A new app on the way from Stern and Farsight

[danivempire]

let's hope that they can give us info on the next newsletter, even small information would be great.

and when I talk about info, I don't mean a copy/paste of the announcemen released today ^^

 

[Gorgar]

Didn't King confirm that there would be up to season 6 at least.Still a lot of non stern tables they can digitise.Hey what about Doctor Who

Or more likely, Dr. Fester.

While it is understandable that Farsight can't comment on the new Stern game, surely they could comment on Whether or not it will affect TPA. My guess is that it won't. And maybe with new Stern tables coming out, Farsight will digitize more older tables now. I can dream, can't I?

 

[karl]

Why not?

Just because tpa has one table every month doesn't mean that a new Stern app will be the same.

Here's a few reasons:
1. Most of these tables are big licenses. That takes time.
2. There is also the question of rom size. All the newer roms are huge. Maybe Farsight is able to compress some of it but it will still be a factor on mobile devices if there was a huge amount of tables.
3. If they will be concentrating on the newest tables that comes out, there just isn't that many to choose from. I can't imagine that Stern will set aside huge resources to go after all the early 2000 table licenses again just for the app.
4. If they bring us one new table every month this app will be the biggest competition to tpa out there and also take up all of their own resources. Not sure if Farsight would want that.

This is just how I see it but your guess is as good as mine

 

[Kolchak357]

I'd guess Stern sees this as a way to sell pins. So I'd think it will consist of pins currently in production, future vault editions, and all future new Stern pins.
As usual I agree with karl, I don't think they will be reacquiring older licenses like LOTR, TSPP, or Tron, unless they are going to make vault editions of them.

 

[invitro]

Just because tpa has one table every month doesn't mean that a new Stern app will be the same.

You're assuming that TPA will keep on rolling with a table per month. I think the Stern TPA will replace TPA. I don't think it's just a guess... why would either Farsight or Stern want to make Bad Cats when they could make X-Files?

 

[invitro]

Didn't King confirm that there would be up to season 6 at least.

He said: "Right now, I'm optimistic that we will continue at least through Season Six." I don't believe that's "confirmation."

Also, it's not impossible that the Stern TPA is over a year from release. I don't think Farsight is gonna get a new app, and SAM or Spike emulation, written in a month, especially while TPA is still releasing tables every month. I wonder if Farsight is hiring more programmers. This is why I think part of the deal is for a Stern programmer to help Farsight out with the emulation.

Someone needs to make a prediction contest for this app.

 

[karl]

You're assuming that TPA will keep on rolling with a table per month. I think the Stern TPA will replace TPA. I don't think it's just a guess... why would either Farsight or Stern want to make Bad Cats when they could make X-Files?

So I am "assuming" and your thoughts are more than just guesses? lol, sorry. Couldn't help myself. Just messing with you.

I will be the first to admit that whatever I say is a wild guess. But if you think that you have read between the lines somewhere that tpa is on its way out, I hope that I am a better guesser than you because I would really like a few more seasons.

 

[karl]

He said: "Right now, I'm optimistic that we will continue at least through Season Six." I don't believe that's "confirmation."

Also, it's not impossible that the Stern TPA is over a year from release. I don't think Farsight is gonna get a new app, and SAM or Spike emulation, written in a month, especially while TPA is still releasing tables every month. I wonder if Farsight is hiring more programmers. This is why I think part of the deal is for a Stern programmer to help Farsight out with the emulation.

Someone needs to make a prediction contest for this app.

Do you really think that Stern would post this "Availability of the new products and pricing will be announced later this fall." if the app was more than a year away? Sounds very unlike Stern to me. We are talking Stern here. Not Farsight Granted, they will still be at the mercy of Farsight to get the tables out there but Stern is not in the habit of talking about what will happen in a year, officially. Stern has hinted about this for a long time already but this is an official announcement. I think that the new app will be out this year or very early next year at the latest.

 

[mpad]

On another note, maybe Stern took a look at Farsight's PR track record and thought that maybe they ought to take point on this one..

Haha, so true.
Otherwise it would have already been promised for yesterday and announced on the homepage two weeks after its release.

 

[TNT]

I think it's safe to say that we won't see a Stern table per month and there won't be season releases on SPA.

 

[Frostyglitch]

Hopefully they don't try to charge "coins" to play. Also hoping we see more than a mobile release because while mobiles fun, I need a joystick of some kind for serious play. I'd also hate to be forced into a tiny screen all the time.

 

[Nolan]

If its has bull**** F2P business strategy and not an upfront price per table, I wont buy it.

If it is mobile only, Ill never play it.

Just some feedback from a devoted customer.

 

[pm1109]

I think it's safe to say that we won't see a Stern table per month and there won't be season releases on SPA.

Maybe one table per quarter aye

 

[invitro]

What do you guys know about Farsight working with Stern designers to make new designs for SPA? I found this article which is a year and a half old:

Virtual games bring pinball to new audiences
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26018682
3 Febuary 2014

I don't remember hearing this news here, but I miss a lot and I'm not always observant . This idea is very interesting to me, at first thought.

Here are a few quotes:

It therefore made more sense to reproduce the works of successful pinball game designers from the past, believes Bobby King, FarSight's vice president of product development.

"The pinball machines produced in the 1990s and beyond were very deep and had complex rules, and I certainly didn't feel comfortable trying to design better ones," he says.

...

But there is no reason why FarSight should restrict itself to creating software replicas of other companies' pinball machines, and Bobby King says the company is planning to produce its own original designs.

"We have talked to some of the famous pinball designers from the past, and they are definitely interested," he says.

"Those cost considerations [of the past] are irrelevant when machines are designed only to be built in the virtual world, so imagine what these guys could do if they were given carte blanche."

He suggests that virtual pinball could become a low-cost proving ground for table designs, and successful ones could end up as real machines.

"If we made a digital table and it sold a million copies and it was feasible to build it in the real world, then I think that design would have to be of interest to a manufacturer like Stern," Mr King says.

 

[invitro]

Do you really think that Stern would post this "Availability of the new products and pricing will be announced later this fall." if the app was more than a year away?

Well I sure hope not. But I don't think it's impossible.

 

[TNT]

Something I noticed from Stern's press release. Maybe a bunch of you were aware of this but I wasn't.

"Pinball Arcade has been downloaded over 12 million times across mobile, console and PC platforms, and has over one million active players each month."

 

[Espy]

So will this be exclusively for modern Sterns? Will we still see older Sterns make their way to TPA? Will all existing TPA Sterns make the leap to the new app? Will this affect the monthly release of TPA? They don't really have the resources to increase their output as it is.

Lots of questions, but cool news regardless!

 

[Dedpop]

Who let the dogs out ?
What is love ?
What's Victoria's secret ?

 

[invitro]

Are we ourselves?

 

[Nightwing]

Lifes what you make it