Not joking but have you tried Pinbox 3000? Its actually pretty amazing and I have a Maker Faire set with slingshots, orbits, physical ball locks, a gobble hole, ramps, a jump ramp, captive ball, and multiballs that I still play a few times a week. The fun-factor is off the scale and perfect for getting kids (or even kid-like adults into pinball)

Game looks fun enough maybe more feature packed than SW pro.

Yes I have and it's awesome. I was playing it more than "real" pinball for a while. I spent 6 months designing mine. Had the pieces laser cut. You can see the rules on the playfield.

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Just got done playing the new SW home version at comic-con. I’m an open minded person so wanted to give it a try. I couldn’t hear anything in that room which is unfortunate b/c audio is important to me. I was the only one out of the family to try it. I just now asked the kids, 8 and 10 years old, why they didn’t play it and they both just shrugged their shoulders, and said they weren’t really interested. Wife said she didn’t play b/c she was just hanging with the kids but that she thought it was cool I got a multiball on that one. My thought on that was it was way to easy to get multiball. She also said it looked stripped down and bare.

I played one and only one game. There was not enough there to keep me interested in this version when I was in a room with normal/full versions of the same theme. Unfortunately it did not feel like a pinball machine. It felt light and cheap, probably because, well, honestly speaking, that’s what it is, right? Light and cheap. I think if I were to make a comparison, I’d say it is the wiffle ball version of pinball.

Watching the stream and the play looks great. Looks more fun than SW Pro. If the game play is a kickass, good time in a full size playfield then is seems like a reasonable price for the home use only market.

Anyone who says they would rather this over a pro is deranged. Yeah, the drops in front of the Death Star ramp is cool, but I’d take a deeper rule set and what looks to be better shots and flow any day. Let me preface this is opinion only and not words straight out of the Bible.

shoulda/coulda been done years ago.

How about Heavy Metal Meltdown?

Elwin did....sort of.

OMG, anytime and everything I make a reply I offer facts, or give an opinion. I'm sorry you can't read more than 4 letter words.

Could these be placed in a commercial space? Maybe an operator could be put it on location, let folks not familiar with pinball flip around on a game for free and then they move on to drop some coins in the big boy games?

Obviously you could just turn a Pro on freeplay, but maybe the simple design would help not scare off newbies as many complex new games sometimes do

I would play it,
Maybe even buy it, that is if the rules and the shots feel good. Otherwise it wil get boring soon.
Only that price pfff
But i wil probably never see one in my country.

For the price, still a better pin than Thunderbirds.

Wow you and I think a like. I would agree deranged is a good word there. Stern fanboys just out in force to give kudos.

If anyone thinks there is really a market for a 4000 pinball game, that doesn't already exist within the group of people who already buy pinballs let me use that word you're deranged. LOL

There is already a 4k market its called USED PINBALLS!

If I was choosing between a star wars game with a screen smaller than my cell phone for 4k or a used Star Wars pro for about 500 more its a no brainer!

I still think if they put this in a place like Costco or Target at Christmas time they will sell a ton of them.
Do targeted marketing where you only have them in select stores located in more affluent areas.

OMG, a 50-something year-old man saying "OMG" (all caps, so yelling, presumably?)

I dunno. Even at xmas, that's a high priced item, when people are going bonkers for sales. Even post black friday, I can't see this being a quick pickup item for non pinball folk. Not really sure who this is targetting still....

There you go again speculating. What a come back. I'm not 50 something but thanks for guessing wrong. Just so you know typing isn't yelling its typing. If I capitalize something does it hurt your ears... let me give it a quick try. HELLO btw I'm SCREAMING IN YOUR EAR RIGHT NOW! ARRRRGGGG... question does your ear heart now? LOL

Oh it didn't okay thanks for being honest and I'm glad your ears are okay! LOL (whoops I just screamed again)

BTW based on your picture do you have a mullet? That is so cool... do you own a Dodge Charger Daytona?

Manufacturers are always looking for new streams of revenue that don’t cannibalize their existing market.

