The Pinball Show S2E10 -- ADDAMS FAMILY?!

[Pinballwiz45b]

Heretic was right.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1599823164363751427

TPA_Barcade_3

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Last month's news was also a new Zen Original -- Wrath of the Elder Gods.

 

[Crawley]

A lot of news for Pinball FX with a major change in that last Pinball Show.

• Adam's Family for $10 is great release and a great price. Just have to find out if they're going to use the gold edition rom or not
• Console release date isn't too far off. Will keep the console gamers from complaining (maybe)
• Some additional kiddy style tables to be released: Snoopy, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung fu Panda.
• Removing the ticketing system

The removal of the ticketing system seemed like a knee jerk reaction to what could have been a vocal minority. Initially there was a lot of push back from the idea but over the last few months they made some big strides that made tickets make a lot more sense. And I was perfectly fine with it.

These are the pro's cons I see with removing it. Will start with the cons first since they are significant:

Cons:

• No more cross play purchases. Only way to do that now is via Pinball Pass. This is a huge loss in my opinion.
• No more table grouping discounts. You could bring the ticket price per table way down when bundling tables together. This is a pretty huge loss since now you're basically stuck waiting for sales to appear rather than being able to create your own on a day 1 table release.'
• No longer able to do single monthly table releases due to losing the in-game store. Will be bi-monthly or quarterly bundled releases.

Pros:
- No more left-over tickets. Now you pay the exact price for the table they are asking

While not having left-over tickets is nice it seems the losses for that one gain is worse. They did mention in a previous Pinball Show they were working on ways to deal with the extra tickets. I think one of the ideas they threw out was sometimes offering a table at a discount of how many tickets you have left.

Would have liked to see them continue with the ticketing system and improve upon it to take care of that one complaint.

So, some good stuff in that Pinball Show but disappointed they are getting rid of the ticketing system and all the benefits that it currently has and would have had in the future with cross-play.

 

[yespage]

I'm happy to see the tickets gone. What is the point of buying tickets in bulk if you have no idea if you'll use them. It is always possible to package tables up, that is hardly a new concept.

I'll need to check this out now. I'm not in the Epic ecosystem and the ticket thing just threw me off of it and I was willing to wait for the console or eventual Steam release.

 

[Crawley]

For me I knew I'd use the tickets eventually as long as they continued releasing Williams and making interesting original tables. Plus there was another discount in ticket purchases if you purchased the larger amounts ($50 or $100) you get extra tickets.

As far as bundling goes, Zen is the one that chooses which tables are bundled together. Whereas with the ticketing system you could select individual tables you want and bundle them together. So for instance, when the Star Wars tables were released, there were only 3 or 4 of those tables I was still interested in. I was able to choose the exact 4 tables I wanted and get a nice discount.

In FX3 you might have those same 4 tables spread across several different Star Wars bundles Zen put together - probably getting some tables you are not interested in.

You also mentioned waiting to try until console AND Steam release. With the ticketing system what they were proposing was purchasing the tables via the in-game store would allow you to play those tables on any other platform. Now the only way to do that is via the Pinball Pass. Otherwise, to play them on both the console and Steam you would have to purchase them on both.

So, to me the potential of having a few stray tickets seems pretty minor in comparison of what we'll lose from the change.

 

[gameaddict4life]

Seems like the same old same old to me with the console release. Being cross gen (PS4 and Xbox One) how much better will it be than FX3 on the new consoles? Was hoping for a true next gen console release. Also going through traditional store fronts means the console release will lag behind the PC again. They will have to wow me with the new physics and non censored tables. Hearing that Addams Family will again not be 100% accurate with the artwork is a bummer as well.

I don't know, seems more and more like a move to just sell the same content over and over again. If it wasn't releasing on the last generation of consoles it would be more exciting. I'll check it out but maybe just buy a Williams table here and there when it goes on sale. Still haven't gotten my money's worth out of Zaccaria Pinball yet.

Also was hoping for a stealth drop before Christmas.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Seems like the same old same old to me with the console release. Being cross gen (PS4 and Xbox One) how much better will it be than FX3 on the new consoles? Was hoping for a true next gen console release. Also going through traditional store fronts means the console release will lag behind the PC again. They will have to wow me with the new physics and non censored tables. Hearing that Addams Family will again not be 100% accurate with the artwork is a bummer as well.

I don't know, seems more and more like a move to just sell the same content over and over again. If it wasn't releasing on the last generation of consoles it would be more exciting. I'll check it out but maybe just buy a Williams table here and there when it goes on sale. Still haven't gotten my money's worth out of Zaccaria Pinball yet.

Also was hoping for a stealth drop before Christmas.

Well, since Christopher Lloyd won't license his likeness, it was either they change his appearance, or not release it at all. No other option, so I think they went with the better one.

 

[dmil666]

A lot of news for Pinball FX with a major change in that last Pinball Show.

• Adam's Family for $10 is great release and a great price. Just have to find out if they're going to use the gold edition rom or not
• Console release date isn't too far off. Will keep the console gamers from complaining (maybe)
• Some additional kiddy style tables to be released: Snoopy, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung fu Panda.
• Removing the ticketing system

The removal of the ticketing system seemed like a knee jerk reaction to what could have been a vocal minority. Initially there was a lot of push back from the idea but over the last few months they made some big strides that made tickets make a lot more sense. And I was perfectly fine with it.

