Barrels of Fun revealed Bon Jovi Pinball on Tuesday afternoon, its fourth machine and its first music license. By the company's own account, it wasn't Barrels' idea. "Bon Jovi asked," the press release says. "Barrels of Fun answered."
Barrels is calling it a limited worldwide release of 700 games, but that isn't the final number. If the run sells out inside its first seven days, Barrels Reserve members get an additional seven-day ordering window, and the company will announce a real edition size once all the orders are in. Games start shipping in quantity in mid-August, with the full run planned to be built and shipped by May 2027. The first playable machines go to Southern-Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta this weekend.
The game is a concert. Players build a setlist out of 17 Bon Jovi songs, work the crowd, and push the show toward an encore, with nine song modes in the launch code and a tutorial for anyone stepping up cold. Underneath that sits four flippers (two lightning, two mini), two physical three-ball locks, three magnets, two spinners, and a captive ball. The apron is a working sound board, with sliders that move during play. Rules are by Phil Grimaldi, art by Jonathan Bergeron, design by David van Es.
The announcement came with almost no warning. At 10:31 Tuesday morning, Barrels posted a single photograph to Facebook, a lit panel in the dark with no context, and one line of text: "Our next game premieres at 1 PM Central." No theme, no title, no teaser video. Everything official stayed quiet all morning while the rumors ran wild.
Design Team
- Lead design: David van Es
- Rules: Phil Grimaldi, Jess Denardo
- Code: Eric Priepke
- Art: Jonathan Bergeron
- Sound: Jeff Dodson
- Animations: Joshua Clay, Trent Armstrong
- Mechanical Engineering: Luke Underwood, Paul Sulisz
- Electrical Engineering: Parker Dillmann
Hype & Rumors
The community had this one pegged for days before Barrels said a word. Three things got them there.
The Barrels Reserve club window closed first.
Barrels introduced Barrels Reserve on June 19, a $75-a-year, US-only collectors' club whose central perk is a second chance at a game that sells out fast. On July 20 the company announced that the first membership window would close that Friday, July 24. Four days later Barrels announced the game. Whoever was in the club by that Friday is who the week-one extension is for.
Then a distributor published it early.
On Sunday, July 26, Barrels' exclusive Australian distributor, Mr Pinball Australia, listed a "Bon Jovi" entry in the New Pinball Machines menu on its site. It sat among shipping and orderable machines with no "coming soon" marker. I saw it, and it came down shortly after.
Then van Es stepped into the speculation thread.
Pinside's running thread on Barrels' next game is where most of the guessing happened, and it had been going for weeks. Barrels owner David van Es posted into it directly:
We are excited to share the next chapter of Barrels of Fun with everyone very soon. Our games are planned far in advance, and we cannot wait for you to finally see what the team has created.
He framed the secrecy as deliberate. Barrels wants a "Christmas morning" surprise, he wrote, calling it "one of the foundational pillars of this company from the beginning."
The Hype Index caught the whole thing happening
Bon Jovi sits at #4 on the Kineticist Hype Index, out of 300 themes we track. That's new. In early February, it was down in the 200s.
Rank on the index tracks attention, meaning how much a theme is actually being discussed. So that climb is the rumor cycle itself, measured. A distributor listing, a club window closing, and weeks of speculation pulled Bon Jovi from the back of the index to the front in under six months.
Its score didn't come along for the ride. Bon Jovi sits at 64 out of 100, and score measures a different thing: whether people actually want the machine. Every theme it now shares the top of the index with is well ahead of it. Big Trouble in Little China and Dungeon Crawler Carl both score 92, The Muppets 89, Back to the Future 84, The Goonies 78.
It lands mid-pack among music licenses. Daft Punk and Tool lead at 91, then Beastie Boys (83), Megadeth (81), Pink Floyd (78), Def Leppard (74), and Journey (65). Bon Jovi ties Van Halen at 64, with Black Sabbath (63), Ozzy Osbourne (49), and Grateful Dead (45) below.
