When are we supposed to be getting Ghostbusters?

[Kolchak357]

Yeah they have to wait for the code to be finished I guess. And that can often be a long time after release.
Big Buck Hunter is an average pin. Ok but nothing special. Whoa Nellie got old pretty fast for me. Played it maybe 10 times and don't care if I ever play it again.

 

[mattenno]

This sucks.

I know Farsight has dug themselves a big hole by supporting so many different platforms and by promising updates to two separate pinball programs, but do we think that at some point they should focus on the platforms that they sell the most games on for the sake of getting tables out faster? I would be curious to know which platforms sell the best, and how eliminating the platforms that sell the least would impact the speed at which games can be updated. Maybe supporting Xbox 360 and PS3 isn't so important anymore. Maybe supporting iOS, Android, Steam, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 is enough. Maybe the Nintendo Switch, if Nintendo plays well with third party publishers and gets their updates live quickly.

That being said, the Stern Pinball Arcade seems to be on the backburner for them. Ghostbusters was announced a long time ago and still hasn't been released. I always wondered what the plan was when Stern Pinball Arcade was announced as far as getting these licenses. It has to be ungodly expensive to get the licenses that Stern has used in the last 15 years. To do consecutive games quickly is risky...Farsight doesn't exactly know how much they will make off of a single game, and they need to offset all of their costs, including publishing the game to all of these different platforms. They need to profit from the current title before pouring money into the next one. I hope AC/DC and Mustang have done OK for them. If they can get past this next update in the green, I hope that they will gain confidence to publish Stern Pinball Arcade titles on a regular basis. Everybody wants Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons Pinball Party, and Metallica. We will see if they ever get to us.

 

[Kolchak357]

Because of the license costs, I'd be very surprised if we see Lord of The Rings and The Simpsons. They came long before Stern started including SPA in their license agreements. Metallica seems much more likely.
I'd love LOTR, Simpsons, and Family Guy also. It would be great if they find a way to make that happen without a kickstarter, but I don't think we should get our hopes up.

 

[dtown8532]

Complaints about FarSight's management have been prominent on this forum for years. Unfortunately, pinball as a whole has been showing its own sort of management problems in the last year or so. Just look at the price jacking and cost cutting from Stern along with the whole Heighway Pinball debacle. Though you don't want to hear it, pinball is slowly crashing towards a new recession. It's happened before (several times) and Stern has been prepping for it. Gearing up manufacturing to handle other designs. Increasing the prices to generate stored equity. Just my opinion though.

 

[Heretic]

What happened with heighway any links?

 

[Kolchak357]

What happened with heighway any links?

This thread has all you need to know and way too much more. God bless you if you can read through all the crap and not throw yourself down a flight of stairs.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread

 

[rehtroboi40]

I remember when FarSight said that Ghostbusters "was in the final stages and would be released soon".

That carries about as much weight as:

-Black Knight ROM emulation
-Orbals
-(XBox 360) new publisher has been found and DLC will be released soon (in 2 years)
-The WiiU version is coming soon (3 years before it's actually released)
-We should have the sound problem fixed soon on the PS4 in next update (or the one after, or another, or another, or anon)

Typical, unfortunately. I know I missed more than a few others.

 

[Crawley]

With all the *****ing about mismanagement, broken promise and whatever else it seems people forget that Farsight managed to push out 85 pinball tables in TPA with more on the way - which is insane for a niche market. Without SPA there was a slim chance Star Trek, Mustang, or AC/DC would be recreated at all.

Remember how many pinball re-creations there were available commercially before TPA? Microsoft Pinball Arcade (1998) with 7 tables, Williams Pinball Classics (2001) with 4 tables, The Gottlieb Collection (2004) with 13 tables, The Williams Collection (2008) with 13 tables spread throughout various systems. About 36 tables recreated in a decade's time.

Sure the company could do better in some areas but it's pretty amazing what they've already accomplished.

And does anyone actually think that Ghostbusters is not going to come out at this point? Is there actual doubt?

 

[dtown8532]

With all the *****ing about mismanagement, broken promise and whatever else it seems people forget that Farsight managed to push out 85 pinball tables in TPA with more on the way - which is insane for a niche market. Without SPA there was a slim chance Star Trek, Mustang, or AC/DC would be recreated at all.

Remember how many pinball re-creations there were available commercially before TPA? Microsoft Pinball Arcade (1998) with 7 tables, Williams Pinball Classics (2001) with 4 tables, The Gottlieb Collection (2004) with 13 tables, The Williams Collection (2008) with 13 tables spread throughout various systems. About 36 tables recreated in a decade's time.

Sure the company could do better in some areas but it's pretty amazing what they've already accomplished.

And does anyone actually think that Ghostbusters is not going to come out at this point? Is there actual doubt?

That's right. FarSight has pushed out a bunch of tables. Some run good. Some run like sh1t. The PS4 versions looked decent when first released (which was late BTW when they promised launching along with the PS4). Now, most of the first season, especially, look like a blown out mess. Tables like Gorgar, Firepower, and BK have never been emulated and are crap on all the platforms. When Ghostbusters comes out (I don't doubt that it will), it's gonna be an eye opener for hardware limitations. MY (just me) biggest problem with this company is they refuse to officially tell the public that they've stopped supporting a particular platform or hardware version. It's VERY cowardly in this members opinion. And it also creates false hope for those that cling to gaming products that (in the phrasing from the great film Falling Down, "not financially viable."). I love that this exists to begin with. That's why I, along with many others, are so peeved when this company makes obvious messes that any first year business major would see.

