Maybe, buy my guess is no. There are lots of TRONs out there, and I see HUO fully modded ones selling for what Stern would likely charge. The introduction of more TRONs would drop the value of all non-LE TRONs, including the new VE. I don't think TRON prices are high enough for Stern to add more machines to the mix and keep overall TRON prices high enough to justify making the VEs in the first place. I Stern does a TRON VE, I wouldn't buy it day 1, I would wait until it starts dropping all TRON prices and then get your deal whether a HUO or one of the last discounted VE's.

Good luck, its a great game!

The more people talk up the VE speculation and affect the market price, the less likely Stern will be to make the VE in the first place. Stern is not looking to sell Tron VE at $4500..no way. If Tron Pro gets to $7000 I think they make the VE for sure. But with a pinball market already soft, a glut of new Tron VE's could drop Tron prices to $4500, then what is the point? Stern is not looking to sell discount machines, they would want a premium price.

Best case for a Tron VE is rising prices for both Tron Pro and LE. I would love for more people to be able to get a Tron, I love mine. But some of the people who seem to enjoy watching Tron prices fall don;t seem to realize they are hurting the case for a tron VE at all.

It may also be more of a business decision than placating the fragile egos of some machine owners. Consider the following:

1. MMR started a full fledged mutiny in the pinball community. Some people lost thousands of dollars. Several machines dropped value accordingly, and lots of people swore off pinball. MMR was good for a few buyers who wanted in without paying $15,000, but it may have been bad for pinball. I am sure Stern is watching this very closely.

2. IMVE trashed prices for the Iron Man market. This likely hurt sales of the IMVE also as prices for IM fell. Stern cannot afford to alienate any segment of buyers...operators..home users...collectors.

3. I am speculating, but the IMVE didn't seem to terribly hard to get a hold of for such a limited run. For a very limited run, I would expect Stern to want to see a higher ROI than normal machines. They don't have the same R&D costs, but have to reorder all custom pieces and artwork with no economy of scale due to the low production numbers. They also have to set up the assembly line for a small number of machines. I am sure they make money, but I doubt it is a "home run".

4. Gary has never struck me as a guy who is only in it for the money. During the bad years all of the manufacturers shut down their business, but he kept going. I understand finances were bad, and he may have lost a lot of money doing so. That sounds like someone who loves the hobby. I am sure his people watch the market more closely than us. Remakes are not Win-Win, in the secondary market there are a lot of losers. Stern is likely considering whether this is a good short term/long term strategy for both Stern and the industry.

5. The only thing that strongly supports the idea of more VE machines is the idea of pent up demand. Given the number and frequency of Tron machines for sale online, a handful of pinside voices clamoring for the VE may not represent the large backlog of higher priced buyers Stern wants to see. If the voices clamoring for a Tron VE were serious about getting a Tron, why don't they have one already? The market is not interested in selling Tron for $4000, and I don't think Stern is either.