I mentioned something to Jody at Stern some years back.

When Sega brought out Virtua Fighter 2, it was $1K more than other fighting games. I passed. Then Sega came up with a plan if you took one and put it on your open account with the distributor and paid it off in six months, they'd cover the interest. Then I took one.

I don't know if the manufacturers can do anything similar or care to. Just mentioning it.

LTG : )™

The idea is not new, and has failed in all previous attempts for pinball, and is also part of the future attraction of Heighway Pinball's product for some. And, it is counter productive to the resale/hobby market but then that's not what you are asking about.

Stern could consider offering new titles as Conversion kits when and if they settle on a universal cabinet design and offer up their new (LCD) electronics package. They could also offer the same for any recently built DMD games designed around the old electronics. Just like in the days of operating video games, why should an operator pay for a new coin door, wood, power supplies, etc. The main part that wears out for an operator is the playfield both cosmetically and mechanically. A brand new drop in playfield, a USB drive with the new OS, backglass/translite and cabinet decal set, and they are off and running for a fraction of the cost of a new game. With reduced cost in shipping too. Even with minor changes made to newer models to make them "look" new, Stern hasn't really changed its platform or basic hardware for a long time now. EVen if they went LCD, a conversion panel for old standard DMD heads would be pretty straight forward. Yes, the conversion may not look quite as nice as a brand new pro, but then a pro doesn't look as nice as an LE does it?

The key factor driving the success or failure of a conversion kit system is for there to be enough cabinets out there in need of conversion as only a small portion of the operators will either bother with the labor or see a cost benefit to it. Unfortunately, the resale market of games less than 5 or so year old (and even older) makes them probably worth more to the operator to just sell them as is. However, if a "kit" is offered for $2000-$2500, I am sure many might rethink the idea and would be happy to run their games further into the ground and then just kit them out for a brand new title.

The pulled backglass art and playfield become a new resellable product to the collector market. Allowing the operator to further recoup some of the initial cost of either new game cabinets, or the conversion kits.

Affordability. Pushing the envelope higher every model/year is unsustainable.

Make more titles
In the 70 early 80s, there wouldbe a new title from all manufactures each month
Players could not get bored

Now stern is making 3 games per year, jjp one game every two years

They are promoting the fact that their cabinet and hardware design will support exactly this, conversion kits consisting of playfields, backglassses and a software change. In fact, the artwork on the side of the cabinet, is actually magnetic panels (as I recall reading).

A large part of this is partially in an effort to explain away the high cost of the initial purchase of the first game and that future "kit" games will be much cheaper. All, to provide the operator with a much easier, and less expensive way, to rotate pins on location.

Sorry to say, the price point in the thing keeping operators from buying new games and putting them out on location. Why spend 5-8K on a pin when you can buy a newer driving game, redemption piece, and make the money back in 6-7 months sometimes? Plus pins have more problems and upkeep....

I think the majority of location customers are children, and I think children will never get into pinball like we did as kids. Not when pinball competes with cell phones, Netflix, gaming consoles, and most importantly redemption games. Not all kids, but most kids would find them uninteresting no matter what the manufacturers do

I know they do better in adult settings such as barcades but they wont be profitable enough to put up with the cost and maintenance needed for pins

As most of you are aware, the biggest hurdle for operators running pins these days can be summed up as "too little return on investment." Nowadays, IF (that's critical) the pin is a winner, the operator could theoretically buy new, run for a year, and recoup most of the purchase price. Of course if the games a dog, they're going to be stuck with it. But this is all a gamble, which a struggling business is unlikely to want to take a risk on.

I think initial purchase cost (talking about "Pro" models, at least), especially compared to the price of many/most of the newer videos, is not the major deterrent. If the games were making good money, operators would shell out the money for them. But when you can route a 15-20 year old Williams or Gottlieb System 3 (that paid for itself long ago), that will make within $10/week what the brand new one does, it doesn't make sense to buy the new games. If the new games were grossing $100/week more (especially as most pins around here are lucky to pull in $20/week) then the ops would be taking a closer look.

I think companies like Stern and JJP are going in the right direction switching to LED only. That will help cut down on maintenance, and saves the op time and money. Also, from my experience, the SAM system from Stern is rock solid, so aside from PF issues, the games stay running. I will admit though, the last couple new Sterns we bought have had issues directly related to the cost reductions (thinner ramps breaking quicker, more broken wires under PF, things like that), but nothing catastrophic. Obviously flashy stuff like LEDs and LCD displays and the like are good eye candy, so those sorts of improvements are going in the right direction.

What I, personally would like to see (whether or not it would help is certainly debatable) is more integration with both social media and smart phones. For example, in some locations, we're seeing a large increase in the number of people using the TouchTunes app on their phones, for controlling the jukebox. You can simply whip out your phone, fire up the app, select your songs, and you pay for them through the app. The customer doesn't hardly have to lift a finger, and if they play something like "Barbie Girl," then no one knows who to blame!

I'd like to see where you fire up your pinball app on the phone, check into the location, and the app shows you the games that are there (maybe even things like high score and replay score?). Select a table on the phone, and how many credits you'd like to play, and pay through the app. Completely cashless location pinball.

The rest of my ideas here could be done through other means (maybe a card like some racing games use, or your own USB stick that plugs into the front of the machine), but I'm going to keep using the context of app. I think it'd be sweet to have the game compile your stats for you. If you keep playing, say Star Trek, and the app (or USB or whatever) kept track of things like your scores, number of ramps/combos/etc, what modes you've started or completed, average ball time, etc. etc. I think a lot of semi-casual -> semi-serious player would play more seeing this sort of information, as it gives them goals to strive for. Also, with the machine/app keeping tracks of stats like this in a profile for you, it would allow for an easy implementation of virtual leagues and tournaments. Maybe Joe's bar runs an in-hose tournament over the course of a week, come in at your leisure, play as many games as you'd like, and the app tracks scores, winner gets a trophy, T-shirt, money whatever...

In addition, to payments, the app would do other things like announce on your Facebook or Twitter things like the location check-in, and then like those crappy Facebook games, show when you set a high score, or even just a replay. Although it might be spammy, seeing over and over how "Dan earned a free game on Metallica pinball at XYZ bar" or "Bill is the new Grand Champion of the Star Trek at ABC Diner" generates buzz and interest, which in turn leads to more play.

What I would envision is one server, per location, that's online and interfaces with the app server. The machines could either be hardwired to it, or connect up with Bluetooth. All the machine has to do is report its individual audits to the server, to assign to the registered player, and accept a signal that put a credit on the machine.

I would be surprised if a lot of this stuff ISN'T already in the works, but if its not and someone influential is reading this, remember to send me a check

Include coin mechs