Stern Sees A Bright Future In Digital Pinball

[REVOLUTION]

I've been playing pinball since the word "arcade" referred to a location, and not a style of game. Over time, the machines' presence faded into near obscurity. Manufacturers went out of business, and it became increasingly tougher to track down tables to play. That's why I've enthusiastically supported companies like Farsight Studios, which works to digitally recreate classic tables that I wouldn't otherwise be able to access. Stern Pinball is a fan of digital pinball as well. I spoke with Jody Dankberg, Stern's director of marketing, about what the future holds. As it turns out, it's a great time to be a pinball fan.

"It’s neat for a lot of reasons," Dankberg says of digital pinball. "It’s great for pinball awareness. More and more people are being exposed to pinball via these digital games than ever before. It’s educating people how to play pinball a little bit. It’s different than a physical table, but it helps you understand some of the physical concepts and the rules."

The virtual tables are also having a very real effect on the secondary marketplace for machines. "Farsight is recreating some of our older tables, and some of the older Williams and Gottleib tables, and we’ve seen some of the used values of those machines rise. We did a Ripley’s Believe it or Not with them, and then shortly after the release of the table, it was hard to get a used Ripley’s machine. That was a cool side effect, as well."

I've enjoyed playing Pinball Arcade's adaptations of existing tables, but the rosters of available tables have understandably been running behind. If you want to play the Star Trek or Metallica table, for example, you'll either need to find a place that has one or pony up several thousand dollars to buy your own. Moving forward, Dankberg sees that changing. "Ideally what you’d like to see is when we launch, let’s go back to Star Trek, when we launch Star Trek, it would be cool if there was a Stern Pinball app with the Star Trek table," Dankberg says. "I can 100-percent envision that, where it’s perhaps a one-ball preview, and maybe you have to pay for the table, or maybe it’s a full game. And that can be great for a lot of reasons. One, it would be great brand awareness. Two, it’s going to be great marketing for that game, specifically. And three, it could be a great revenue source for Stern. We’re really growing and there’s a lot of cool opportunities with advertising. And it would be educational – it would teach people how to play the games. We love digital pinball. We have to figure out how it works for what we’re doing here, but I think it’s a good thing."

Our conversation covered much more than just pinball's digital counterpart. Come back next week for the complete interview, where we talk about pinball's resurgence, the process of playtesting machines, and why bands are so excited to get involved in pinball.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/arch ... nball.aspx

 

[Luckydogg420]

This is awesome news for the guys like me that have a video pinball machine. I would buy a stern program that played all of their tables legally. If the physics are good enough this could be an industry changing thing. Stern could test new titles before building a real machine. Buyers would have full confidence in their product.

 

[Chris Bardon]

The thing is, they've made what-two machines digitally with Farsight? I have to think that licensing is their biggest issue here, but there's probably very little for Stern to lose by having a digital version of their games available day 1. How many people are going to take a $10 digital version of a game over a $5000 machine? Those that were going to buy a machine will still buy it, those that weren't at least make Stern some cash, and you could even build something into the game where it could tell you if someone was operating the real thing nearby.

 

[Menace]

How many people are going to take a $10 digital version of a game over a $5000 machine?

That right there is the biggest unknown... Who in their right mind thinks Stern would only charge $10 for the digital table?

My money is on the digital version costing much more than that, unfortunately.

D

 

[REVOLUTION]

I think it's a great idea. I never even thought of owning an RBION until I played it on Pinball Arcade. Great game.

 

[meegis]

I think it's a great idea. I never even thought of owning an RBION until I played it on Pinball Arcade. Great game.

If you're looking, I know of 2 for sale atm.

I sound like a wong apprentice

 

[Menace]

RBION is fun, for the right price.

D

 

[meegis]

RBION is fun, for the right price.

D

Agreed. Though, at that range Id rather be in a handful of other games.

[personal opinion]

 

[Luckydogg420]

With almost all of sterns games available to be played for free on visual pinball/vpmame software, I can't see them charging to much. A lot of games are moving to a freemimun pay structure. Look at the pinball arcade; you can play for free until you reach top score, then it stops you. You must pay for the table to set new high scores.

Anyone could build their own virtual (look a like) table of any new stern game in the visual pinball software. Then go directly to Stern's web site and download the rom files that you need for vpmame to play it. So I don't think they will charge an exorbitant amount of money for a virtual table.

Heck, Stern could license The pinball arcade software engine from farsight, develop their own app and build all of their tables independently

I don't know for sure, but it's good to hope and dream.