How well has Oktoberfest been recieved or how well has Houdini done? Is Houdini a licensed title? Oktoberfest? Did they have to get rights from the City of Munich or the estate of Harry Houdini? Total Nuclear Annihilation? If it is not a licensed theme it better have some kind of name recognition or innovative feature to draw you in. Historically, it all used to be unlicensed generic titles and themes, with the Brand/Title being the most important aspect since name recognition by manufacturer and loyalty to table makers (by operators and distributor) was higher in the old days. You played a Bally Wizard, or a Williams Flash and players cared just as much then for specific makers as they do now for Stern or JJP, or CGC, or Spooky, or API or the list goes on... The whole tie in with mainstream media was more due to Roger Sharpe than anyone or anything else, and the dance between the fact that although a license will not make the license owner a lot of money, a good license can make a pinball manufacturer a lot of profit by increasing sales even a moderate amount over a non licensed theme. I myself like non licensed titles (like Pinbot and his Bride), yet they are now licensed if you wanted to recreate them.