These are the pro's cons I see with removing it. Will start with the cons first since they are significant:

Cons:

• No more cross play purchases. Only way to do that now is via Pinball Pass. This is a huge loss in my opinion.
• No more table grouping discounts. You could bring the ticket price per table way down when bundling tables together. This is a pretty huge loss since now you're basically stuck waiting for sales to appear rather than being able to create your own on a day 1 table release.'
• No longer able to do single monthly table releases due to losing the in-game store. Will be bi-monthly or quarterly bundled releases.

Pros:
- No more left-over tickets. Now you pay the exact price for the table they are asking

While not having left-over tickets is nice it seems the losses for that one gain is worse. They did mention in a previous Pinball Show they were working on ways to deal with the extra tickets. I think one of the ideas they threw out was sometimes offering a table at a discount of how many tickets you have left.

Would have liked to see them continue with the ticketing system and improve upon it to take care of that one complaint.

So, some good stuff in that Pinball Show but disappointed they are getting rid of the ticketing system and all the benefits that it currently has and would have had in the future with cross-play.

Did they mention a release date for Addams Family?

 

[Xanija]

Did they mention a release date for Addams Family?

February 2023

 

[Xanija]

The removal of the ticketing system seemed like a knee jerk reaction to what could have been a vocal minority.

Zen uses the form of monetisation which will bring most $$$

If it had met their expectations in terms of sales, they would had kept it, I’m totally sure.

I agree the ticket system has it's pros, especially if you want to buy a lot of tables to get everything you liked in FX3 plus new stuff. But when you have everything you want and they release new tables it gets less interesting, unless they do release promotions.

 

[Crawley]

I agree the ticket system has it's pros, especially if you want to buy a lot of tables to get everything you liked in FX3 plus new stuff. But when you have everything you want and they release new tables it gets less interesting, unless they do release promotions.

At that point then yes, it's no different than how it was for FX3. Basically, waiting for the sales to appear on newly released tables. So why not make use of the extra discounts with the ticketing system?

Going back to the old way they'll probably initially offer a 33% discount on all re-release bundles - which is what they did in Early Access. But with the ticketing system discount, you would START at a 33% discount and be able to increase that discount percentage with the more tables you added.

Without the ticketing system I think its going to be a fair bit more expensive to re-purchase all the FX3 tables you owned. Plus now no cross platform purchases so have to spend even more if you want to buy those tables on multiple platforms - or buy in to the Pinball Pass.

They also have yet to re-release the Marvel tables. So there's another missed opportunity to get some discounts on newer released tables by bundling them together with some of the Marvel tables you might want.

Oh well. I made pretty good use of the discounts and other than a few Marvel tables got all the FX3 tables I wanted. Just bummed it seems like the community outright rejected the ticketing system without even understanding all the benefits. And that Zen caved instead of seeing the vision through.

 

[dmil666]

February 2023

T'anks!

 

[gameaddict4life]

People on Reddit seem mad that the ticket system was removed so.....who knows why Zen changed course. After hearing more about it I would be for it. Faster releases on console, cross buy, bigger discounts on multiple purchases. Would be nice to buy it on my Series S and then have it on my Switch and PS4 too. I have to think the console manufacturers didn't like this idea. No storefront cut, that has to be the reason or one of them.

I'll be playing it on my Series S. Just got a new "pro" controller for it that has back buttons. Feels really good playing pinball with it. More natural position that allows better nudging. Also the closest thing to pressing the buttons on a real machine. Better than using the triggers or shoulder buttons. These are buttons not paddles. Have one for my Switch that has buttons too but they are big and kind of hard to press. Sort of shaped like a paddle but it's not a paddle. Not good for pinball.

 

[gameaddict4life]

So what are we thinking for prices? Tables are going to be in packs again so 20 dollars for each Williams pack? 5 dollars for originals and 10 for special license tables? Ugh, I want tickets. Would be nice to be able to buy just one table.

 

[francis247uk]

Glad to see ticket system gone, great to see Addams Family, sounds like Switch and maybe even phone versions will be similar (hope they follow the console/pc game more closely like Farsight used to with TPA) Little underwhelmed with the graphics to be honest, can't notice much difference with FX3 and was expecting Ray tracing or something similar for PS5 / Series X versions, looks like it may be the same as Xbox One / PS4 versions? Will still get it on next gen console regardless, perhaps we'll see a resolution boost or something else eventually

 

[gameaddict4life]

Glad to see ticket system gone, great to see Addams Family, sounds like Switch and maybe even phone versions will be similar (hope they follow the console/pc game more closely like Farsight used to with TPA) Little underwhelmed with the graphics to be honest, can't notice much difference with FX3 and was expecting Ray tracing or something similar for PS5 / Series X versions, looks like it may be the same as Xbox One / PS4 versions? Will still get it on next gen console regardless, perhaps we'll see a resolution boost or something else eventually

Well we'll get faster load times with the SSD at least. Combine that with non censored tables and improved physics and it might be a worthy upgrade. Will still wait for sales though.