It would make sense to turn the droptarget bank on the mid left to a 4-bank. Then each target in a drop target bank can represent a group member and the players can shoot them (no pun intended). Aren't there also 4 standup targets? then each member could represent a set as well. I can see how some new rules can work with that.

Just talked to Gary Stern. There will be an official announcement for the game in about a week to two weeks. The video was planned to go live today. According to Gary, "it's just a little teaser."

I think I see a pattern here:
1. show video of new game that makes people dislike the game and voice opinions online.
2. eventually show the game and have it turn out to be much better than anyone was expecting
3. Watch people change their opinion on the game, which by then will be sold out.

It may be interesting to note that Joe Kaminkow mentioned recently (I think on the Head2Head pinball podcast) that (assuming he was referring to Beatles) he gave this license a new shot and had Christopher Franchi do some artwork to show the licensor. Apparently, that's what got them interested in licensing the theme to Ka-Pow/Stern. So, while many may not like the shown artwork, the licensor must have thought it was great. From that point on, Stern's hands may have been tight due to licensor's approval. This is all pure speculation, but don't underestimate the power of a licensor.

In addition: if the $50k price tag for the Diamond Edition is correct (and so far most of what has been rumored has been correct) then only selling these 100 games brings in $5,000,000. The license was apparently $1.000.000, so they still have a $4M turnover by making 100 games. Even if they don't make the other models that's a huge profit for Stern. If they do sell the other games, more profit for them.

to continue on my previous post, now from a different perspective:
While the math may work on those 100 games selling at $50K, it will be interesting to see whether there are enough die-hard fans to pay that kind of money. I mean, KISS has the most loyal fans and they had difficulty selling signed games for 12K or so. Sure there are some Beatles fans that will pay $100.000 for a guitar owned by Lennon, or a handwritten song lyric by McCartney, but this is a new game in which none of the Beatles had anything to do with. Elvis pinball games don’t sell for top dollar. You can even argue that Batman 66 may have sold all the SLE games because Adam West was involved in a minor way. But that’s not the case here (as far as we know so far). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Either way, hit or miss, if Kaminkow funded the license, Stern isn’t risking much.

Since this game has no ramps, am I the only one wondering why they didn't put it in a similar cabinet as Pabst Can Crusher? That would have made sense to me as it reflects on how pinball machines used to look back then. It would also allow for a big backglass and still have an LCD in it. Putting in stepper motor score reels could also be an option.

For those interested: as editor of Pinball magazine I interviewed Joe Kaminkow and Gary Stern on the new Beatles game. There may be some news in there (9th song added). You can listen to both interview in a special podcast: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/joe-kaminkow-and-gary-stern-discuss-the-beatles-pinball_136781