 

[gameaddict4life]

Forgot about releasing new tables to SPA I'd like it if Farsight would fix the tables already in the game. The big issue for me is not seeing the status display when holding down the flippers in AC/DC and Star Trek. Isn't that a very basic feature of a modern day pinball table? How was it released that way and why hasn't it been fixed with a patch yet?

 

[thefly0810]

Because of the license costs, I'd be very surprised if we see Lord of The Rings and The Simpsons. They came long before Stern started including SPA in their license agreements. Metallica seems much more likely.
I'd love LOTR, Simpsons, and Family Guy also. It would be great if they find a way to make that happen without a kickstarter, but I don't think we should get our hopes up.

I've always wondered how Zen worked out their large licensing deals with Marvel, Star Wars and Fox. I know they're original table ideas, but still, those aren't cheap licenses.

Other than The Simpsons, is Kickstarter even a viable option for Farsight? So many fans are frustrated at this point, will the support be there?

 

[Kolchak357]

I've always wondered how Zen worked out their large licensing deals with Marvel, Star Wars and Fox. I know they're original table ideas, but still, those aren't cheap licenses.

Other than The Simpsons, is Kickstarter even a viable option for Farsight? So many fans are frustrated at this point, will the support be there?

Don't forget that farsight has other licenses as well because these are real tables. So every table has license fees to Stern, Williams, etc.
I think another kickstarter could succeed if it is done right and for the right license. We will just have to wait and see.

 

[Worf]

Don't forget when you're licensing a real licensed table, you have to also re-license all the assets - character faces, voices, etc all need to be re-negotiated in order to produce a table. Addams Family is one where Christopher Lloyd refused to re-license his image and voice. Couldn't do anything about the voice as they were embedded in the ROM (but I think those have a mechanical license you can use), but his image had to be altered on the playfield.

Zen, besides paying Disney for the license, doesn't need to relicense the actor's voices - they could in theory just use different actors for the voices to save the money. With Farsignt, that's not really an option.

 

[Rayder]

That makes sense as far as TPA, but with SPA, isn't the difference that Stern does all the licensing and Farsight only has to deal with Stern for the tables?

 

[switch3flip]

That makes sense as far as TPA, but with SPA, isn't the difference that Stern does all the licensing and Farsight only has to deal with Stern for the tables?

Farsight had to put up a kickstarter for ac/dc to finance the licensing.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

That makes sense as far as TPA, but with SPA, isn't the difference that Stern does all the licensing and Farsight only has to deal with Stern for the tables?

Some of us believe (but have no way of proving) that Stern started to "bake in" the rights for a digital version of all their tables into their licensing from around the time of Metallica or Star Trek. I'm one such believer and if I had to guess now, I'd say from Star Trek onwards. Hence why there was no hint of any licensing issues around either Star Trek or Mustang, or even Ghostbusters.

For AC/DC, this came before any hypothetical "baked in" digital rights, so a KS was deemed necessary (until a "mysterious benefactor" ponied up - almost certainly Samsung or Oculus/Facebook, given the 6-month exclusivity period SPA on Gear VR).

As for why Ghostbusters is delayed - well, all the indications are that Stern are the ones controlling the flow of information, and the release schedule. I imagine they're waiting on approval from Sony and MS for the PS4 and XONE versions of Ghostbusters, so all platforms can be released simultaneously.

 

[rehtroboi40]

That's right. FarSight has pushed out a bunch of tables. Some run good. Some run like sh1t. The PS4 versions looked decent when first released (which was late BTW when they promised launching along with the PS4). Now, most of the first season, especially, look like a blown out mess. Tables like Gorgar, Firepower, and BK have never been emulated and are crap on all the platforms. When Ghostbusters comes out (I don't doubt that it will), it's gonna be an eye opener for hardware limitations. MY (just me) biggest problem with this company is they refuse to officially tell the public that they've stopped supporting a particular platform or hardware version. It's VERY cowardly in this members opinion. And it also creates false hope for those that cling to gaming products that (in the phrasing from the great film Falling Down, "not financially viable."). I love that this exists to begin with. That's why I, along with many others, are so peeved when this company makes obvious messes that any first year business major would see.

It's messed up when updates bring down tables from the first two seasons. IMO, the first two seasons worth of tables were the ones with the widest appeal. We may be getting new tables like (examples: Cactus Jacks and Al's Garage Band), but getting more tables and updates have made problems for table sims like Gorgar, TZ, and MM. The latter group of tables were much more popular and deserve much better treatment. Yes, we have 85 tables available for use (far less on consoles), but quantity does not mean quality.

 

[Kolchak357]

Just to make the wait seem longer.

 

[Neko20]

So, even with Stern PA the licensing issue will still come up? So no Data East or Sega?

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

So, even with Stern PA the licensing issue will still come up? So no Data East or Sega?

We have Phantom of the Opera, Last Action Hero, and Starship Troopers, all DE or Sega tables.

We'll still see games like those from DE and Sega.