American Pinball

"We're going to have one trim level of the game and we're going to make unlimited amounts of it. And there's absolutely no need for you to buy it today. That's that's great marketing."

American Pinball is doing everything wrong with unlimited production and no urgency to buy

"The art is so bad on Oktoberfest that they should be ashamed... What I'm saying is if you want to find a great artist, you can get a great artist"

Attacking American Pinball's art decisions and business strategy

"I think this company needs to take a long look in the mirror and realize that why aren't they still trying to sell us Oktoberfest? Isn't that the game on the line?"

American Pinball needs to focus on selling Oktoberfest instead of teasing game #3

"What American pinball needs is one thing. They need their George Gomez. Who is the George Gomez of American pinball?... George Gomez is the smartest man in pinball. He is without a doubt. He's the smartest man in pinball."

American Pinball needs better leadership to succeed

"They need to hire an artist like like yesterday years and they've been in so much better position. They need to figure out the screen in the art."

American Pinball needs to hire better artists and expand their team beyond one or two people's vision

"If you were to ask me, the company that should just knock on his door and say, do stuff for us is American pinball. They are in dire need of some better art talent."

American Pinball desperately needs better art talent and should hire Christopher Franchi

"The biggest fail that American Pinball did is they let go of the most valuable assets they had. They let go of the Zidware cabinet design and John Popadiuk's sort of Zidware vision for what a Pinball machine would look like."

American Pinball's biggest mistake was throwing away John Popadiuk's Zidware design vision and cabinet aesthetics

"I don't think Dovel and Normal are pinball people. I don't think they have a pinball vision or a pinball plan. I mean, they're the children of a guy who made the chips and the board sets. That's where they come from. They don't come from the pinball world."

Dovel and Normal aren't pinball people and lack creative vision - they're just sons of board/chip company owner

"What is the point of making Houdini and Oktoberfest and spending all the money on those two themes and all the hours and all the development costs and all the material creation costs and all the talent that you're hiring and manufacturing that you're creating. All of that is being applied to manufacture two themes that people don't really want."

American Pinball made poor theme choices with Houdini and Oktoberfest without doing market research

"I'm also hearing from a lot of people that they just think all four of these themes are going to flop. All of them are kind of bad for pinball. It doesn't seem like any of them are like, oh my god, take my money now."

American Pinball's upcoming themes are all going to flop

"I think American pinball should put up a poll about which one of these games people would most like to own. And why not when you're a company like American pinball, why not just pull the Pinside community and the pinball people there because it's a good sampling of a potential buyer base within pinball."

American Pinball should poll the Pinside community to decide which of their four registered games to make first

"Robin Hood... I just feel like we've had so many bad Robin Hood movies over the years and interpretations of it that I don't feel like it's carried over in a contemporary way. That's very exciting."

American Pinball theme choices are weak

"if you can't do great animations, you don't have to do animations. You can actually put up just beautiful HD imagery on the LCD and have score and just use callouts and other things to make the game look beautiful."

American Pinball needs better animations or should avoid them entirely on LCD screens

"Who is getting hurt by avoiding Kaneda's Pinball Podcasts? Is it Kaneda? This show is going to keep on going... And so who's getting hurt? You know, who's getting hurt? The boutique manufacturers who continually avoid the show and don't want to come on and talk about their product."

American Pinball avoiding the show hurts them more than it hurts Kaneda

"American Pinball, where the fuck is Oktoberfest? Every month we get further and further from October, it becomes a real head scratcher as to why they revealed this game at Expo."

Frustrated with American Pinball's Oktoberfest strategy - questioning why they revealed a game 5 months ago then went dark

"Dovel doesn't give a shit about how good his games are. He just wants you to buy as many of them as possible... What is fun about doble making Oktoberfest? Oh my fucking god, nothing. He didn't even fucking try. Nobody there did."

