I think I would rather just look for a nice LOTR that has 3x more stuff on it, than any version of GOT.

I'd prefer they make one, single, awesome looking game rather than something in the middle. JJP knocked it out of the park on route with WoZ in terms of making a box that a passerby wants to drop a dollar into.

Look at the arcade games you see today... Batman with a giant cockpit and LED lighting, full curved screens like Star Wars Battle Pod, Dark Escape has 3D glasses, vibration, and blasts air at you. People would put money into Raven if you put a Game of Thrones backglass on it, but I think the deck itself should look packed, modern, and exciting considering the other commercial coin op games out there in 2015. The fact that the less exciting, empty looking games are meant for route is the opposite of what should be happening.

Xmen is stacked and packed compared to the modern Pro.

My suggestion was to make the game awesome. Just middle pricing. Which I know they would never do, because they're already getting the higher pricing from customers anyways.

I'd like to see them slow down, and focus on polishing a great unique game every time. And not just saying, "lets move the ramps over here, and the targets over here this time."

Sure didnt on my route.

The Pin is a stripped down "home version" pinball that Stern designed.

On one hand I agree with you, go EM but on the other you could say just buy used, don't buy new. There are many owners who treat their NIB games with such care that you can't tell a difference between HUO and brand new.

Let the NIB purchaser take the hit.

I probably shouldn't even chime in here because even if I thought the layout of this game was good, I don't care for the theme (I'll never own a LOTR for that reason, even though it plays great). However, I think it's hard to compare AC/DC to this because AC/DC also came out when MSRP was lower ($5k), now their up to $6k MSRP on the pro with that big of a chunk stripped out?

This isn't even about saving money, this is about pushing buyers into the next level. Routers don't care if they have to service 2 more flipper coil sleeves and rubbers (what is that, $3 in parts after a thousand plays?). What I don't think Stern is realizing is that if pro sales go way down, even if they break even with LE's they aren't going to profit much by premiums and pros. I'd like to think Stern shot themselves in the foot, but I'm sure like usual buyers WON'T be voting with their wallets.

I think we just need to give this pin a chance. I don't think Steve Ritchie would produce a turd after all this time. There must be something to this game that we are not seeing that justifies the extra cash. From the pics, it looks like the premium and LE have a lot more to offer but is it worth thousands more? We need to wait and see.

I'd sure hate to see what a real The Pin version looks like!

so many things about the PRO that don't look right.

What about the left ramp return that is better than 3/4 the length of the playfield and perfectly straight. This looks very odd being clear plastic. Maybe this should have been wire instead?

This thing looks more like POTC Zizzle than a modern pinball from a quick glance.

I wish I could give the title of this thread a hundred thumbs ups!

The only thing that would have made the pro look more cheap is if they would have put a dragon on a stick like Mic in the Rolling Stones.

New pic released of the Dragon mod for the PRO version and it looks high tech!

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They do. The Premium.

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Here's a picture of the next "the pin" in testing.

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The pro is designed to be a stripped down model to meet a price point. The premium is more equal to the regular full featured pins from back in the day before Stern started building pro/premium/le models. To say that the GOT pro is missing features is correct but its supposed to be that way...it will also be a few thousand cheaper than the premium.

I've never understood why people bash the pro for not having all the features, its not supposed to. Its for ops. Collectors should opt for premium/LE which is more akin to the fully featured games before we all had options on pro/prem/le. Or buy the pro, take the savings and live with the shortcomings that are the lack of features.

Why can't there be one good identical playing version of the game released, like say 98% of pinball history?

Answer: people are supporting this model.

Sorry, I'll take a "used" WPT over what I have seen from most recent Stern releases, get complete code, solid and abundant hardware, as well as ~$5K in savings.

I know this has been beaten to death, but this acceptance there has to be a stripped down version "because money" is kinda sad.

I have preferred the gameplay of most of the pros over the premium/le's, especially AC/DC. I think the pro with its two ramps looks like a Ritchie flow game and the translight and cabinet artwork is much better. The LE with its upper playfield is meh. That being said, I have never seen such a difference between models as this. Not sure this is a good thing. Time will tell.

And I think this is a great thing to do, the problem imo is that the price for the pro is waay to high, and slowly rising for almost each new game?

Well said.

Oh you can! The meticulous owners have 100% functional, dialed-in pins. Out of the box issues are solved, code updated, a few mods added...