You knew the honeymoon couldn't last forever.

Welp, that about does her, wraps her all up.

To the VIPs,

As of November 1, I have decided to part ways with Dutch Pinball. I made this decision for for personal reasons, and not because of health issues.

As many of you know, I have been a professor of Marketing and a Marketing Consultant for the majority of my adult life, working in the US Military, with the Swiss Government and for many for profit companies and not-for-profit organizations. But the hardest, most creative, and probably the most fucked up job has been here, with you.

You pushed me to set the bar high, but your encouraging words and emails of support after each campaign made the challenge that much more rewarding.

Thank you.

The complete lack of response to my emails was somewhat annoying after like 3 weeks. Couple that with this and I'm starting to get a little curious. The GD plane has not crashed into the mountain yet, but come on fellas. Give me a little sign that things are ok.

Hmmmmm, I'd like to know more about this.

Pinball machine making is hard.

one of these guys, right?

http://www.thebiglebowskipinball.com/about_us

The F bomb guy ?

yes. I don't see the cause for concern. He isn't responsible for making the games. He did his job.

I thought Phil did all the licensing legwork, getting all the Lebowski song's and such.

The Lebowski debut would have been far different without Phil. He brought a level of marketing not seen in Pinball before and definitely was a big part of why Lebowski owned Expo '14.

DP will be fine without him, but his loss will be felt.

He is still and always will be, "one of us"......and now can explore the beaches of southern California from La Jolla to Leo Carillo, and up to Pismo

The sudden departure with no preparation or messaging to the market suggests internal issues. Phil knows someone leaving like this is NOT good marketing, and good marketing was his job. Whatever's going on, I doubt he's happy about the situation.

Hopefully it's just a matter of personality differences and not something structural.

my bad if that's correct. I hope all of that is finalized for this title for all the preorder people.

Next stop, Skit-B.

This.

The transparency of the announcement is welcomed but the suddenness of it is troubling...

Good luck sometimes its best not to ask why but to wish one the best and oh ya happiness.

I thought he nailed it at the Expo presentation. A little spice in a seminar is always good. Best wishes to him for the future!

let me rephrase... It doesn't look good but it also doesn't mean the whole operation is dead in the water. I wouldn't like it if i had my money tied up in it but i wouldn't go bat$hit crazy just yet.

I have no idea what to make of this. But I certainly don't get a great feeling when i get an email out on nowhere from someone saying they are leaving a company.

There are some things that may actually be better than pinball.

Who runs DP USA? Was that Phil's?

I would be more concerned if the head designer or project manager left. Just my two cents on a subject that does not matter to me. Well, i have a friend that ordered one but other than that...

And so starts another multi-page thread of speculation and conspiracy theories before anyone really knows what is going on. Maybe he just wanted to move on?

Point is, there is no point in speculation until we hear directly from DP, and they may not even feel that is necessary to do.

I think it would be ridiculous to see this as a sign of company trouble.

After some discussion w Phil, some lengthy, my only concern is for his well-being.

Phil was, and is, a cool dude.

Rod

I hope they hire at least an admin in his place. Phil didn't work anything BOP2.0 related as far as I could tell and the communication there has been abysmal.

As far as reading into it, I wouldn't. He prob told them a while back that he was out after DPO.. He did his part , on to the next thing.

Tell me again why I should preorder a pin?

"uh oh.Phil leaving DP" - Phil has left.

I agree that the suddenness of this is a bit concerning. It suggests that all is not well in the house that DP built, especially since Phil came across as integral to the company just a few weeks ago. If he was thinking about leaving before Expo, he certainly didn't show any signs.

I assume all of the licensing has been done, and really, a game like TBL will market itself. But, I wonder how this will affect them moving forward.

Was close to pre-ordering TBL at Expo, but the RAZA experience taught me to never do it again. Will probably still be great. I'm just not built for the pre-order process anymore.

I got the same email this morning from Phil from his gmail account, so He is gone.