American Pinball shows complete lack of effort and care in their games

"I think it's going to be a wake up call to them that they either start getting their shit together and giving pinball fans the themes they want or this company is going to be goodbye"

American Pinball needs to get their act together or company will fail

"So my prediction is this. I think Houdini is going to be a pinball machine that people want to buy. I think people are not going to want to wait a year to get it. I think they have like a four to five month window to get the machines out the door b"

Prediction: Houdini will be popular but American Pinball has a narrow 4-5 month window to get machines shipped before demand drops.

"I think the company that should make Kingpin is American Pinball. And I think American Pinball has built up their line and their facility to the point where they now can make two games at once. And so they should, as I've been saying, they should look for a title like Kingpin, like the big Lebowski, something that they know there's demand for and they should get it on the other line."

American Pinball should manufacture Kingpin remake

"what this company lacks right now is a creative direction they lack a creative visionary and I just think it looks home brew... that game looks terrible... it just looks like shit"

American Pinball lacks creative direction and has poor artwork/animations despite solid manufacturing

"Oktoberfest is going to be dead on arrival. Because they had one chance to reveal this game, to create a hype and to take my money now scenario. And they failed"

Oktoberfest by American Pinball will be dead on arrival due to missed opportunities

"I'm sorry to be strident, but Joe Balcer Josh Kugler... do your fucking homework"

American Pinball failed with Oktoberfest by not doing their homework and showing weaknesses publicly

"There is a monkey on the backglass who has one hand on one girl's butt, which is his left hand and his right hand up another girl's skirt. And this has been pointed out by many people as being a completely inappropriate thing to put on a Pinball machine in 2018."

Criticism of controversial monkey artwork on Oktoberfest backglass

"what makes American Pinball games feel homebrew and amateurish it's not the fact that like they're not solid it's the fact that the artwork it's a fact that the and the animations and the complete package in the execution"

American Pinball games feel amateurish due to poor artwork and animations, not build quality

"the problem with American pinball is their execution of that stuff is still very amateur hour and because of that their pins still look and feel very amateur next to a Stern pinball machine"

American Pinball can't compete due to amateur execution despite good hardware

"Marketing matters and themes really really matter and if you make Oktoberfest American pinball remember what I'd say as like you guys are heading for obsolescence and bankruptcy if you make this your second title"

Oktoberfest theme is heading American Pinball toward obsolescence and bankruptcy

"I want to give American pinball about like an A to an A plus on how they launched this game"

American Pinball executed a perfect game launch strategy with Oktoberfest

"I have a lot of personal animosities towards this company because they employed people who came after me and my family personally and tried to destroy my whole livelihood."

Personal animosity toward American Pinball for attacks on him and family

"I think what's going to happen is this. I think this thing is going to never really get off the ground. I do think they will be successful in bringing another game to market. And I think it's going to flop."

American Pinball comeback will fail due to karma and inability to compete

"The two companies that I'm looking at with expectations, with hope and with faith are American Pinball and deeproot."

American Pinball and deeproot are the most promising current manufacturers

"American Pinball announces in Kaneda their next title is about your P. and Festival nobody in America cares about. You can't write this stuff any better than this. I mean, it's just too funny. It's too comical."

American Pinball announces Oktoberfest - a theme about a festival nobody in America cares about

"there is absolutely zero market research that shows that Oktoberfest is a game people want. And hey, here's the thing American pinball. If you are actually considering game number two to be Oktoberfest, why don't you just start a free pull on Pinside?"

American Pinball's rumored Oktoberfest theme lacks market research and demand

"I think Oktoberfest is the absolute worst theme that American pinball could choose for a follow-up title... if they make that game, American pinball is going to be financially in hot water. I don't think they're going to sell a lot of them"

Oktoberfest is the worst possible theme American Pinball could choose and will put them in financial trouble

"I'm just blown away at the contrast between American pinball and stern... American pinball did a lot during the seminar that we should applaud they brought everyone on stage they felt like a company that was humble... George Gomez went up by himself as a representative of the biggest pinball company in the world."

