Customer isn't the king?

[PaulJansen]

I have always learned that the customer is the king! When we buy we decide with our wallets. The producer of services and consumer goods have to seduce us to spent money on great products. That is what all marketing books are teaching us. But there is one branch where this is no common sense. In the branch of digital pinball tables the development is standing still and to even put it more strong: in this branch the consumers are about to be thrown back in time. Let me explain....

At the beginning of the takeover by Zen I did not count myself to their fans. But I have made a complete turnaround! I do like Zen. I am really enjoying their fantasy tables and they have done a great job with developing the digital tables from Bally and Williams. They play nice, look beautiful and are nicely priced. In my previous post I was critical towards their mobile apps. But I have discussed a lot with myself and after investing some time in the new distribution style I have to come to the conclusion that it isn't that bad. I have all tables on level 2 and more and more tables on level 3.

But there is something wrong in the market for digital pinballs. When you look at it from a distance and think thoroughly about the development and introduction of new tables it is sad to come to the conclusion that we as consumer are not seated on the front line! No, we are actually thrown back in time! How come that it is July, the first half of 2020 is a fact, and we still do have a very very very tiny assortment of tables from Williams and Bally? The tables that are available for sale are already made by the predecessor of Zen. So it looks like there is no progress in the variety of the assortment of tables. Why should we be happy with buying re-issued digital pinball machines? If we have the luck that Zen will produce some tables this year chances are that the new tables are remakes again of the tables from Pinball Arcade. This means that there are no new digitalized pinball machines for sale and that is very sad. In stead of duplicating machines, we need new blood, new machines, new digitalized tables. There are so many cool machines made in the history. Remakes aren't that fun. Digitalizing pinball machines is not simple, so a low pace is inevitable. If Zen choses to re-invent the assortment of Pinball Arcade we have to wait for years on new machines. Will it be that fun to only re-buy machines that are already digitalized?

Zen, I hope that you will surprise us. Is the consumer for digitalized old machines not the same consumer that already bought all the machines via Pinball Arcade? If so, maybe it would be nice to digitalize machines that are no duplicates?

Looking forward to the new machines.

 

[shutyertrap]

You need to look at the larger picture beyond when you got into digital pinball.

Anyone who has only gotten into it within the last two years has no clue about what was previously offered in TPA as those tables simply aren't for sale there. There are plenty of people who had only gotten into it 3 or 4 years ago and never bought all the table packs before the license was lost. And then there are all the people who only liked the fantasy style pinball Zen offered, so may have been into digi pinball for much longer, but again never bought tables from FarSight. With the introduction of the Arcade 1Up Pinball cab, Zen is set to tap yet another unclaimed set of customers, and when they introduced Star Wars Pinball to the Switch last year, they again saw a huge influx of new customers who came for the name of Star Wars, and stayed for their new love of pinball.

As for no new tables recently, I'll just point you to our BlahCade Pinball Podcast on YouTube (episodes 196 and 200) and let the COO of Zen, Mel Kirk, fill you in on what Zen is doing.

 

[wolfson]

PaulJansen just give it a little time . i have every table from Zen , Magic Pixel and and Farsight which is about 300 tables , i go crazy trying to pick which one to play . like shutyertrap said , if you listen to the podcast , Zen has heaps going on . from what i heard we are going to have a great future coming up for years to come , which i can`t wait for .

 

[yespage]

Zen wouldn't be remaking tables had Farsight not made so many tables to begin with. Farsight reproduced most of the popular pinball machines, so if Zen doesn't remake them, they are making lesser popular tables which would be extraordinarily risky. And while it is a bit anti-climatic when the remakes came out, Zen did a very good job at providing a reason to buy them.

Then there is the whole pandemic thing that has influenced Zen, as well as the entire globe. So the lack of 2020 production is hardly unique.