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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shutyertrap" data-source="post: 286317" data-attributes="member: 134">FarSight never wanted to create their own tables, full stop.They had the opportunity to have the license to do the Sega South Park table, but in was contingent on them making an original table too. They declined, said that's not what they do, next thing you know Zen is doing South Park tables. Funny how that works, no?A lot of this what Zen should and shouldn't do discussion brings up another point FarSight made. For as much as a vocal group of people begged for EM machines, and for as much as FarSight made the point of saying Big Shot was one of their most played tables in the game, they simply didn't make hardly any EMs. The reason was those packs didn't sell nearly as well as SS/Alpha Numerics, which themselves didn't sell nearly as well as DMDs. In the land of DMD, guess which sell the most? Yep, licensed. So we can go back and forth all we want about what's best, what people want, what will extend the life of a company, but they are the ones with the sales figures. They are the ones that know where the profit margins are, what the man hours spent creating from scratch a table versus a recreation are, and one we're all forgetting, what the long term goals are for the company. We can guess and speculate and wish all we want. We can be like 'Last Jedi' haters who swore up and down that they would boycott future movies because of how much that one wrecked their childhood, only to see the new trailer and go, "well it seems maybe you learned your lesson, I'll go. But I've got my eyes on you!"James Cameron had a fascinating take on mega budget movies around the time True Lies was releasing. There was this cry from critics mostly, that the small, mid budget movies were getting squeezed from being made in favor of the 100 million movie (how quaint!), but why should they when they could be so much more profitable if they are a hit? Keep in mind Blair Witch had just cleaned up at the box office on a fraction of even a small budgeted film. Cameron essentially said he'd rather bet on the big budget film that has a better chance at grabbing a mega sized audience than a small film that has to fight to even be seen, no matter the quality, and though it's profit margin will be tremendous, will never turn over a huge payday. And then of course he dropped Titanic on the world and laughed all the way to the bank.Point being, a Zen original, even using a license, I suspect is simply never going to sell as well as a recreation table. Stern is cranking out new pinball around 4 times a year. All these young millenials are playing those, and that inspires them to look seek more. Most places that have these machines have at least one older title. Person plays one of those, down the rabbit hole they go. Think about music that you weren't alive for on the radio, but one band leads you back a little, making you wonder where that sound came from. Soon you listen to a flashback weekend, or tune into a station that plays older music, and you inherently feel the difference, the nostalgia speaks even when you don't have any connection. It's amazing how we as humans can suss out what is manufactured nostalgia from true. A modern band can try for an 80's sound, but they'll never fool anyone into thinking they actually were from then. Same goes for pinball, why these old designers are still being hired today. The simple act of playing pinball is rife with nostalgia, even to a new player.</blockquote>

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