Is Pinball Arcade Dead?

[MidnightRocker]

Has this finally died. No new tables in im not sure how long, no updates from the creators. Pretty sure its dead.

[Full_Throttle_F14]

Nope i'm still playing it, many others are still too. As long as people play it and enjoy it, it's not dead. It had a patch update i think in may.

[MidnightRocker]

Right, but when was the last time we actually had new content?

[wilbers]

Originally posted by MidnightRocker:

Has this finally died. No new tables in im not sure how long, no updates from the creators. Pretty sure its dead.

Think the word for that is comatose rather than dead. You can still play it, but no new tables added for about 20 months, and no more in the pipeline either.

[salimfarhat]

Yeah, it seems that way. No more updates, but one thing that I found rather sad was that the AC/DC table seems to have disappeared. I was no good at that table (never got my score high enough to break the trial limit!) but I still liked to play it every once in a while.

[Matt Beeching]

Originally posted by salimfarhat:

Yeah, it seems that way. No more updates, but one thing that I found rather sad was that the AC/DC table seems to have disappeared. I was no good at that table (never got my score high enough to break the trial limit!) but I still liked to play it every once in a while.

AC/DC is a nice table but the Oculus assisted licence agreement expired. Those who purchased it can of course still play it.

[Tempest]

I'm disappointed that my DLC's are not on sale. Oh, well.

[wilbers]

Originally posted by Tempest:

I'm disappointed that my DLC's are not on sale. Oh, well.

Wonder if Farsight somehow managed to "forget" there is a steam sale. Usually at least 1 pack gets a discount (typically of 50%); all the Gottlieb's (apart from Alvin G.) went on sale last December as that is when I bought most of them.

[Aya]

I don't think Farsight even reads the forums for their products. Tried to ask a question on a forum for one of their newer games and got nothing.

[Yo_Charlie]

I wish Pinball FX3 would get the Sega license from them. How has Goldeneye not gotten a digital release yet?

[Pinballwiz45b]

Originally posted by Yo_Charlie:

I wish Pinball FX3 would get the Sega license from them. How has Goldeneye not gotten a digital release yet?

Sega is a part of Stern, which Farsight currently has. Data East, too.

[Mal]

Originally posted by Pinballwiz45b:

Originally posted by Yo_Charlie:

I wish Pinball FX3 would get the Sega license from them. How has Goldeneye not gotten a digital release yet?

Sega is a part of Stern, which Farsight currently has. Data East, too.

I don't think this matters. At this point Farsight has shown no intention of securing or renewing any third party table theme licensing.

[Pinballwiz45b]

Originally posted by Midnight:

Originally posted by Pinballwiz45b:

Sega is a part of Stern, which Farsight currently has. Data East, too.

What the heck are you talking about man?

SEGA sold their pinball ASSETS to Stern when their internal pinball department shut down.

Stern DO NOT have the right to use any Sega IP without paying Sega $$$$$ to reaquire the licences.

Do you see Farsight paying Stern money, to pay Sega even more money to licence old Sega games, just to put them on the dead Pinball Arcade?

Never going to happen.

I never said they had anything upcoming, just that Farsight still has the rights to sell what they recreated at this point.

From what I remember on older Stern Pinball manuals, they had a catalog that listed their older games, including from Data East and Sega. Stern even released a code update for their Star Wars machine in 2012, back from 1992.

Explain Starship Troopers, Phantom of the Opera, and Frankenstein, then, without Data East and Sega logos? (Granted though, with the inconsistency of scrubbing off mere mentions of the original manufacturer, I don't know how they still have them available IF they don't have Data East or Sega's involvement.)

Not counting Harley because that's a 3rd Edition release by Stern themselves.

[Pinballwiz45b]

By the way, still no new pinball games from them right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kryxC28hNhQ

[Freddy]

Yeah its dead - i am enjoying what i already from them but now i am hoping Pinball FX will provide newer tables

[SepSev]

Originally posted by Pinballwiz45b:

Originally posted by Midnight:

What the heck are you talking about man?

SEGA sold their pinball ASSETS to Stern when their internal pinball department shut down.

Stern DO NOT have the right to use any Sega IP without paying Sega $$$$$ to reaquire the licences.

Do you see Farsight paying Stern money, to pay Sega even more money to licence old Sega games, just to put them on the dead Pinball Arcade?

Never going to happen.

I never said they had anything upcoming, just that Farsight still has the rights to sell what they recreated at this point.

From what I remember on older Stern Pinball manuals, they had a catalog that listed their older games, including from Data East and Sega. Stern even released a code update for their Star Wars machine in 2012, back from 1992.

Explain Starship Troopers, Phantom of the Opera, and Frankenstein, then, without Data East and Sega logos? (Granted though, with the inconsistency of scrubbing off mere mentions of the original manufacturer, I don't know how they still have them available IF they don't have Data East or Sega's involvement.)

Not counting Harley because that's a 3rd Edition release by Stern themselves.

Stern Pinball fully owns the old Data East pinball and Sega Pinball assets and tables. Farsight and Stern do not need to involve or pay Sega any money to use the tables created as Sega Pinball because Stern Pinball now owns them, although they would need to pay Sega or whoever currently owns the Data East logo if they wanted the proper logos put onto the Pinball Arcade recreations. I don't know if they needed to pay Sega to have the Sonic face in Starship Troopers' DMD slot machine or if that was included as part of the software assets when Gary Stern bought out Sega Pinball in 1999 as sales were declining.

The company currently operating as Stern Pinball is still the same pinball company that Data East opened in the 80's that was later sold to Sega in 1994 and rebranded Sega Pinball, then in 1999 bought out by Gary Stern who had been a manager since the early Data East days. Data East opened their pinball division after buying only the pinball assets from the older Stern Electronics which was a separate company founded by Gary's father Sam Stern.

It would be sweet if Farsight could get the rights from Stern, Viacom, and whoever else necessary to release Sega Pinball's South Park table from 1999, but it seems like Pinball Arcade has only received some minimal bug fixes over the past couple years and the Stern Buck Hunter pack was the only one released after the Williams & Bally fallout.