Praises American Pinball's humble TPF presentation while criticizing Stern's poor showing

"I will go on the record by saying if American pinball makes Oktoberfest I think the company could possibly go out of business that's just my opinion"

American Pinball could go out of business if they make Oktoberfest

"if American pinball wants to go out of business, they should make Oktoberfest. It's plain and simple"

Oktoberfest would be a terrible theme for American Pinball's next game

"do not make Oktoberfest. What is wrong with Pinball companies and themes and licenses? Why can't people understand how to make a product that will sell? Do you think Oktoberfest is a game that is going to make people say take my money now?"

Oktoberfest theme would be a terrible choice for American Pinball's second title

"I really do think that American Pinball has a golden opportunity to strike right now. I think if you look at the window, the window to get Houdini out into market, this is the perfect window because there is nothing else shipping right now that is sort of setting the world on fire."

American Pinball has a golden opportunity to strike right now with Houdini because there's nothing else shipping that's setting the world on fire

"I think these guys over there have pulled a minor miracle in how fast they've built this game and got it to T.P.F last year. And how they sort of rose from the ashes of John Popadiuk like a Phoenix and built a Houdini machine."

American Pinball deserves credit for rising from John Popadiuk situation and delivering quickly

"I do think that that's possible, but I do think that they have some work left to do to get ramped up. The facility is really nice. They have spent a lot of money going in and cleaning everything up, freshly painted floors."

American Pinball facility looks legitimate but not fully ready for production

"telling people to call John is like telling them basically to kind of like fuck off like because John's not gonna help John's not gonna pick up the phone"

Frustrated with American Pinball telling customers to call John Popadiuk for support

"I have to say, I have to say, the guy who's over to American pinball, Dovel, they are awesome. They are gonna help me get this thing fixed as well."

Dovel and American Pinball provide excellent customer service for Magic Girl repairs

"I really don't know why you guys went to TPF, though. I commend you for making a working game happen in such a short period of time. But what good does it do to show the majority of your game eight, nine months before it's available? What good does that do? You're going to have to then struggle to get hype and excitement back again."

American Pinball made marketing mistakes with premature reveals and Wall Street Journal timing

"I think the Wall Street Journal story was actually a really bad idea by American Pinball if what their goal was"

Wall Street Journal article about Magic Girl was bad timing for American Pinball

"I do think they've made the biggest mistake ever and they've put a price on this machine before they have the bomb right they've priced this game at seven thousand dollars a unit before they finally like finish the design of the game and I think that is a ginormous mistake"

American Pinball made huge mistake pricing Houdini before finalizing design

"American pinball to me has put magic on the past. You will never hear about John and Zidware and any of that ever again."

American Pinball has successfully moved past the Magic Girl/John Popadiuk disaster

"I still am in love with the previous version of Houdini that I saw. That being said, I can't help but feel like what good is it if you visually fall in love with the game if it doesn't work. I would rather have a Houdini that doesn't look like a J-Pop game if it works versus a J-Pop looking Houdini that doesn't shoot properly."

American Pinball Houdini artwork lacks the visual impact and warmth of John Popadiuk's version but prefers functionality over looks

"I told this to the American pinball guys. I said you guys should retain Matt Andrews the artist and they went in a different direction I think that was a mistake the bar is really high on the aesthetics of Houdini"

American Pinball should have retained Matt Andrews as artist for Houdini

"Well, I have to give props to American pinball. They stuck to their word and actually fulfilled that part of the bargain."

American Pinball deserves credit for completing Magic Girl despite difficult circumstances

"But as I've said before, that will never fully succeed. And it doesn't really make sense trying to distance themselves. Because even in the same paragraph, as they say, these are 100% Zidware machines. So any question should go directly to John and myself. Now, Scott is a, he's a member of the American pinball team. So why would questions about the machine go to Scott?"

American Pinball can't successfully distance themselves from Zidware despite trying multiple times