The economy is doing well, 401k are up, home values are up, people have more discretionary money. IMO this is for the upcoming Christmas season and it is targeting consumers who have no idea that coin op distributors exist. This is a way for Stern to try and develop a revenue stream that doesn’t conflict with their traditional business model. I am guessing that Costco has already committed to buying this for all locations and Stern needs to deliver soon. In fact I don’t think Stern would make this without a PO in hand from a major retailer.

As far as game play, I have no idea but I would like to play a couple of games.

Simples these home machines will be available to see and buy in the likes of Costco etc. Where you have a different clientele. Will it work for Stern. Only time will tell. As a home collector a stripped down version doesn’t interest me!

Why would I take up precious room in my home with a fake pin?
Scenario:-

“Hey guys, come around to my house and play some Pinball!”
“Wow You have a real Pinball in your home?”
“Hell yeah”
“Dude WTF - theres no Coin Door, looks, sounds and plays a bit weird.....is this a kiddies toy?”

“Ermm....yeah, I got it kinda cheaper than a real one, by around 1k.......”
“Dude, are you serious.....you should have just saved a bit harder and got a real one.....”

I thought about this a lot at work today.
My take on it is that it's targeting the "non pinball" community in an attempt to gain more market share or grow a new buyer base.

Yes $4000 is a lot of money for a lot of people, but for some not so much.
It's all about perspective and decimal points, hence why I said targeting stores in more affluent areas trying to reach a certain demographics.
I'm not sure who the targeted client is either, but its certainly not the seasoned pinball enthusiast (that market is saturated to capacity).
There is over 327 million people in the U.S. alone and most of them do not play pinball.

If they can pull this off it could expand their buyer base and bring new money and new buyers into the pinball market.
Let's face it, most of us here are on a budged, some bigger than others but a budget none the less and theres only so much pinball money in the current marketplace.
I have to pick and choose what machines I want to buy and who I want to spend my money with.
That might mean Stern gets my money, might be another manufacturer, might even be a used pin.
Fact is that Stern can not rely on a collector like me buying every pin they put out as a constant revenue stream.

Out of all of Sterns current licenses, this has to be the one with the most instant brand recognition.
I like to watch random people when I'm out playing pinball and see what games random non pinball people play.
I will tell that when the random person walk up to pins they will put money in Star Wars before they play something like Medieval Madness or something like Cirqus Voltaire where they are unfamiliar with the theme.
Its has to do with simple brand recognition and people connecting with things they are familiar with.

Anyhow yeah 4k is a lot of money, but hell some people will buy their spouse a new car for Christmas.
I have a client that bought his wife a 15K stove that he imported from Italy last year.
It's all about perspective.
Here in Arizona if you targeted the wealthy Scottsdale crowd I think you would sell a lot of these at a CostCo in Scottsdale.
In a poorer area probably not so much.

When I played the Spidey home game, I liked the way it flowed and what they put into it. It wasn't the deepest, but it was fun and entertaining. SW Pin is a further development of that. The layout is similar, but with some interesting changes.
I agree with the comment above that it is too easy to get to multiball. The static carry-over multiball is neat, but that should just be a 2-ball multiball. The other multiballs are too easy to get to, so you end up playing multiball most of the time. That sort of feels like it devaluates achieving multiball, which is a pity.

Does Costco sell anything in the $4k+ price range? Honest question as I don't go to Costco so I have no idea.

Yes, things like high end TVs.

They sell hot tubs, TVs, furniture, exercise equipment etc., all of which can get close to or over 4k. The big issue I have with Stern marketing in the big box stores is that we are in the age of research. Smart people (wealthier people) usually research before they spend 4k on something. A guy seeing the machine will likely think, "hey, I remember liking pinball. I'm going to look this company and machine up on the internet." Then the cat will be let out of the bag: the machine is a rip-off. If anything, it might lead newbs to a NIB full-featured Stern.

Ok so I guess it could work there. At first I thought maybe this new machine was to get a new type of buyer, those hesitant to pickup a pin but at $4k I still can't imagine that would be low enough to make such an audience pull the trigger. Instead now I'm thinking maybe it's just about making one more purchasing tier and nothing more, so that they will now have Home/Pro/Premium/LE going forward with each step adding ~$1500 to the price.

