Enough of this. Pokemon would sell as a theme. It would print money on location and collector parents/grandparents trying to get their kids to show interest in their hobby would want one, etc etc

Of all the rumored upcoming (and recently announced) Stern themes, it would easily be the most interesting

This is such a wild take.

Pokemon will be many peoples first pinball machine. Including most of the people I play with at tournaments. The amount of money younger people drop on Pokemon is crazy.

I will be buying one. Im in my 30's. My neighbor told me if that happens, he will sell his car to buy one. It will absolutely be one of the best selling location machines ever. I would bet it easily outsells JAWS.

I guess time will tell, but I find it hard to believe

Based on theme alone, Pokémon probably does better at an arcade and getting inside a home that subscribes to Disney+

John Wick, probably does better at a barcade and getting inside a home that subscribes to Netflix or HBO

Various games for various markets and buyers

That being said, the best car bashing experience in any game is this one:

E. Honda

But John Wick could make it a close second

Pokemon is the highest grossing franchise and it isn't close. Collectors routinely spend THOUSANDS on individual cards. I bought a set of 4 cards because it had a cute pikachu dressed as mario or luigi... sold them 7 years later for $8k.

STUPID money from pokemon fans is out there for the plucking.

Its easy to dismiss anyone who calls it pokeman as being completely out of touch with anything that happened after 1995

It just seems like the people complaining about Pokemon as a theme are the same people who aren’t buying NIB at these prices anyway, so what does it matter …they’re buying at a $2k discount after the FOMO crowd gets bored

Its true on the franchise size although Hello Kitty, and Winnie the Poo aren't that far behind (92B vs 80B). The question is does it translate into a Pinball theme? I may be wrong, but I dont know a single person who would blow $10K+ on a Pokeman pinball machine

Stern got that Commadore license tho

Screenshot_20240506-100411 (resized).png

Just has there are people who collect Disney memorabilia, Jaws memorabilia, Marvel or DC comics items, manga, etc, there are Pokemon collector-fans. Age is irrelevant. Is the phenomena as big as it use to be in it's heyday? I don't know the total Pokemon licensed sales. Maybe or maybe not but the fan base, with money, is there.

Hard to disagree with that statement ....

I see Pokemon following the Venom path... a game that you collect, and progress your cards in order to do battles. I could see it being a hit on location, and a younger crowd liking it... but I think Pinside will hate it. Who knows... it might be the first game that allows you to buy DLC via Insider Connect in order to progress. Lots o' possibilities for money and bitching.

Pokemon GO had/has a massive older demographic.

There are plenty of "whales" into Pokemon. There are multiple cards that sell for more than any one machine has ever and will ever sell for in this hobby. Even in the mid-range of collectors, they spend a pretty significant chunk of change on some foil and cardboard.

As stated before, it's the highest grossing media franchise of all-time. The numbers disagree with that statement.

I don't think it will be the best selling Stern but I'd imagine it'd do better than Rush and Venom. If they add a card dispenser or advertise a ticket system, redemption locations would eat this up.

If Stern is going to make a game you don't like, why not at least have them make one that potentially brings in a newer, younger crowd?

If they don't, they are leaving a huge amount of $$$ on the table. Tickets/cards could be based on cumulative progress.... and possibly be unique to the pinball game.

I will say this from firsthand experience

Nintendo is a NIGHTMARE to work with on licensing. They are infinitely harder than Disney. It can be done, but they will control every aspect of the license very tightly.

Its bigger than ever and people spend 100's of thousands to millions of dollars on single cards at the top end.

Nintendo is only a minority stake holder in The Pokemon Company. They have very little impact in the merchandise and product side of it. It's why you will see a lot more collaborations and products that other "Nintendo" franchises don't have/do. Really only the games even carry a Nintendo logo on the tag. Pick up a plush, bag, pack of cards, no Nintendo logo.

I hear people say this but then I see all the crap with Mario on it and think, is it really that hard? Hell they licensed Mario and co to Ubisoft for some video games. There are actually a lot of Nintendo games that aren't made by Nintendo proper.

Yeah like those awesome Zelda and Mario games on the CDI!

