Quoted from dashv:I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere down the road with future pins they have different levels of toppers just like they have different levels of tables. Pro/Prem/LE.
I do think the idea of timed exclusive code Vs forever exclusive is a good one.
Especially if the topper isn’t somehow directly tied to the functionality.
I remember talking to a Stern guy pre-covid who said they took a serious bath on the Munsters toppers by selling them at $400 originally. They couldn’t make enough of them. But that didn’t make them profitable.
At that price they covered BOM (bill of materials) and assembly. But they really underestimated the amount if QA they would need and the pain of that was felt in the number of defects and returns.
I don’t know a single person that got one that worked out of the box. Including myself.
The Black Knight topper was another one they woefully underpriced for the amount of testing it needed.
The challenge is folks want more than “plastic and lights.”
The Munsters topper is amazing. Sure Raven Multiball and the callouts work fine without the topper. But if you ever get a chance to play it with a topper it’s wild. That Raven will surprise you at least once or twice when he pops out to break your balls. It can be so jarring it might even literally cause you to drain! The call outs are still there without the topper but the
But these fancier toppers need a lot more testing and code just to function at all.
If you think about it. How many owners add toppers? Maybe 10 - 20% (pulling these numbers out of my arse. Anyone here feel free to correct me.)
But those toppers need dedicated code.
So… Stern is already spending significant time adding code to machines and testing it. And we all pay for that in the price of the base pin but can’t all benefit from it without throwing down some extra cash.
Not to mention the time they are spending on updating code for machines no longer on the line just so they could *potentially* use insider connected though many never will.
I think the difference here is we are more aware it’s happening so folks feel they are missing out.
Some still have no idea their old games can be upgraded to use insider connected or feel the features that are inaccessible to them matter enough to pay to upgrade.
I'm an embedded programmer as well, and I think the 'all the added programming cost' stuff is a load of BS. Somehow Williams made toppers that made a waterfall (Whitewater), blew air on you (whirlwind), etc without impacting the cost of the game. The stuff they're adding to these toppers is just stuff they've taken out of the regular game to be a 'feature' of the topper.
I don't believe for a second that these things are unprofitable or they wouldn't keep making them. I do believe though that they must be a complete crapshow behind the scenes considering they can't get QA together, they can't seem to get them done in any reasonable time period, they can't seem to manufacturer them in any quantity, etc. Poor execution is not an excuse for high prices. Did you see the dude that made a complete droid that moves responds to voice stuff as a topper? Some dude in his spare time made something better than Stern. So you have to pick. Either:
a) Stern is gouging us or
b) Some guy in his basement is better at making toppers than Stern
I'd lean pretty heavily towards a) based upon recent price escalations.
Also, if you just look at the materials, they're usually not a whole lot different than aftermarket toppers that are $100 to $250. Look at the $800 Avengers topper, you can't seriously look at that and tell me that they're not making a killing on that thing, lol. I'd love to own an Avengers topper for my machine but not for $800, that's crazy money for something that simple.
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