$6500 like Spooky games. Spooky has the limited aspect (they end making a game and that is it usually) driving up the price to get to that sales point, Beatles has the license driving up the price to get to that $6500 sales point.

No doubt. If they squander the license to end all licenses, that would be a shame. I’m the biggest Beatles fan I know and I would be hard-pressed to get excited about anything that doesn’t resemble or play like a modern game.

If that's the case they picked the wrong decade.

Diamond, Platinum and Gold editions. The Diamond is allegedly $50K!

Lennon wrote Come Together, She's So Heavy, Mr. Mustard, Because and Polythene Pam. The band was breaking up but he is all over that album which many consider (including me) the best Beatles album. He quit just before it was released, not before it was created.

Hate on the Beatles but at least get your facts right.

Longtime Beatles fan here. Like the kinda guy who has just about every different arrangement/mixing of his favorite song: Nowhere Man. And...he makes a playlist of them.

Anyway, I've heard three rumors about this game.

1) The pricing is gonna be similar to Batman 66
2) It's a Gomez layout
3) It's a recycled playfield

Opinions on this?

Listen to the podcast and draw your own conclusions.
It was said by Kaminkow that it would not be crazy priced like bm66 but many here seem to dispute that so take it with a grain of salt.

You'll never find a bigger Beatles fan than I.

Having said that, Abbey Road isn't their best album IMO and it is probably one of Lennon's weaker contributions. Come Together is great, but the rest is all sub par. The two Harrison songs ground it and (finally) outshine the Lennon/McCartney compositions.

Nowhere near as good as John's contributions on any earlier album, except maybe Let it Be, although now that I think of it that had Dig a Pony and Across the Universe.

The pricing for the top end model is $50K - that’s not anywhere near Batman pricing! It’s the diamond model according to our distributor here in the UK!

I'm already halfway through my video trying to win the right to get it! Though, frankly I don't think I'm worthy Maybe I'll sneak in for the unobtainium model of the Dukes of Hazzard pin.

Yeah, but turns out Come Together was about him and McCartney all this time.

This price is insane, even for the LE.
The fact that it is like a classic game prevents me from being frustrated as I m not interested in these era games but the background of the story seems to me worrisome

I thought they were planning one model built to a pre determined set number of machines.

Did they change this too?

Great album side 2 is simply amazing.

No, everyone just talking out of their ar***.

I implied that the LICENSING fees that Stern pays would be insane not necessarily the MSRP.

Thus the game will have very little in it, making even SW Pro blush.

It's just like how food comes in ever smaller boxes to hide inflation.

But there will be no 3-Tier Model Pro/ Premium/ LE, so they just can price it how they want and do the game they want.

No neccessity to make a bare playfield other then for design decisions (wich is completely possible).

Pro Model Pice is kinda fixed so they have to work with the budget they have,... wich quite possibly was very small with Star Wars giving the license cost.

It does seem likely to me that they picked Seawitch specifically for its four flippers and large number of drop targets, to give more of a sense that collectors will get something for their money beyond the license. Can't see them doing much to tweak or update the layout, since it's like Alien with the number of intersecting cross-playfield angles it has. Definitely doesn't look like a ramp-friendly layout, you'd have to redo much of it from scratch which would scupper the point of the exercise.

Let's see what they're prepared to do with rules and code, though I wouldn't be surprised if they kept that retro and simple in a 60s way.

My favorite Lennon song is “women are the nigger of the world”

Eventually we will see what they release. Real collectors only buy authentic pieces from the era....not recent manufactured BS that is just a cash grab. This pin being the only Beatles pin does make it unique but may not have as much appeal as you think to true collectors....and especially if they are gonna be talking $50K price points....that’s just dumb for something like this. For those that have that kind of money to blow they can get real authentic Beatles items.

The smart move is pricing this to sell to the masses. But you are still talking a niche market that will spend 5-15K for a pinball machine.

The only other angle I see on this is a very small run targeted for the very rich is to do a run of 50-100 for 50K, then work it out and do the same with Hendrix, Zep, etc. No pros, Premium or any other version. Just the 50-100 of an elite collectors version. Justifies the high licensing cost and will be profitable. These collectors don’t care about code or game play. They buy this shit because they can and you can’t.

Bottom line is this is gonna be a shit show no matter what they do. Go retro and you will piss people off, go BM66 pricing and you piss people off. Go modern style game with current pricing and 3 models and you don’t piss people off but it’s really not a true collectible but game play better be KICK ASS or not enough will sell to be very profitable.

They can do this right, or they can do this wrong. This is Stern we’re talking about here....