I'd like to see a followup by DP explaining the roles that Phil filled and how those roles will be filled in the future. I'm not too worried otherwise; these guys seem to have their sh*t together, but that followup note would be nice.

True Dat. I just got back out of FT and Wooly. Sobered up since Expo..
Love this pin but dont want to go through the rollercoaster anymore. Hopefully they will tell us where things stand soon.
Last preorder ride for me for sure.

I disagree. It's not time to freak out, since people move on all the time. He did say it was for personal reasons. But there's nothing in his message about the future of DP: If he is simply moving on amicably, I would expect something in his message expressing faith in the company. He's all about marketing; he knows his message will create anxiety.

I don't think it's a stretch to read "internal issues" into this. The onus is now on DP to calm the waters.

Good on you. I also don't have the stomach for any more pre-orders.

Are you kidding? Now is the perfect time to make up all kinds of reasons why this means the sky is falling for TBL. Why waste an opportunity for rampant speculation now that the Predator stuff is winding down.

Well see, there was this rug, and this chrome, and a t-shirt, and a special party, and ... yeah I get your point

This could simply mean he's fulfilled his contract and doesn't wish to renew. Don't read too deep into it.

The DP team members I got to meet at expo all seemed very personable and competent. Having the marketing guy leave is a big hit but not a death blow IMHO. I agree the game will almost sell itself once it hits the open market.

This is puzzling and sad to hear.

Two weeks ago Phil contacted me privately to invite me to the Houston show and attend a VIP party as his guest. He talked excitedly about "whats coming" and how the "next game will really blow people away". The way he talked would not indicate he planed to leave the company anytime soon.

So this is quite a shock. Sorry to hear.

Pinball needed a guy like Phil. Following DP from Expo13 to now has been a fun ride, because of his imagination and vision.

Seriously guys it's been like the sky is falling everyday with pinside. Wait for some more facts before you all start freaking out. DP has shown a high level of professionalism since they announced their company and I'm sure they will address it if it needs to be addressed.

True. Its just that when someone chooses to leave right before everything blows up and new cool games are coming it makes you wonder.

Or <iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x12w94t" allowfullscreen></iframe>
"Clear History" Trailer (HBO Films) - starring... <i>by thesevensees</i>

Let me see if I cane make Pinside explode....

Maybe he is going to work for Skit-B??

DP and Phil are going to be fine, they obviously had creative differences and now they have both moved on. Maybe DP didn't like the direction Phil was taking them in, his comments against other manufacturers may have caused a stir internally and wasn't the direction the team wanted to go. Maybe it was more about Phil then it was about making a great pinball machine. Either way no one person can take down a company IMO all of the right pieces are there to make it a successful venture and this departure is not going affect TBL in the future...

I seem to remember (correct me if I'm wrong) Phil was living in Switzerland and had a young family, maybe it all got too difficult logistically speaking.

His shoes will be hard to fill, he brought the marketing of Pinball machines to a new level: professional advertising campaign, highly polished teaser videos, smart and tactful handling of Pinside, etc.

I hope they can find a suitable replacement.

Good luck in your future endeavours Phil!

To be fair communication was never DP's strong suit. Marketing, sure.

I'm still in, but the next week will determine how that holds. I don't have the tolerance for silence that the JPop/SkitB/BoP2.0 preorder guys have shown.

Quick, get the boobie pictures out and stop this thread before the girls hyperventilate

I agree that the e-mail sent out does not sound like someone who had just done his job and was moving on.

Yes, Pinside tend to blow things like this out of proportion, but the way the e-mail was worded did get me just a tiny bit worried.

If he was still thinking about the customers, he would have said something like, you are still in good hands, the game is on schedule and all is well, sorry to be parting ways, etc. I hope I am wrong of course, but when you pre-order from a new company who does not answer e-mails and then get this message out of the blue, I think it is not so strange to get a little worried.

Dude probably just got a better job and moved on. Big deal.

Again, he uses the F-Bomb, why? why not replace it with "challenging"?