Episode 41: Star Wars Pinball Delayed?! The Truth About Licensing & Expo Hype!
In this episode of The FlipSide Podcast, I dig into the buzz around Stern Pinball’s Star Wars: Fall of the Empire and why the chatter about a “botched launch” is way overblown. The truth? When you’re...
Highlights
- Star Wars pinball has not received final licensor approval as of recording, explaining the lack of official announcement
- Content creators visiting Stern will be required to sign NDAs restricting pre-launch discussion of Star Wars until embargo is lifted
- Stern recently hired a new CMO from the wrestling industry
- Metallica Remastered LE is the most recent Stern LE to sell out
- Licensor approval can happen 11th hour, forcing sudden delays despite earlier assurances of on-schedule progress
- Big box retailers like RC Willey can discount new pinball machines more aggressively than official distributors
- Community sentiment about Star Wars ('just okay, not going to blow your mind') is spreading via podcast influence without people having played it
Notable quotes
“When you're dealing with licensors, they can come back and ask for anything, right? I mean, they're the license holder. You're really under their control...sometimes 11th hour, that can completely screw up your launch plans.”
“To say that Stern is delayed, they're not delayed because they never gave a release date. Just like Harry Potter, they never gave a release date. So they didn't delay anything.”
“I saw it happen to Jersey Jack. I saw what happened...they'll ask for this or ask for that. Even when you think you're on the tail end of, like, you're about to be approved, you might be getting – the thing is the licensor might be telling you everything looks on schedule.”
“I don't think that people are influenced, whether it be subconsciously...It's like a virus. It spreads out, and all of a sudden people are repeating it. Oh, it's not good. It's not good. But the people haven't even played the game yet.”
“I'm not a leaker. I'm not. I don't do that. That's not my thing...i take [NDAs] very seriously.”
“Did you see the Harry Potter leaked Playfield photo? It looked like someone smeared Vaseline all over the glass of the pinball machine...I don't understand why leaked photos are always so bad.”
Entities
- Flippin' Out Pinball· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Mad Pinball· company
- RC Willey· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Pinball Expo· event
- Dune Pinball· game
- John Wick Pinball· game
- King Kong Pinball· game
- Metallica Remastered· game
- Predator Pinball· game
- Star Wars Pinball· game
- Walking Dead Remaster· game
- X-Men Pinball· game
- Gary· person
- Jamie Birchall· person
- Joel· person
- Josh· person
- Kale· person
- Retro Ralph· person
- Seth· person
- Electric Bat Arcade· venue
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