…………….....and still they have yet to produce a good star wars pinball

So, this is way better than any other cheapo pins they have made.

It looks like a proper pin.

It's coded for beginners.

It does what it says on the tin.

It's as good as a cheap pin can be.

It really is.

But, I am just not sure who will actually buy this?

Pinheads won't.

Maybe the guy who wants a gamesroom and isn't aware you can buy commercial games?

Anyway, you can't blame Stern for trying to diversify.

However if this doesn't sell, it's end game for home pins.

Costco has already sold Stern machines in the past. Years ago, Costco offered the stripped down (no spinners, no magnets, single coin door, and minus some other features that escape me right now) versions of IM and BMDK. I don’t believe that worked out too well so I wonder if Costco will be willing to devote any floor space.

Sorry, "I hope it flops....." Is totally different and non-malicious. How could I fail to see that?

Sarcasm aside I get the rest of your argument of course. Everyone of us wants the best we can get.

I have read most of the posts in this thread, driven by curiosity.

I am, however, still unclear why this new game might not be considered a real pin.

The only point I have gleaned from all these posts is that the coin door does not have coin slots. Is this the only reason ?

If it would be possible to buy this game with coin slots for an extra hundred bucks would it then qualify as a real pin ?

I would think real disqualifiers would be smaller playfield or smaller/lighter pinballs.

Everything else: bom, rule depth, weight of game, size of backbox, size of display, number of coils, etc. are very relative and not defined.

Nice!!! I like the bagatelle design you went with.

Here is my pinbox3000 with the classic layout booster-pack template I got from their website!

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and they were so close to using the trademark symbol 10x. missed it by 1

I’ll gladly pan an extra $1600 to get a Stern pro that is great entry level pin imo.

Wonder where the used price will end up ok these. $1500 - $2000?

About Tree Fiddy in five years.

Which considering the vast number of pins people have at home are set to free play..

Was pondering this last night, much like how the Beatles pin serves that nostalgia $$$ market this pin will serve another nostalgia market but at a different price point. Like I said yesterday, if it uses parts from the "big brother" pins this will lower Sterns costs (higher volume parts orders) and increase the profit margin on those higher priced pins.

win-win.

Benz did the same thing when they purchased Chrysler. They made Chrysler use Benz chips which reduced the cost to pennies while still charging Benz owners full boat.

As a bonus if sold in big box stores it gives non-pin people exposure to Sterns "brand" which seems to be a big theme on the Stern website.

please stop...comparing...this....to.....the pro/premium/le

it is nothing like the other models. unreal

Edit: Honestly I didn't even notice that book. XD

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Okay DS_Nadine... what does the book of Morman have to do with Star Wars?

So we've had Transformers the Pin, Avengers the Pin, Spiderman Home, and with ZERO support from Stern. No manuals, no schematics, no SD card image backups, and no code updates. Heck, these machines aren't even on Stern's website (Did we make that? ). What makes people think this new Star Wars Home will be any different? In two months it probably won't even be on Stern's website any more.

Those didn't sell.

If this does you may see a different path taken.

This game also appears much more serviceable than previous "home" attempts by stern, with a lockdown bar and a coin door and the same general look/build as a "pro" game.

That's what I said when you typed the same thing yesterday. I still think it's true.

They are trying to find a successful way to fill a market niche for an entry level home pin that is not being filled. The other attempts have not worked out great; but does that mean they shouldn't continue to try to make it work? This looks like a much better attempt than the others so far, maybe this one makes it and sticks around for years (and provides a model to follow for them to create other options with themes that lend themselves well to a home buyer that is new to pinball).

I've sold and purchased pins from guys that route, and I've had one game on route and will likely route more in the future. No option to route will kill resale on this pin, and most won't touch it, unless they can buy it for dirt. Even then, I wouldn't touch it. Coin doors aren't just for show.

Ehhhh that is why the say its a home pin?