Pinball Industry News: June 2019 Re-cap
Pinball Magazine and Pinball News bring you up to date on the recent developments in the industry of pinball, including news on Willy Wonka shipping, Cosmic Carnival shipping, Black Knight: Sword...
Highlights
- Jersey Jack Pinball has started shipping Willy Wonka and the Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (Standard Edition) games
- Willy Wonka was announced in mid-April (at Texas Pinball Festival) and shipping began in June, approximately 2+ months later
- Jack Winardi flew to Germany for a 24-hour Willy Wonka launch party at Freddy's Pinball Paradise
- Kourtney Kardashian posted a photo on social media playing Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road, reaching approximately 80 million combined followers across platforms
- Suncoast Pinball has started production and shipped their first game, with plans to build 250 games total
- A third Elvira game is scheduled for release by October 2019 (Halloween target)
- Gary Stern announced Stern is working on a branded contract game with a very big brand
- Stern is limiting new contract game designs to either the Bonelli design or Spider-Spider-Man (Home Edition) design
- Stern announced a 'last call' production run for Batman '66
- Black Knight: Sword of Rage received new code for Limited and Premium editions and a physical enhancement featuring a post on the upper playfield to increase ball action
Notable quotes
“it's nice to outperform”
“roughly 80 million people, that's not bad”
“we don't seem to be ever losing any machines... is there a glut of machines lying around somewhere”
“most games are being sold to collectors... it's gone from an arcade culture, very much to a bar and barcade type use”
“if you're going to spend $4,000 on a pinball machine then you might as well just get a real pinball machine”
“I take the last call... with a grain of salt... we've seen a last call for Metallica and they kept making those games”
“it would have been nice if the upper playfield would have four lanes spelling Rage”
“I can't recall Stern sending out something that actually physically changes the game... doesn't happen very often, if ever”
Entities
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Suncoast Pinball· company
- Batman 66 (LE)· game
- Black Knight: Sword of Rage· game
- Elvira (third game)· game
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory· game
- Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road· game
- Head to Head Pinball· organization
- Cassandra Peterson· person
- Donny Gillies (Dirty Donny)· person
- Doug Skoll· person
- Gary Stern· person
- Jack Danger· person
- Jack Winardi· person
- Jonathan Houston· person
- Kourtney Kardashian· person
- Martin Ebb· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Freddy's Pinball Paradise· venue
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