Official Twilight Zone News

[Peter NYC]

From their Facebook page on 5/9:

We have good news and bad news to report on the issue of licensed tables. We’ve finally succeeded in negotiating all of the licenses we’d need to bring the Twilight Zone to the Pinball Arcade. This is unquestionably one of the greatest pinball tables of all time (and is currently #1 in IPDB’s user rankings). However the licenses are VEY expensive- so expensive that the table probably isn’t commercially viable. Some of you have suggested a Kickstarter project to raise money for the license costs and we’re considering this. We’d like to ask your opinion- is this a good idea? If we did it what should the rewards be for backers, and at what contribution levels? We’d appreciate your thoughts!

 

[djwille]

I will make a donation of 50 euro's trough paypal.
What cost such a licens and how many people will they need to bring that amount of money?

 

[Kevlar]

I've been reading all the comments on facebook about this, everyone willing to throw their money behind it but I'm not sure its a good idea. This is just the first of many tables we want with potentially expensive licences, are they to start a kickstarter for all the big tables? No need to start listing them all here but we know all the well known tables everyone wants like adams family and all the other movie themed tables. Wouldn't just charging twice as much as normal tables cover the cost? or even as much as $10 for this single table?

 

[jrolson]

Personally I think TZ is overrated... Not sure why so many people like it... I would much rather have a cheaper table like White Water...

I wouldn't mind donating though if I get the table for free later...

 

[heberts811]

The first question I have is How much does it have to cost to be "not commercially viable"? If it is $10 I would pay it, however I don't know how high I could go just to get one of my favorite tables on my Ipad.

 

[jrolson]

Another thing is I wouldn't mind paying up to $25 for the table on the PS3 but for the iOS version I wouldn't pay more than $5 - $10...

 

[Kevlar]

The first question I have is How much does it have to cost to be "not commercially viable"? If it is $10 I would pay it, however I don't know how high I could go just to get one of my favorite tables on my Ipad.

I think $10 is about my limit for any single table.

 

[Ark Malmeida]

I'd rather just go with a more expensive table for the bigger licenses. A kickstarter seems like an interesting idea, but it seems like the rewards would take away some of the profits. If you give the table, and maybe some other bonuses to the contributors, wouldn't they risk just breaking even or worse? I've been hearing things lately about kickstarter projects that have had to spend way more on rewards than they thought, which hurt their overall funding.

 

[Danzig]

I won't even comment because I'll just get booted again.

 

[Fungi]

FarSight should set this up as a loss-leader. Sell the table at 10 bucks, hopefully that would be enough to cut their losses, and rely on the fact that just having the license will get more people in the door to buy the app in the first place. Then again, are there any TZ pinball fans that haven't already bought TPA?

 

[ND3G]

Twilight Zone is my favorite table so I could either spend around $5000-$6000 for a real one or help Farsight license a recreation.

I just got out of school (engineering) so at the moment I could probably only contribute about $100.

I think the rewards should be things that do not cost too much money such as:

$30 or more: Name listed in a special thanks page in the TZ options.
$60 Get a Farsight Poster
$100 Get a Farsight Poster and T-shirt
$100-$250 Farsight Poster Ball cap and T-shirt
$250-$500 Farsight Poster Ball cap and T-shirt, small making of booklet
$500-$1000 Farsight Poster (autographed) Ball cap and T-shirt, small making of booklet
$1000-$5000 Farsight Poster (autographed) Ball cap and T-shirt, small making of booklet & redemption code for an exclusive special edition TZ table.
$10,000 or more: Everything posted above and a tour of Farsight/lunch with the team.

 

[ND3G]

Another thing: Farsight should release TZ as a "Premium" table separate from the two tables currently being released every month.

If they are going to charge more for it they need to convey the fact that is is not just 'another' table plus it will increase their monthly income. I don't know about you guys but I am willing to buy more than two tables a month (quarterly in the case of the 360 ).

 

[Richard B]

I'd say wait before pursuing these expensive licenses, especially with so many great cheaper, (or non) licensed tables out there. They should build up their reputation and profits first, then pursue the big fishes.

 

[ND3G]

I'd say wait before pursuing these expensive licenses, especially with so many great cheaper, (or non) licensed tables out there. They should build up their reputation and profits first, then pursue the big fishes.

Well the thing with a kickstarter is that it is either reaches its target and gets funded or it fails and becomes a non-issue. Besides licensed tables like Twilight Zone and especially Addams Family help draw in new customers while appeasing fans. It can't hurt to try.

Here is an idea, do a Twilight Zone/Addams Family Kickstarter! (assuming FS has been able to secure the rights)

The Addams Family will get peoples attention (though personally I much prefer TZ).

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I'm not so sure about this Kickstarter thing. I might do it once or twice for tables I really want to see in TPA, but it's not something I would contribute to every time a table with expensive licenses is proposed. And if Twilight Zone's licenses are expensive enough to require a Kickstarter, is there any hope at all for Addams Family, Lord of the Rings, or really any modern Stern table since they're almost all based on popular movies or music acts?