Notable Storylines
Another "secret" launch, spoiled anyway
The "Christmas morning" surprise van Es described didn't hold. By the time Barrels posted its premiere announcement Tuesday morning, the theme had been circulating for days: pushed along by pinball media creators, then by the Mr Pinball listing, and finally by photographs of a finished machine making the rounds before the company said a word.
Barrels' first music pin
Barrels' catalog to date is narrative licenses: Jim Henson's Labyrinth (2023), Dune (2025), and Winchester Mystery House (2025). Films and a haunted house. Bon Jovi is the company's first music license, and it's built as one: 17 songs, a setlist mechanic, and an encore to chase.
The reactions were mixed before anyone saw the game
Reactions on fan forums and social communities have been mixed ahead of the release, with many hoping the rumor was simply misdirection by a secretive company and not in fact their next game. The leaked materials that surfaced just before launch didn't help.
The Houston connection
The translite includes a Slippery When Wet tour laminate reading "WORKING — BON JOVI — SLIPPERY WHEN WET — HOUSTON 87."
Bon Jovi played The Summit in Houston on February 7, 1987 on that tour. Barrels of Fun is based in Houston.
We got the tip in January, and read it wrong
In January an email landed in my inbox. The subject line said "Coming Soon." The body was four lines, in grey text, from an address that looked like spam:
Hey mister, can you help me?
I'm a loner on the run
I'm just looking for tomorrow…At Barrels of Fun
Everything about it said junk except the specificity. Spammers don't name a boutique pinball manufacturer, and they don't write in verse. So I looked it up. The first three lines are real lyrics. The fourth had been swapped:
Hey mister, can you help me?
I'm a loner on the run
I'm just looking for tomorrow
And I ain't gonna hurt no one
That's "Justice in the Barrel," written and performed by Jon Bon Jovi, from the 1990 Blaze of Glory album, the soundtrack to Young Guns II.
I chased the film. A Western is a natural fit for pinball, Young Guns is a cult franchise, a third installment started filming last fall, and Morgan Creek Entertainment holds the film rights along with at least some rights to Blaze of Glory. It added up. I asked David van Es directly whether Barrels was making a Young Guns machine.
He said no. I didn't publish.
He was telling the truth. I had asked about the wrong half of the email. The tip was pointing at the artist: a Jon Bon Jovi song, from a Jon Bon Jovi album, with the word "Barrel" in the title, its last line rewritten to name the company. Somebody handed me the answer in January and I read the footnote instead of the headline.
The machines are going to Atlanta, and members touch them first
Barrels revealed the game three days before Southern-Fried Gaming Expo rather than at it, then confirmed the first playable machines are headed there. Reserve members get them first: Friday from 4 to 6 PM, before the games move onto the show floor for the rest of the weekend.
That's the second members-only perk attached to this launch, alongside the sellout overflow. Barrels is running the club as the front door to the company.
Pricing & Editions
Barrels put the asterisk on its own 700-game cap. From the release: "A limited worldwide release of 700 games, plus possible Barrels Reserve member access. If the initial release sells out within the first 7 days, eligible Barrels Reserve direct customers will receive an additional 7-day ordering window. After all orders are received, Barrels of Fun will announce the final edition number."
So 700 isn't the edition size. It's really the opening number, and the real one gets announced after the orders are counted.
The machine is $12,000 direct from Barrels.
Production Timeline
Production is already underway in Houston. Barrels says machines start shipping in quantity in mid-August, with the full run planned to be built and shipped by May 2027.
Roughly three weeks from announcement to first shipments, then nine months to clear 700-plus games.
Notable Features
Barrels built the playfield around the concert, and the shot names carry it. Nearly every named feature is a Bon Jovi reference.
Bon Jovi Heart & Dagger Magnetic Ball Catch & Diverter. A three-level diverter and jump ramp that sends the ball down one of three paths. Barrels calls it taking a "Shot Through the Heart."
Steel Horse 3-Ball Lock. A hidden magnet on the back orbit diverts the ball into a vertical upkick feeding a physical three-ball lock.
Crowd Amp-Up Loop Captive Ball & Spinner. A loop-de-loop captive ball with a spinner inside it, which Barrels claims as a first.
Crowd Surf Jump Ramp. An outlane jump ramp that throws a draining ball back onstage and into play.
