Quoted from PinRetail:Not to derail this thread... but you haven't quite seen the pinball market experiment with exactly what you are saying.
People SAY they want...
But then you do EXACTLTY that, and they don't.
Manufacturers have tried to do exactly what you say... and have been punished by poor sales, poor reviews, every time.
History:
People SAID thay wanted a simpler machine, like the old days when EM's would last and last.
Alvin G. and Company. Put out Pistol Poker. Reliable, came with a big box of parts, in case people had any problems (we didn't).
They sold 200.
The same year, WMS produced Twilight Zone, Judge Dredd, Indiana Jones, Star Trek the Next Generation.
They sold a gazillion complex games with complex toys.
Breakshot. (One of my favorite games!) Simple, well developed layout. Innovative ways to make it astonishingly easy to repair. (Open the front coin door, and the game actually knew every light bulb in the game, and would tell you if there were any bulbs you needed to change!). Breakshot is a particularly good example of DON'T GIVE PEOPLE WHAT THEY ASK FOR!!! Because operators were complaining... oh how they were complaining... complaining over and over that they couldn't buy an inexpensive pinball that played well for their routes. Breakshot was the 'value line' flagship machine. Solid, fun game, without all the development of toys, sold for quite a bit less than the competition.
Breakshot sold 1000. While the competition's machines were selling Tales of the Arabian Nights, Scared Stiff, Safecracker in the thousands and thousands.
People said, give us great machines, instead of all this new complicated toys! Something that will be fun to play like Pinbot!
Jackbot. EXACTLY the same layout as pinbot. No new engineering, no fancy toys, just solid rules, engaging gameplay.
Jackbot sold 2400. While Theatre of Magic, Attack from Mars (admittedly simple!), sold thousands and thousands more machines.
So it's the 2000's!
And Stern... bless their hearts... LISTENED to their customers. Big mistake.
People SAID they wanted a simple layout, no fancy toys, that classic gameplay.
Beatles. Arguably one of the poorest selling pinballs in history. I knew distributors that still had Beatles pinballs in boxes three years after they were released. Sold out now, but an absolutely TERRIBLE business move.
So, you play pinball.
Ever played Addams Family? Ever played Twilight Zone? Ever Played Circus Voltaire? Ever played Monster Bash? Ever played a Premium new Stern pinball?
How much of your play time is spent on:
Pistol Poker.
Breakshot.
Jack-Bot.
Beatles.
You can't even find these machines to play... because they were spectacular failures.
So... Hehe. I disagree with your premise.
Yes, I agree that everything you say is true...I just don't understand WHY it is true.
I believe that operators seem to want the "big, fancy, breaks all the time", over the "simple, reliable, easy to repair", I'm just surprised by it.
Sure, maybe the "fancy" brings in more money for a little while (until it breaks) - but it also costs more upfront and costs more in parts and repair time.
As a player at my home, I'd prefer to play TZ over Breakshot, but that's because they'd both be in great shape.
As a player at a location, I'd prefer to play a working Breakshot over a broken TZ.
There is a Pinstack near me that has about 10 pins. When they opened, the machines were new and in great shape. Now they are all busted and dirty, but as long as the bill acceptor still works, it's fine by them. They got a bunch of my money at first - they get none of it now.