Taking "confirmation" out of the picture, let's say that Stern has two choices as to make a TWD pin, or make a Rob Zombie pin. IMO, I think TWD is the wisest choice from a business perspective, but ONLY if it's the comic/tv license hybrid. Let me explain:

If TWD pin used the TV show characters and story lines within the pin, but used the artist from the comics to do ALL of the custom comic-esque playfield, cabinet and backglass art, then we might have something that will resonate with the casual player and hobbyist alike. Remember, Stern needs to cater to all possible facets of the gaming culture, from on-location ops to casual players with a garage arcade.

If you think a Rob Zombie pin will perform better on location that a TWD pin on theme alone, you're kidding yourself. And my problem with a RZ pin isn't the theme or music, I love them both, I think that the art style is too close between RZ and MET. The reason why MET is so special is because the art package is such an anomaly. Another horror-esque-rat-finkish art package from a RZ pin is just redundant and makes MET less special.

As overplayed and talked about zombies are, the first manufacturer to mass produce a zombie pin and market it well will get a lot of money on theme alone. TWD is pop culturally relevant, RZ is not at the moment.

Good. It gives the new manufacturers a niché in the market. Original themes and IPs is what will set the new manufacturers apart from Stern. Stern is "set in its ways"; the "new blood" will bring in the new themes and will take risks. I am fine with this, variety is the spice of life.

Because JJ had one game to code, Stern had 5 or 6.

Not defending Stern necessarily, I think Stern's coding philosophy stinks on ice, but at least compare apples to apples. If JJ was coding 5 or 6 different games in the same timespan, would they have been any more efficient than Stern? Maybe, maybe not, just doesn't seem like a fair comparison.

100% agreed and valid.

I wasn't agreeing with the VUK, BOM comment, I was agreeing with the code issues. My fault for not modifying what I was quoting more, sorry

I was completely behind the VUK removal for ST, search the ST thread(s) and you'll find that I defended that decision.

My critiques of Stern are purely from a code and communications stand-point.

Assuming TWD is the next title, it's my understanding that it WILL be hand drawn comic art. This assumption is due to Stern representitives saying that announcing the artist for the next title would "give it away", lending to reason that the artist is known for a particular art style or series.

To play devil's advocate here, JJ could have also misinterpreted the info that the comic license had been taken. JJ might have just been told that the license was in use for "pinball" and assumed that it meant Stern, when in reality it was pertaining to the Virtua Pin version. All depends on how specific the info was that he was given I would think.

For the record: I hope it's TWD, but I just wanted to point out that it's just as plausible that JJ misjudged who was using the license as well and went with the stern assumption.