Yup.

What if they only target the home market and not locations?

It is home market only.

Don't think it will even have a coin mech.....

I'm one of the biggest Beatle fans around and I have the money to buy new pins but if this is some type of retro throw back pin, I will really be disappointed and wouldn't even consider buying it.

I think "he who shall not be named" is right, manufacturers have not yet found the ceiling of what rich, rabid fans will pay for a "special" pin.

Which is crazy.

But this exercise doesn't meet his criteria of 'special'. He wants something for that price and exclusivity with the maximum amount of effort put into it, which he'll almost certainly never get because no designer not creating for themselves is going to want to devote a year or more of their life into satisfying a mere handful of customers, unless they also have the kind of ego that makes them think they're creating the Mona Lisa. And we've seen on multiple occasions what the result of *that* generally is.

So prepared to be disappointed. All the more as prices are insane, never ever seen before for a NIB.

They are going to know soon..
This pin, based on classic era, is intended to fans of the band that are around 60 years currently, so they have money and used to play on classics at this era. All is matching perfectly.

Was part of the licensing terms allegedly.

That's the point where you walk AWAY from the licensing. Moronic to agree to that.

No money left for songs after licencing

1 package 1 song, street level

Nancy, got it covered

On a serious note Smart move to put the feelers out to check demand from players/collectors that are mental enough to commit crazy bucks for exclusivity.

Mr Kaminkow's Beatles will work... and LE's will sell out faster than Herman can say goody, goody

Daytrippers !

LE’s will sell faster? 25k the machine...a classic game...

Still a Stern game when it’s all said and done. And a stripped down one at that.

$50k, come on!!

If they want to do something ground breaking they should make a theme like run dmc or nwa ..something less old white man

This is the SLE.

All I think of with this is middle aged white men with beards, skinny Jean's and ipas. So I'm not sure it's really doing what you want. That's straight up 45 year old white guy rap these days.

I wonder if the upcoming Beatles pin is going to be based of their movies that the group made( Help,A hard days night,Yellow submarine,Magical mystery tour) or based on one of the greatest albums to ever be released: Sgt.Peppers lonely hearts club band.Just a thought!

It has been reported that it will not be based on yellow submarine.

I would imagine it would be similar to Rock Band to the theme, design, etc.

Yeah I think Rock Band was able to use like 45 of their songs spanning all eras of Beatles. Plenty that I like on that list.

Narrow it down to 8-12 songs as that seems to be what Stern generally puts in a game. Tough!

Rock Band was actually pretty good. The I am the Walrus intro was very well done alone.

This is an extremely expensive license and a boutique game. You don't like it or can't afford the price then move on. Not sure why people complain about more choices and something new in our hobby that is not cookie cutter or not made for their particular taste or budget? I don't run around pissed off because Ford is putting out a new GT that I can't afford, doesn't have a V-8 and is not practical to take camping.

Just like BM66, the people who buy this game will love it. Look how hard it is to buy a BM66 LE or SLE. I know people with them and they LOVE them now especially with the new software. The way some people around here bitch you would think that BM66 LE would be $5000 by now. I only wish I could get one for less than they were NIB.

I think a classic layout coupled with the proper music assets, killer art and perhaps a modern touch with lcd could be fantastic.

It’s different and that is a good thing imho. Too many cookie cutter similar machines lately.

Speculation or fact.??? I thought Joe said keeping the production number to 1968? Would keep the price up. Will relisten.

Key points I took from it were that the license is for a run of x number of games and that pricing wouldn't be crazy. I'm going to guess sub 9k.

You get it...that goes to the point that it will have to be a very limited small run...and if Stern were smart they would then do the same for Hendrix and Zep...make a VERY limited run of these at to collect all 3....it’s all in the marketing of how you package it. If you buy one you have to get the set.

Now the flip side is if you hit the sweet spot of the price point there are enough that will buy and you can sell volume to make your profit....but again it becomes less of a collectible.....depends if they market this as a collectible or just another machine anyone can buy.

Theme is popular so if price is right it would sell a Ton.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out....I don’t think they have anything decided yet and are testing the waters leaking things to see how it should be marketed. Pinside is a small percentage of the market of sales...all distributors have different clients....some with money and some just an average person wanting a game. As a manufacturer if I can make less of a product and make more $ then that will dictate a lot.

I agree with all of this.

Any idea how many BM66’s have been made to date?
If 1,968 units is the number they are contracted for and one model only. That sounds like a ton of machines but it really isn’t compared to how many Stern makes of their regular titles.