Great to see that unboxed! Power of the inpatient youth! Game looks beautiful. Wonder how it plays? Modes? Code?

Business was slow last two weeks in Holland due to vacations and holidays. So would think they crank up production this week if we are not all capped in the traffic jam

Now that is a premature conclusion. I would wait and see what happens. This may take some time, but I hope they can work it out, as this is in general not good for pinball.

Ok, wonder how Kickstarter did 2 billion last year - https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats
In my eyes the same, you make a product get money for showing it, most of these items then get dissembled to see how they can ramp up production. A lot of kickstarter projects are way to late, or even never get happen. There is a risk to be early adapter.

A lot of persons can make a great machine, look at the HEP and Homebrew community. Only few will succeed in building a business. But that is not only with pinball.

If dutch shows a new great game, complete with code and all and will tell you they have these ready to order and will be build by some one else than ARA. A lot of people will get an order in. Wonder how many persons know about the issues with TBL.

Hard to compare this as Kulek did not have a license, DP does, and JPOP did not have a working game, DP does. Point is each situation is totally different. Again only half a year ago DP had it in the bag, a good 'killer' title, games shipping, and ramping up production. Then money issues with their only and needed partner. The overseas part is in my eyes no issues. I do a lot of work with overseas US, India, all different places. The issue is still communication. Although I live in the Netherlands, that does not mean I can knock each day on their doors. I think that last new letter told the story and there is just no news right now.

Well something is moving, hope the manager was fired because of the problem, not that he was fired because he proposed the solution. I hope Jonathan is going on with his pursuit to get some answers.

Well, I look at it in another way. They have the right to take the money as long as they deliver the product. Only problem here is when will they deliver. Anything you pre-order, the money can be used to pay for anything, including salary. If that is furniture or travel or a car, it doesn't matter. Same applies for Kickstarters, Corporate investments, etc. Companies like Spotify, Uber etc have never made any money but have sky high salaries for CxO's. As long as investors and people trust the company, anything goes. Sometimes this creates a 'bubble'. Now with most products you will only loose limited money and no one will really have a problem with it.
On the refund part, that will be different. But I can understand that same as a bank, you can not give all people their money back at the same time. So also there will be some regulation. Problem is still that DP stated you will get the game you payed for and somewhere there is still the cash to do this. Only question is when will they deliver?