Another thing: Farsight should release TZ as a "Premium" table separate from the two tables currently being released every month.

If they are going to charge more for it they need to convey the fact that is is not just 'another' table plus it will increase their monthly income. I don't know about you guys but I am willing to buy more than two tables a month (quarterly in the case of the 360 ).

I concur. Continue with the normal release schedule of unlicensed and less expensively licensed tables to build up a source of regular income, and offer TZ and other premium tables as occasional extras on top of that schedule. That way casual players who would not part with $10/$15/$20/whatever for TZ will still purchase the "monthly" DLC pack and therefore help maintain FarSight's basic revenue stream.

One caution: At roughly $2.50 a table, we are (mostly) cheerfully putting up with minor bugs/inaccuracies/weirdness in the software. Rightly so, because $2.50 is only 3 to 5 games on a real table, assuming you can even find one, and then God only knows what condition the machine is in if it's even playable at all. Ten quarters for unlimited play of an extremely realistic virtual table that's always in perfect "mechanical" condition is a steal, even with the occasional bug or flaw. And of course FarSight will be fixing most of these minor issues as we go along.

But if a premium table is $15 or even $10, I think customers' expectations for those tables will be vastly increased. The same goes if donors contribute to a Kickstarter. The premium tables, especially the first one, are going to have to be near-perfect out of the box. If this means that TZ spends three or even six months in house being extensively tested - or perhaps the Kickstarter donors above a certain level could be offered the chance to participate in a free closed beta and thus get to play TZ a few months earlier than the general public? - I think that would be time well spent.

Maybe that means getting the improved lighting/DMD/flipper physics/etc. and some tournament/online multiplayer features out first, too, so that TZ can hit the ground at its full potential instead of being held back by limitations, not being received well, and therefore not recouping its costs.

But what do I know? I just play the game!

 

[PiN WiZ]

I'd rather just go with a more expensive table for the bigger licenses. A kickstarter seems like an interesting idea, but it seems like the rewards would take away some of the profits. If you give the table, and maybe some other bonuses to the contributors, wouldn't they risk just breaking even or worse? I've been hearing things lately about kickstarter projects that have had to spend way more on rewards than they thought, which hurt their overall funding.

Offering those who donate early access to the table in the form of a beta (for beta testing) would cost FarSight next to nothing and would make most people happy since everyone seems to want to help beta test anyway.

Also, for those of you who do not support the kickstarter idea, I respect your decision, but please don't leave negative comments debunking the whole program. From what I've seen so far, there are more than enough people to back such a program (myself included). If you don't support this idea, I ask that you please refrain from leaving negative comments and let the majority of us support the cause, so that even you can purchase and enjoy the table whenever its released. I don't expect anyone to do anything they don't feel comfortable with, but if you don't like the idea, then don't donate...simple as that. Please don't mess this up for the rest of us.

 

[bavelb]

A kickstarter would be a good idea for a one time "risk check" to see IF this is viable for FS.

people who say "just make it and make it more expensive, I'd buy it" don't get the line "not commercially viable. They could make such a loss they might go down or at least will have finnancial issues with other tables. So they need to reverse the process, get money upfront and make the table of that. Maybe the succes is so great they would need more kickstarters in the future for bigger licenses.

 

[IdontHave50cents]

Seeing that I never made a Kickstarter donation before, I'm not sure how it works. If I give say $20 but the table is never made or they don't raise enough money, do I get that $20 back?

I like all the ideas expressed here. If FS needs the money upfront to make the table, I'm fine with a Kickstarter but if they can make it up on the backend I'm fine paying a premium price of $10 for the table. FS has all the data and projections I'm sure of how many would probably buy the table at that price. If they wait 6-10 months they'll even have more data such as the fall off rate of people continuing to buy the DLC and their baseline expectations of DLC purchases each month. (i.e. who buys it regularly regardless of titles, who picks and chooses etc)

Heck they may even want to do a subscription model like Call of Duty ELITE where you pay $50 for the year (per platform) and you get 10 DLC packs a month before non-subscibers get them PLUS a "prestige token" to download a premium table like TZ. I'd totally do that as well. Then FS would get their money upfront and I get TZ for free! Not sure if they have the Activision-sized resources to do a model like that though...

 

[dyleck]

The key question here is the price for the table in "normal" circumstances. They have the inputs to estimate potential sales based on current volume and can spit out some number. Also kickstarter project always need to have a target amount of money defined and that has to be set during the project initiation and cannot be changed further. I think they should post this target to show what levels we are talking about.

Take a look at this link. It shows that people can support great games and all of us agree that TPA is one of such games.

 

[Animator_pin_fan]

I think it's a great idea, and furthermore, kudos to Farsight for looking into this as viable option to obtain licenses that would otherwise be too financially risky. It also goes to show their dedication to helping create the finest authorized collection of tables ever made available. They really know their pinball, and they really want to release ALL of the best pinball games to the fans, so I will gladly put my money behind them in acquiring any of the more expensive licenses. Again, I would rather see more of this type of user supported development than just being spoon-fed whatever the company's bean counters deem is most profitable. We should all get behind this and show our support...