Yeah,
I'm all over SR GOT but boy it won't be family friendly..
Lots of dwarf porn everywhere?

And people wonder why the pinball industry has gotten so small. KISS hasn't been relevant for decades, no one will even put quarters in one of these let alone buy one. Hell, half the people in an arcade won't even know what the machine is based off of.

Licensed titles get dated faster than generic themes, so if you MUST do licensed themes to capitalize on brand recognition they had better be significant to current pop culture. This just proves how out of touch Stern, or perhaps the entire industry is.

Anyone else tired of people posting "speculation" as "fact" in thread titles?

Best post ever

I don't think TWD would translate well to Pinball, but it would sell like hotcakes anyway.

All these pins based off ancient, irrelevant bands make a lot LESS sense though. Stern needs to start chasing the 30 something market before all the old pinball fans die off or sell their games to move to a nursing home.

I don't know who Morello is, but none of those quotes sound like the ravings or actions of a nut job. Passionate, maybe.

I don't think TWD would translate well to Pinball, but it would sell like hotcakes anyway.

All these pins based off ancient, irrelevant bands make a lot LESS sense though. Stern needs to start chasing the 30 something market before all the old pinball fans die off or sell their games to move to a nursing home.

Sorry, the KISS license has already been acquired by Stern.

It's a go.

KISS fans buy more junk like $5000 KISS coffins, monster KISS book for $4,299, KISS TV set for $2500.

No band sells more merch each year than KISS. Over a BILLION dollars worth.

kasket_2011.jpg

MonsterBookPresentationCalifornia.jpg

Only if you can stack Waterloo with Fernando (mode) and Dancing Queen (MB).

Well, yeah! And a lot of people here crap on good games with great themes. Thankfully Pinside is a pinball blog and not the real world.

Again, political ranting here is fine as long as it is of the right-wing variety. You say that those things make him a "nut job". Many might think that that simply makes him a champion of social justice. I thought that whenever a post shows where you stand politically that it is, in essence, a political post.

This rumor is BS

Borg is up next and not making kiss - fact

Rumblings are that Mark Ritchie hiring will be announced soon.

if you refuse to get anything w/o the original 4 why would you need a custom translight for a game you won't buy?

The Big Question....When ? When will the next Stern will be announced ?

didn't Bally already make a crappy kiss pin like 1978 ?

I so hope this rumor is true! He has made some of my favorite games of all time, crazy as it sounds I like his designs better than anyone elses...

For me Kiss = nope
If they litter it with hot chicks, cool toys, and deep rules = a slight maybe

I don't care if the new KISS pinball makes the AC/DC game look like the old KISS pinball, I would refuse to put so much as a quarter in one, much less buy one, if it meant another red cent in that sack of shit Simmons' pocket.

Valid point, people would probably buy them just because it is another Kiss item to buy. I think either pin theme would be successful for Stern. I'm just not a fan of Kiss, maybe I'm missing something or I was born to late, I just don't get it/them. My vote is for Zombie Muppets.

He hasn't put in his notice here at Raw Thrills/ Play Mechanix yet . . . but I'll be sure to give my bosses a heads up

Borg told me he's up next followed by Trudeau again. So if they are skipping him that doesn't leave much time for Trudeau to be ready. Doesn't seem likely.

How about a bunch of boy bands, but we get to wipe them all off the face of the earth via steam rollers, grassy knoll shots, stage accidents, etc. The end goal is to find the factory where these sub-humans are produced, and blow it up.

And that's totally normal.

Not everyone is going to like every band.

Some people don't get Ted Nugent, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, KISS, Elton John, Roy Clark, or Dolly Parton but they all had successful pinball machines.

If you don't like - don't buy.

Sorry to burst your bubble but it's not.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-ritchie/9/635/b52

If Mark comes back I hope he's not stuck with Kiss. F that.

I thought Ritchie was up after Borg - is Trudeau going to get stuck with the short cycle every time?

They did call John Trudeau "Dr. Flash" back in the Williams days when he was working on 2 pins at once on a short time frame. John said he's got more time to work on this game than Mustang. he said Mustang was a VERY short turn
around. He also said he did not pick the theme. So, maybe not a fan of Iron Maiden? oh, wait, is Maiden cancelled now in favor of KISS? I'm guessing Steve gets a solid 1 year to 16 months per game.

Maybe Rovio should license it out for a pin. It's not like they're coming out with anything else that isn't another Angry Birds variant (newest game: Angry Birds Stella). They should get as much out of it as they can until they have to come up with something new.

You my friend clearly do not know who the pinball or Kiss consumer is............You may want to go back to school and get a marketing degree before you make those assssssssssssumptions.........

Please tell me you are not a Kiss fan.........................Also please tell me you work at a McDonalds and you are not a brain surgeon.

KISS blows, I won't buy………….

They are making Walking Dead ...now we can start talking what's after TWD !

Look, I don't doubt that there is a fan base for Kiss who are willing to pay $5000 for kiss Coffins. But are there at least 5000 kiss fans willing to pay $6500 for a brand new Stern pinball? That's questionable and the items in question are basic fronts for what someone could buy (coffin/kiss book). In terms of actual numbers and interest I don't see it there. The 1st edition comic book of The Walking Dead can fetch up to around $6k+ if signed by the creator, but I couldn't use that as an argument because not every Walking Dead fan would pay that. There's also used props from the show that can fetch anywhere between $5,000 to $15,000. For instance, the zombie face first seen in season one fetched something like $11,000 on regular auction during a Halloween campaign, but it doesn't mean every fan will pay that much for a prop.