Backstage Access. Three standup targets, a spinner, an exit ramp, a hidden scoop, and a magnet catch feeding the second physical three-ball lock.
Sound Board Apron. A backlit tape deck, a meter, a switch, and functional sliders that move with gameplay.
Bon Jovi Stage Sign with RGBW LED backlighting, custom metal trussing along the left and back of the stage with three functional spotlights, and high-fidelity sculpts of the Heart & Dagger and Jon Bon Jovi's New Jersey guitar.
The setlist
All 17 songs, as Barrels lists them:
Livin' on a Prayer · You Give Love a Bad Name · Wanted Dead or Alive · Bad Medicine · Keep the Faith · It's My Life · Runaway · Have a Nice Day · Born to Be My Baby · I'll Be There for You · Lay Your Hands on Me · Raise Your Hands · Let It Rock · In These Arms · Bed of Roses · Legendary · Always
Those song titles live on the playfield as inserts running up the neck of the New Jersey guitar sculpt, which is where the setlist gets built. Legendary sits at the top of the neck, under a star.
All 17 are licensed and in the game. Nine are built out as playable modes in the launch code, and Barrels says "this is only the beginning."
Mechanical specs
- 2 lightning flippers and 2 mini flippers
- 6 balls
- 2 plastic ramps, 2 metal jump ramps, 1 metal ramp
- 4 chrome wire habitrails
- 1 subway, 2 scoops, 1 vertical upkick
- 3 magnets, 2 spinners, 2 diverters, 2 drop targets
- 2 physical 3-ball locks, 1 captive ball
Lighting, cabinet, and audio
Horizon Atmospheric Lighting (HAL) is an RGBW LED low-profile inner-cabinet system for concert lighting effects, alongside all-RGBW playfield inserts, general illumination, and apron flood lights.
Cabinets ship with polyester metallic powder-coated armor, a matching speaker panel with laser-cut Heart & Dagger speaker grills, EverGloss high-gloss decal art, Infinity Glass anti-reflective glass, factory-installed inner blade art, and a Thunder From Down Under shaker motor.
Audio is a custom package built for music, concert footage, and callouts: a 15.6-inch HD LCD flanked by 5.25-inch full-range stereo speakers with interactive RGBW illumination, plus an 8-inch cabinet subwoofer.
The callouts themselves are pulled from real Bon Jovi concert footage rather than recorded for the game. Between that and the subwoofer, the intent is clear enough: the machine is built to sound like a room with a band in it.
Rules & Gameplay
Barrels describes the structure in its own words: build your setlist, play through the songs, fire up the crowd, and push the concert toward an encore. "Every shot builds the energy. Every song moves the show forward. The more you put into the performance, the bigger it becomes."
Nine song modes are in the code at launch, and the game ships with a tutorial that explains itself to a player walking up cold.
Media
Press Release
Barrels' release is datelined July 28, 2026, Houston, Texas, and opens:
Four Decades of Hits. Over 10 Billion Streams. The Anthems the World Never Stopped Singing.
Bon Jovi asked. Barrels of Fun answered!
Bon Jovi Pinball brings the sound, lights, videos, concerts, and energy of one of the world's most enduring arena rock bands into a limited worldwide pinball experience. Featuring 17 songs from across the band's legendary career, live concert footage from over the decades, era-defining music videos, upgraded audio, stage lighting, magnetic ball control, physical locks, interactive apron sliders, and the addition of Lightning Flippers, Bon Jovi Pinball is built to play loud.
Build the Setlist. Rev Up the Crowd. Shoot Through the Heart. Get Backstage Access. Ride the Steel Horse. Start the Encore.
Colin is the chief pixel pusher at Kineticist. He's a lifetime gamer who became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (the EM version). Since then he's bought, sold and repaired many machines, competed in all kinds of tournaments, and contributes to This Week in Pinball, the New England Pinball League, and Pin-Masters of New England. Previously, Colin spent over a decade working in marketing for agencies and tech startups. He also started and ran a music blog, happy hour website, and wrote a regular craft beer review column for Central Track in Dallas. Once aspired to be an artsy film director.
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