Batman 66 . . . . . I'm in!

I think the majority opinion is summed up in this modified image by flerp (see speech bubbles):

1ddf17d6885b93688fa875f0d87cc39b49b7f084_(resized).jpg

They are charging "Premium" prices for a "Pro" level package. They changed some art and toys, stripped away awesome callouts, added some LEDs, shaker, and rails.

I recently got a routed SM for almost three grand less than what the street price will be. It has a couple of nicks on the cab, a couple of broken plastics, and 10x better callouts. Gimme the original all day long.

Deja Vu.
Watch this video and you will understand:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ah7f--gg5sU

To be fair that game was rumored to be in development for 25 years. Thank god it's out and done.

don't see much hype on this sm ve, been quiet.

Are there any more videos to see more of the new dots or call-outs?

Is this game shipping yet/has anyone got one yet?

Hearing end of month but who knows...

The wait is a killer...

Any idea when these hit the line?

Funny you should ask because I did today. The dealer said mid march/second week in march.

grrrrrrr.... delays are frustrating! first I was told beginning of feb, then middle of feb, now I am being told beginning to mid march.

It did not sell well, and the game is already starting to fade from memory.
Operators and collectors did not take serious interest.
Only 410 scheduled for total production.
They are being done in small batches, in concert with more in demand titles.

if it was like im ve price maybe it would have sold many more.

There was also a demand for IM and it was priced right. I can't recall there being a demand for SM and certainly the price didn't help it at all. Other factors like foreign currency values are having an impact too I suppose.

Rob

Kind of unfair to compare it to IMVE.

-Custom side armor with laser cut graphics and backing
-all new DMD graphics as well as sounds
-shaker motor included
-completely different molded characters
-additional bulletproofing added from original version including stainless steel bowl chutes and guides as well as protectors in the vulnerable areas and improved magnet mechanism
Etc...

Is it worth being priced at the premium price level, I don't know, but it's definitely not a game that would be put into the pro category which is what people are complaining about.

I think if the pricing was somewhere between the Pro and Premium, people wouldve jumped on it. I think Stern made a mistake because they probably could've sold a lot more.

I would have paid about $5,500 for one.

Doesn't matter, that applies to any pin, lower the price you sell more. Good thing there are so many options on tap, reruns of good titles and more new titles are coming. Toss in pins that become for sale to make room or needing to sell to fund another pin.

In foreign markets like Canada, Australia and who knows where else, absolutely not. Nobody here wants to pay $10500 for a new SM.

Rob

The reason I didn't go for SMVE is 1) the price and 2) more importantly, shitty looking ultimate SM art. Just not the Spidey I am familiar with.

Same here, I was more than ready to sell my original Sm and grab a VE if the art was decent and the price fair.
No chance of that ever happening now, I will stick with the original.

Very well said.

If it was McFarlane art, might have been a bigger draw for me, also the same art of both sides of the cabinet I know it's easyier to do that and other pins have done that, but other pins have also not done that namely XM even the pro there is different art on both sides. Plus the price (IMO) kept people away in droves.

I'm not saying it's a bad pin but much like WNBJM you really need to want one at this price. If they're at a lower price like $5500 more people would buy on impulse. I sure would have.

While I agree for the most part, if they would have left off the custom armor and shaker, it would have been a pro and should have been priced as such. If they wanted to include those things, it should have been as a "Vault LE" in addition to the pro level, not instead of. If the above sales info is true (and I have no idea if it is), I would say the market is telling them this was not the right strategy. Nothing wrong with the fact that it was SM, or even the new art package in my opinion. The failure was the "forced upsell" to a higher level machine.

Completely understand what you're saying, but no one is "forced" to buy it. If people don't like the price point, they have the absolute option of not purchasing it. But the one thing I can promise you, and I think we all realize this, is that Stern isn't going to lower the price just because we are bitching about it. At a certain point, it just becomes a bunch of people wanting to hear themselves complain about something. It's the Pinside way

Personally, I didn't have a huge issue justifying spending $1000 more for a new-in-box game that has all of the added features I talked about compared to what the older used versions are selling for currently, which is anywhere from $5000-$5500.

Pluses
DMD graphics. I didn't care for hard to see cut scenes from the movie.
Molded characters not counting Green Goblin
Side Armor big plus
Shaker Motor
Plastic Set is comic book based and not actor based

Minuses
Green Goblin mech missing
Simmons call outs are amazing...pun intended.
Not iconic Spider-man art, but Ultimate Spider-man who is no longer in the Marvel Universe

Wow, that is a lot. It would have to be a holy grail pin if I lived outside the states.

Personally, it is one of my favorite flow games. Ritchie nailed it.

Yea, yea...not forced to buy. Forced to take the upsell items such as armor if you want the VE at all is what I meant. I think they would have been much better off offering a standard version at the pro price, and then slap on the armor, shaker, etc at the premium price. But...I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about their business and they have churning out great machines for a very long time, so they are the ones that know what works...not me.

I hope you know me well enough to know I do not fall into the complaining to hear myself talk category. I'm also certainly not expecting them to drop the price at this point. I wouldn't be 100% shocked if they added a stripped down pro version at some point (stranger things have happened), but I am definitely not going to hold my breath either. I'm perfectly happy with my original version so it doesn't really affect me either way. I just want to see them succeed.

