Maybe some games deserve it, but in true Pinside fashion there have been many that didn't. Remember all the bitching about ACDC when it the first pictures showed up? Then slowly but surely people realized that it is a great game. Funny thing is the haters around here never really stick around long enough to eat crow in those cases. Another classic was the early bitching about Star Trek and especially STLE. I remember a few members who were doing anything they could to torpedo that game saying it would be selling for $5000 within a few months. Funny that STLE currently is considered one of the best LEs Stern has put out and still sells for more than I paid NIB. ST is another great game.

This argument does not stand up. Franchise rights are usually $50 or less per machine from what I understand. For that $50 you basically get nearly ready made artwork, characters, music and even video clips. The cost of developing that in house is more than $50. Sure in the old days with EMs and solid state games it was the way to go because it was just a few images that needed to be developed. Now we have high res everywhere, LCD displays, stereo sound, etc. It takes an army to develop the art/sound/video package on a pinball machine these days even with a franchise.

Not to mention that the public these days want a familiar licensed theme. Look at slot machines. Say what you will about themes like DI and I am glad you enjoy it. You will never convince me that DI would not have sold at least twice as many games if it was a good licensed theme like Led Zeppelin or even Toy Story.

Yeah I agree. Houdini is a lot of fun and this game looks even better. I like original themes as much as the next guy despite the understanding of why most games really need to have one to make money. AFM is one of my favorite games ever and my most anticipated game this year is the Steve Ritchie unlicensed machine. Can't wait to see that.

When this game first came out it was actually received pretty well. The bitching has increased exponentially since then though!