(Topic ID: 214512)

The future of pinball is bright!

By PanzerFreak

5 years ago



Topic Stats

You

Linked Games

No games have been linked to this topic.

    Topic Gallery

    View topic image gallery

    20180407_181132 (resized).jpg
    20180407_161450 (resized).jpg
    20180407_164024 (resized).jpg

    #1 5 years ago

    This past weekend I was out in Boston for PAX East 2018, an expo about video games, tabletop games and pretty much anything gaming related. As you may have read in Sterns April Stern of the Union address CoinTaker brought 5 games to the show. I was curious how much play the games would get, especially with half of attendees being 25 and under and PAX not being a pinball show.

    To my surprise the games were played constantly over 4 days and 50 hours (14 hours for first 3 days and 8 hours last day). Every time I went by the pins people were playing them. CoinTaker even held a small tournament on Saturday where I thought "I'm in, it should be easy to win as I doubt many people there have played pinball". I was wrong, lol I couldn't believe how many pinball fans showed up, pinball owners that I talked to, and people that really knew how to play.

    Any worries about pinball dying out in coming years has been over exaggerated. There's a strong desire out there, even among the younger generation, to play a game that exists in the real world. Thank you CoinTaker and Stern for bringing the games and helping spread the world of pinball to more people.

    20180407_164024 (resized).jpg20180407_164024 (resized).jpg
    20180407_161450 (resized).jpg20180407_161450 (resized).jpg
    Stern hat I won in the tournament!
    20180407_181132 (resized).jpg20180407_181132 (resized).jpg

    #2 5 years ago

    Very cool! It’s great to hear so many people are enjoying the games, especially younger players.

    #3 5 years ago

    I really with PAX would embrace pinball more. I'd love to see the Omegathon final round be a pinball duel someday.

    #4 5 years ago
    Quoted from PanzerFreak:

    Any worries about pinball dying out in coming years has been over exaggerated. There's a strong desire out there, even among the younger generation, to play a game that exists in the real world.

    I'm beginning to think the same thing. Until recently, I suspected pinball was seeing a limited resurgence, and would die out as older folks moved away from the hobby. But more recently I've seen how many younger (30's and under) folks are really getting into the hobby. Our weekly Space City Pinball league pulls in over 30 people on average, and I'd say about half of them are 'younger folks'. I was also amazed how crowded it was at TPF this year - with lots of kids in attendance. I'm happy to see Pinball isn't just an 'old guys' hobby anymore.

    #5 5 years ago

    Just started in the hobby earlier this year and I would say it is definitely on an upswing. I have been to several places that have had one or two machines that are typically busy. Also have had friends over that have gone out and bought a machine shorty after having fun.

    Reply

    Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

    Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

    Donate to Pinside

    Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


    This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-future-of-pinball-is-bright and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

    Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.