content, free, but accessible ONLY if you use insider connect. Start with leaderboard, but unlike Scorbit, they have access to the entire game repository and code. It could be more missions available for example vs player using coins to pay. Then when players are hooked, they can force their way to the entire value chain. Yes, everyone will get a cut, but the loser will be the operator, because that's him who's going to pay the bill.

Of course they can decide to not connect their machine, in a non competitive area (ie no other location around) that would work just fine, but if let's say across the road you have one who decided to bend and has his machines connected, that could draw players who got used to the benefits brought by IC, putting the first guy at a disadvantage.

Just my analysis, I could be wrong though, and in any case it will take a few years to materialize.

Can someone remind me what is the capacity of the microSD card installed in the CPU board for IC ? Just want to test it in my Star Wars (I have a reader mounted in such a way it's easily removable - but the card is inside the other machine to which I don't have access to until September)

Thanks

I for one am absolutely convinced this is their end goal. Or any type of reward in exchange of money (game content, etc). Or forcing operator to enable insider to bill games.

And this starts now....:

https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/james-bond-007-pinball-deep-dive/

This little sentence: " Insider Connected players have access to Top Secret “Eyes Only” Assignments "

Guess how long it will take for this access to be "paid suscribers only"...

OK, but personally, regardless of tournament play, given the price of a pinball machine, I would expect a full featured experienced, not having to add monthly premium to it...

Did not know about that topper story, but yes that would apply as well

Well, using an email based account for a child is slightly problematic in countries where in theory, you can't create an email for account for anyone below a certain age. For example, can't create an account for anyone below 15 in France on Google (and I believe it's actually a legal requirement)

You can cheat, sure, and setup a false birth date, but then it introduces a whole set of new issues, specifically:
- You can't change the birth date of said account afterward. So you have to create a very specific account just for the purpose of cheating the birth date.
- At the majority date, Google will enable full access to their services. Since you cheated on the birth date, well... This means that your 10y old now have full Google access. Not good IMO

Nintendo solved it by creating a child account notion, as you point out, but it does not have to be tied to a dedicated email. It is controlled by a specific guardian account. They can from their app see their own achievements/etc, but these accounts are limited

So in my opinion the request is very valid, at least until there is a notion of a worldwide "legal identify e-card" which could be used to create account (and restrict/enable services per local government regulations). Email definitely is not such an identity e-card.