It is hard to say. Obviously, games like the WOZ, Adams Family and SM should all be rated as a single game as they play identical. Also, games like Tron that are nearly identical (if you take out the lighted ramps the only difference is the drop targets and a slight code difference) could be rated together fairly.

However, games like AC/DC premium and XMen have a lot of different features. In XMen the three main playfield toys are not even on the pro. Each of the last Stern LE's has been more and more different from the pro and they seem to keep making higher numbers of LE's. Also, they are making a lot of these LE's (550 of XMen, even more of AC/DC) so they are making enough to justify it having their own ranking . . . twice as many as the BBB is enough to not even call it a botique run.

Anyway, I think you go on a game by game basis for which games are merged and which games are different. As the LE's continue to get more different, it will make less sense to rate them together moving forward but you shouldn't have a hard and fast rule.

I really think you should take it game by game. If the game play is the same or substantially the same like most LE's then of course take it as a single effort; but if the game play is totally different and there are different playfields and the price point of the game is 40% or greater different then you really can't treat them like they are the same game.

Just think if Family Guy was made during the era of LE's and the pro did not have the Stewie mini playfield . . . could you really treat that as the same game? Now, with that basis, think about AC/DC that has an extra playfield and many other features that directly impact game play. Now, with that basis, look at X-Men where the different toys are even more pronounced. The pro and LEs are getting further and further apart and their price points reflect that - they shouldn't be treated as a single effort because they are totally differnt games targeting totally different markets (at least AC/DC and X-Men are that way anyway).

I think 550 games is a pretty reasonable number in the modern day. BBB doesn't have that many out. Neither will jpop. Many people report that some games like shrek had fewer machines than that. I hear what you are saying, but if stern didn't make a pro at all would we not rank the LE? Should we punish stern for making games affordable for rout opperators?

Looks like the people who desire the LE's (if they are a different playfield like AC/DC and X-Men) to remain separate are in the majority by a decent number - at least in this thread (which, granted, is going to draw more people with that view since X-Men is in the title). Perhaps we should do a formal poll?