Even a stripped down version wouldn't get my buy because the artwork sucks ass to me. I'm sure some like it, I don't, but we all have different tastes right.

But this also demonstrates the idea that 'building the biggest, most loaded game you can' isn't always the best answer. You need to market to a price point.. and the general consensus here seems to be that this price point was wrong for a re-tread title vs comparable games available now.. new or used.

You can argue all you want in how the price is justified for what you get... but you still need to be priced to the market.

I know, it's just a right of Pinside passage. Not targeting you at all, was referring to all the whining since the announcement

Nail on the head. I'm jacked up to get mine, but if you aren't a fan, then you aren't going to buy. That's any product out there!

Sure they do, if they were trying to promote this game as one that they wanted to sell in the same volumes as they do a pro model machine. That's what people don't get, that wasn't the intent with this game. It's a niche game that is being sold to those who want one based on comic book version rather than movie with some things added at a higher price. It was strictly a filler to run in their new factory in between new game releases that will be produced by the thousands. If you think they wanted this to sell 2000+ models, I honestly think you're missing the point.

That's a damn good point...hadn't thought of it from that perspective. I guess I'm stuck in the mindset that they should always want to sell as many as possible, especially after going through all the effort to make new art/sounds/dots/etc. I guess driving volume isn't always the point.

No, I think you did...

My point wasn't about VOLUME - but about matching pricing to demand. High volume or not... Stern wants to be able to sell every game without channels or Stern sitting on them for long periods. That means matching your pricing to what the market is willing to pay. Stern needs to sell a minimum amount to make production viable and at the margins they want.. but they also can't afford their distributors sitting on stale inventory, or being unwilling to take new inventory because of it.

The success we are looking at here is the shelf-life of the inventory and the pre-sales demand (orders) the game draws. The volume of sales are downstream of that.. we aren't looking at SMVE selling 500 vs 2000 titles.. we are looking at the vitality of the demand for the title.

Stern uses the small batch methodology to ensure they have a range of product to sell in the channel.. and to diffuse scheduling demands. Not so much to absorb 'lower demand' for a title. They don't want to be sitting on inventory for ages either...

The reception for this title has been soft... and that's largely hindered by the price point. Volume up or down doesn't change that.

Looking forward to my SMLE. We shall name him, "Smelly".

Is 410 a failure? I thought I heard Stern say runs of 500 VE's were viable.

Does anyone know how many IMVE's were made? Can't imagine it being huge numbers, even at the lower price point. And the difference with SMve is that there are already 1000's of originals in the market. Luci was not huge volume either.

Exactly. I don't think SMVE was ever meant to be a volume title. Especially considering it fell in between GOT and GB (we think) - 2 potentially huge titles. It was never going to compete with those, nor would Stern want it to. Why would they sacrifice sales of a cheaper SMVE for potential sales of a higher priced GOT or GB?

However I wouldn't be surprised if they release a cheaper stripped down cheaper SMVE "pro" at some point - maybe as the next filler after GB (when Aerosmith flops ) Then we'll see how many sell. I'm guessing even then it won't be huge numbers.

I think you pretty much just made my point for me without realizing it. They are going to have no problem selling 410 of these. They're not going to be sitting on an inventory of them for a long period of time. I didn't come on here to argue about this, I was just trying to make a point about what this game was intended to be by Stern. I think without realizing it, we agree more than either of us knew.

I agree. Additionally, I doubt they are running 410 at a time. They made 410 playfields, yes, but I bet they are doing 200 or so in this run. Ten days of work if they are producing 20 per day. (two games produced at once 40 per day total)

So maybe they announce the next game in two weeks....

dupe

I hope everyone who gets a anorexic SMWTF is stoked with it.

I'm very excited for my Spider-Man VE. I've always like the game, but never cared for the movie trilogy theme. I love the artwork on the VE.

Couldn't agree more! I absolutely understand why it doesn't appeal to some people because of their art preference or the price, but I'm really looking forward to it. You know what they say about opinons, but the true bottom line is that we all have them one way or the other. I've heard from a couple of insiders who have played it that it plays very similarly to and smoothly like Star Trek LE.

Actually it should play smoothly and very similarly to SM right?

I think the new SMVE looks really good. I like it better than the original SM with the actors' faces on it. But I won't be buying it because there are pins that interest me even more:

Ghostbusters LE (pending the reveal)
TWD Premium
Whatever Stern offers next (Star Wars with LCD?)
JJP's Pat Lawlor game (pending the reveal)

In the meantime, I have The Hobbit Smaug Gold Edition on the way soon to keep me happy.

Anyone get an update when they will be shipping? Waiting anxiously! I saw they were shipping them overseas first.

if you are a manufacturer, you want to sell as much of an item as you can. I thinks its a false premise "they weren't looking to sell a lot of these". stern moved into a new facility that can accommodate many assembly lines. if a line for smve shuts down early they did not do well, if it stays open for months it was very successful. I think they would want it to run as long as possible.

Based on?

Like all product... its not just selling it, but how long it takes to sell it that impacts your margin. Trickling games out for the next 2 years isn't exactly a winner... even in the 'filler' role. They always have games they *could* run.. the key is always having a title you can run and can SELL.

This could end up being like Avengers or TF... inventory sitting for long periods. Stern will just keep the runs short to keep the inventory hits to a minimum.