Agree! However pokemon go does appeal to the over 45 crowd more than the handheld games or cards. I think you're underestimating the amount of people under 45 that would be very interested, plus all the insane social media buzz. People routinely spend 10k on pokemon cards, it isn't a stretch to see some of them being interested in a pinball machine. Heck, there are even beloved pokemon pinball game boy games!

Ok those and the original Super Mario Brothers did poison the well to some degree. But also Capcom made some of the best Zelda games in the 90s and 00s, dont @ me

When I use to sell comics and collectibles, easily anything with Pokemon printed money. I still as a partially reformed Pokemaniac would buy tins of cards and I am sitting on about a dozen card tins I got from Target for $9 each (still sealed) that I can sell for at least $30 and just am waiting. Yes, it sounds like it's riding high still and for people in their 30s and 40s THIS is their nostalgia. Pokemon pinball with at least the entire base card set in it (similar to Hot Wheels pinball showing all the different cars) I might choose you!

Stern, if you have an animated, moving Picachu on the pinball table that has a magnet that can attract and repel a pinball, you will print money.

I hate Pokemon. It's lame as hell.

But it'd be a massively popular pinball machine. Every single kid who has been 8 years old at some point between like 1995 to now has had a great shot of being a Pokemon fan.

Many of those kids who have grown up STILL love Pokemon. Look at what Pokemon Go did when they released it.

You could do a crossover with Stern IC Pokemon Pinball / Pokemon go and have the app lead people to location pinball. Print money for everyone.

Why stop there? Have each Pokemon Pinball sold have exclusive characters to your machine as base characters and release only certain others after you have had more people play it etc? Lots of ways to keep attention going on the machine.

Stern - you owe as all money for brainstorming - at least send us some key chain tsotchkes .

It's a nightmare. Maybe the SMB movie made them loosen up, but I know firsthand that they were the hardest IP for content creators to work with.... and there isn't a close second.

Pokemon is different... it could be easier or it could be harder (since it *may* require double sign-off).

I agree, but if the pinball machine is called "Pokémon Go" that's a little closer to "Toy Story 4" than I'd like to be! It's better, but still too close.

Minish Cap is top notch and was all Capcom, still wish the sequel had been picked up.
Square Enix absolutely nailed Super Mario RPG too.

Minish Cap was fire, no lies detected

Yes Yes and we were all schooled on how amazingly popular Venom was & since he was Spidermans brother you'd get all those folks too.
I'll tell you what moves 1000 times more product than Pokeman; backyard grilling mmmmm slow & low.
Anything is popular enough to be made into a game these days; obviously.

Yeah Nintendo is dick to "content creators". But those aren't licensing business partners.

It's people streaming their games and Nintendo wanting to protect their brand image from the skeevy elements of the Smash Brothers scene or showing the story of story-centric games. That's a whole different topic than branded merchandise.

You said it, brother. I can't wait for pinball machines based on floor cleaning products and constipation medicine. Hmm, maybe won't print money but will smell nice and keep things moving....

Pokemon, I suspect, may sell a skootch more machines than all of these though.

Oh, and Eddie Brock wasn't Peter Parker's brother for the literal comic book fans out there . I think there is some Spider-man fatigue out there in the markets overall.

^^^
now I have the urge to play CSI Stern 2008.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises

Even if this isn’t pin point accurate, Pokémon absolutely destroys everything, including Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter. There is a reason Stern would be interested in the theme, even if many folks on this thread aren’t.

John Wick story trailer

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/gqanSdnBwWDd3Lb2/?mibextid=w8EBqM

I am talking specifically about branded content... things that they are paying to have created.

.

Not the I'm thinking I'm back line.

.

If Ian McShane is doing callouts, I may have to make room for another machine!

Don't state things as fact if you are not sure. There are scenes from other movies in this clip.

It's from the first movie.

.

Good… thanks.

The first commercial 3D printer I got I identified as "Glottis" on the network. The second one was "Manny." Grim Fandango definitely left a mark on me.

WINNIE THE POOH

Internet links are fun!

Pokemon is the largest grossing media franchise of all time, there’s no denying that. hello Kitty is a close second, Stern better wrap that up the market is just waiting to be tapped they would be idiots not to!

a theme isn’t going to magically unlock all those non pinball players hearts and doesn’t magically print money for a company.

I think there’s plenty in the subset of pinball owners that might get excited by the theme and more importantly plenty of people who will learn to enjoy a theme if the table is well designed.