So the whole point of Google Adwords Keyword Planner example was to show that currently there is more interest for The Walking Dead as opposed to Kiss. Even in terms of numbers with the poll; more people are willing to purchase TWD than a KISS pin.

With all that said and done, you do have a valid point that 'If you don't like - don't buy'. However, that totally goes against what Stern is aiming for. They want you to buy all of their games if they can. In order to do this they need to see where is there more interest, and right now that would definitely be TWD. For those who bring up the Mustang pin and why that was created; well there was the anniversary this year or something like that for Mustang so Stern probably did some market research and saw that this was a theme worth making (even though it's garbage in my opinion). Now, the only way I see Stern making a Kiss pinball (yes, I understand they've obtained the license) is to wait for some KISS anniversary where interest in the band might increase again. But I have no idea when an anniversary for the band would be, but that's my biggest guess as to when they would make a Kiss pinball. Thoughts?

Relax dude, no need to start getting personal. Not the way to go on here. But just to qualify myself, I have my own mobile marketing company which is quite successful given the infancy of mm in Canada. I also have a university degree in HR from John Molson (Concordia University) which is a top business school in North America and has beat Harvard university in a number of business competitions. So I believe I can at least discuss marketing to some degree. I just don't bullshit on here, I show numbers. Check out my Google Adwords numbers some posts above. Google doesn't lie and clearly gives a good indication of what people are searching for per month (as per their interest). Unless you want to pay thousands of dollars to a private business to conduct research on what is more viable to create (TWD or KISS), I'd rather stick to google since it's free. Let Stern pay those private businesses to find out which pin to create next. All I know is that I have cash-in-hand for my TWD LE .

You didn't take into account most KISS fans are too old to use the internet.

Can I find the pinsider that said Mustang was the next pin months before the official announcement?

Because...that'd be the guy I'd trust with what game is truly next...

Ya, judging by the way things work on here normally the most disputed titles are not the next in line for Stern. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted .

Or the fact that KISS is not good.

Your wasting your time, this guy is too caught up in his own head to realize he is not "Everyone". He's got Gene Simmons syndrome. There will be a $%#@ load of Kiss fans, myself included that will buy this. Go to a Kiss convention and you would be amazed!. When the pin comes out and sells well, then people will understand. In 5 years, no one will remember TWD, but Kiss has lived for 38..............HELLO! Now if Stern doesn't invest in the pin and does a crappy layout and even worse art package...............It will go down the path of Mustang.

If I recall, all the recent Stern releases had various hints revealed.

I don't think TWD has had ANY type of "hint" from Stern, no cryptic facebook posts, no photo of a designer holding some sort of zombie artifact. There has been zero, other than a self-feeding pinside rumor.

The KISS thing though is likely, because we've had Simmons talk about pinballs, we know Jpop wanted the license and lost it. We just don't know where in their lineup it will be coming.

But TWD seems really unlikely, imo.

I would consider buying any pin that Ritchie has his name on end of story.

5000? Stern doesn't sell 5000 units of any premium model. But to answer your question in terms of what Stern usually sells - yes there are significantly more than 500 Kiss fans that would purchase a $7200 LE, plenty more fans that would purchase a $6400 premium and even more that would purchase a $4500 pro.

Kiss pin will sell. Fire, hell, sex, rock= slam dunk for Stern. AC/DC best seller for them in over 15 years and still making more.

Next pin after Kiss is the Scorpions!

Keep in mind that like ACDC, Kiss music isn't that polarizing so it's a great pinball theme.
Back in the day when they were releasing new music, they were probably considered cutting edge and hard rock.
Now, they have enough classic hits that many of us could stand listening to them on a pinball soundtrack.
What used to be music aimed at rebellious teen-angers, is now "classic rock" that even middle-age housewives and kids would probably dance around to.

This is as good a theme as any. If it's done by Ritchie and Sheats, you can bet it'll sell like gangbusters despite any Google search results you want to quote.

I love the theatrics of Kiss with the costumes, fire, lights, explosions, chicks. The whole Kiss presentation is killer. The music (especially the "hits") just doesn't do it for me. Despite being a life-long hard rock/metal freak, I would never be interested in this pin based on music alone (like I would for Maiden, Beatles, Zep), but if they nail it in the art and gimmick department, I could see purchasing one day.

Like most others, I'll have to wait and see the whole package - then wait and see if the code gets finished. JPOP's version would have sold me, but I fear Stern's take on the artwork will be more ACDC style - we'll see.

Unshelve it, season 5 trailer is out and looks frickin awesome! Can't wait!

Season 5 looks great! I am excited for this pin, bring it on!!!

Hey look - another thread to determine if we like TV zombies or real life zombies!

The largest selling Stern ever was 8000 games, so 5000 is pretty ambitious, even for KISS.

Action Comic #1 (the first Superman) was worth $200,000 back in the 70s, but comic fans did not flock to buy the Superman pinball; even though it was the #2 movie of the year.

KISS fans DID buy the pinball, even back in the 70s when pinball ownership in homes was much lower than today.

In fact, you could win a KISS pinball by sending in the form included in the Dynasty album. That got the idea into fans heads that they could OWN a machine.

You are still under the assumption that the TWD license is available for pinball.

If Telltale Games has indeed tied up all the electronic gaming rights, there can't be a TWD machine.

Done.

End of story.

We KNOW the KISS license has been acquired by Stern, so let's stick to reality.