WMS License - Speculation Thread

[Worf]

If it's really an EA exec in charge, then it's simply money. They probably saw what FarSight has done, and how much their kickstarters brought in, and thus didn't want to split it anymore - why shouldn't they get all the money?

So they withdraw their licenses, and will probably try to shop it around - I mean, this digital pinball thing has to be big, right? And if not, well, it's gonna rot, like EA's done with many of their other licenses (see Origin Systems).

It's probably money, and poorly done research. Like perhaps that MM re-release that happened a few years ago and sold out instantly. Perhaps they want to do more of those and don't want to be burdened by a cheap digital copy.

 

[Kolchak357]

I'd love to be wrong, but as far as digital pinball purposes go, I'm gonna have to vote "they're going to sit on them and let them rot" with Matt and Blkthorne.

My gut feeling as well.

 

[yespage]

There seems to be no evidence to suggest they plan on going to another software developer, so at this point, they took them back because they didn't want to deal with this stuff anymore.

What drives me nuts is that if the Williams and Ballys tables were allowed to be sold on Switch until June, there would be a decent bump in revenue of everyone getting the tables for the Switch, or maybe not. I have no idea how the contract is done, if they get coin for every table sold or just a lump sum.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Judging by their website, it looks like they just buy up any gaming or other interesting IP they can get their hands on, so they can recycle as much of that IP as they can into slots. So they will take the most marketable IPs from the WMS licenses for their slots, the rest is garbage they could care less about. But as long as they're using it for their slots, they'll hold on to it.

 

[zdjh22]

Gomez Addams: "There, see what greed will get you?"

 

[Jeff Strong]

Why would they “just sit on it” when they’re making money from it? That doesn’t make any sense to me...just spitballing here, but it seems logical that pulling out of Farsight’s deal would indicate that they want to make more money somewhere else, but I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

 

[Tom Devaney]

Don’t forget that H1Z1 was once the king long before anyone had even heard of PUBG, and it was dethroned, and now look at it...and Fornite has really only been popular for a few short months...so anything can happen in this industry.

It's obviously not impossible, but it's just a weird thing. If I've already spent a bunch of money on skins in Fortnite, it'd take a really special game for me to invest time and money into a different Battle Royale. If it was basically a Fortnite clone, I wouldn't invest anything. So the digital pinball game they'd be working on would have to be something very special if they wanted to steal our thunder. They'd really have to be backing on the point that people would want to buy the table again in a different game even though they already own it in Pinball Arcade, which is a gamble.

 

[shogun00]

Why would they “just sit on it” when they’re making money from it?

We don't know how much money they were making off of digital pinball, but we do know that they are making billions in slot machine manufacturing.

If the amount is very little, then the cost of hiring someone to manage those pinball licenses is a waste of time and resources. They could use that employee to create a new slot machine and make millions. Clearly, Scientific Games acquired WMS for their well known IPs, so they can make new slot machines off of them. Just look at their website. Not a single mention of pinball or digital pinball on it. But I do see a Monsters of Rock (Monster Bash) theme slot machine coming out soon.

https://www.sggaming.com/games/wms

To be honest, I would love to be proven wrong though.

 

[Citizen]

Although it's true that SG has used a few of WMS' IPs to create gambling machines, I doubt that's why SG decided to obtain WMS. From 1994 to the acquisition in 2013, WMS operated as a successful gambling machine company. SG most likely purchased them to eliminate a competitior from the casino scene and gain access to their popular machines.

Old pinball assets probably weren't what SG was buying for themselves, so they'd have even less reason to care.

 

[yespage]

According to their 2018 First Quarter numbers, they took in $811 million (for the first three months!). $43.8 million was from "Gaming and Other", of which Farsight was some portion of that slice. So a fraction of a fraction, meaning, not too much.

And as of now, I've officially put too much effort into this.

 

[Crawley]

I've been at two companies now where we've been bought out by multi-billion dollar companies. In both cases over a year or so they sunsetted or shut down any projects that the execs saw were not making enough money to be worthwhile. I had been on 3 separate projects that were sunsetted and 2 of those made a few million a year regularly - the other one I was surprised hung around as long as it did before they found out it wasn't making much money. But a few million a year is a drop in the bucket for the large companies. If the product isn't making <insert arbitrary millions value here that an exec has decided> then its not worth considering.

 

[FarSight_Matt]

Yeah if it's making less than ~$3 million it costs more to discuss and manage it than it brings in.

 

[wolfson]

fellas , what you all said above is how I look at it . I get pissed off with greed . I want the WMS tables just as much as everyone of us . even though I don`t hold up much hope of seeing anymore WMS tables , you never know , a lightning bolt might hit someones head and they have a nice change of mind !!! if not we should look forward . for me the best tables were from 1970 -1985 , and that`s what I`m looking forward to !!! Farsight bring on the Gottlieb , Stern and any other brand your hands can get a hold of !!!

 

[shogun00]

According to their 2018 First Quarter numbers, they took in $811 million (for the first three months!). $43.8 million was from "Gaming and Other", of which Farsight was some portion of that slice. So a fraction of a fraction, meaning, not too much.

And most of it was probably coming from gambling web browser apps. Something that SG also specializes in.

 

[Jeff Strong]

It's obviously not impossible, but it's just a weird thing. If I've already spent a bunch of money on skins in Fortnite, it'd take a really special game for me to invest time and money into a different Battle Royale. If it was basically a Fortnite clone, I wouldn't invest anything. So the digital pinball game they'd be working on would have to be something very special if they wanted to steal our thunder. They'd really have to be backing on the point that people would want to buy the table again in a different game even though they already own it in Pinball Arcade, which is a gamble.

That’s kinda my point though. H1Z1 was all the rage before anyone had even heard the name Fortnite, then they came along and offered a better experience. History tells us they aren’t the first nor will they be the last to do that as things are always progressing in the video game industry.

I know digital pinball is a much smaller segment of the industry, but that doesn’t mean someone can’t come along with a vision for something greater than we’ve already seen...who knows. Here’s to hoping.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

EverQuest. Ultima Online. Both overtaken and dwarfed by WoW.

That’s kinda my point though. H1Z1 was all the rage before anyone had even heard the name Fortnite, then they came along and offered a better experience. History tells us they aren’t the first nor will they be the last to do that as things are always progressing in the video game industry.

I know digital pinball is a much smaller segment of the industry, but that doesn’t mean someone can’t come along with a vision for something greater than we’ve already seen...who knows. Here’s to hoping.

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[shutyertrap]

Guitar Hero had 2 releases before Rock Band came out, and for a while there both were so popular they even shared certain songs. Point being, people will pay twice for the same thing even when it’s not wildly different.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

How many people bought both the HoF collections and all of TPA?

Guitar Hero had 2 releases before Rock Band came out, and for a while there both were so popular they even shared certain songs. Point being, people will pay twice for the same thing even when it’s not wildly different.

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[Pinballwiz45b]

How many people bought both the HoF collections and all of TPA?

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I still have both Wii games, and am planning on returning to both of them fairly soon, if only on occasion from then on.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Beyond software, people bought movies on VHS. Then on DVD. Then digitally (I have the original Star Wars trilogy in all three formats, all bought separately).

Or music, tape/vinyl was doubled up on CD, and (for those not part of the "ripping" generation), digitally too.

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