Dutch Pinball announced today that its next machine will be based on Back to the Future, with a short teaser video on Facebook. It's the first time Dutch has confirmed it through official channels, even if there's been quite a bit of teasing along the way.
"It's official," the post reads. "Dutch Pinball is going BACK TO THE FUTURE™." The 16-second teaser is a moody one: the clock tower in silhouette, a storm, two trails of fire, and Dutch's logo done up in Back to the Future-style lettering over "Q2 2027."
That's about all that's official. Dutch hasn't shown the machine, named a price, opened orders or said who's designing it, and the teaser doesn't say whether Q2 2027 is a reveal, an order window or a ship date (presumably it's the reveal date).
The Jesus Edition announcement in August was one of those teases. Dutch said it wanted to give The Big Lebowski a special edition "before we look to the future and the road ahead." Fans have been waiting just as long. Back to the Future sits at #2 on the Kineticist Hype Index with an 84/100 community hype score, up from #7 in August.
None of the team is official, so treat all of this as rumor. We're hearing Christopher Franchi is the artist, and that Dutch co-founder Barry Driessen, who designed The Big Lebowski, will design it. Joe Kaminkow, who co-designed Data East's Back to the Future in 1990, is said to be helping on the licensing side. Jean-Paul de Win, who has a credit on The Big Lebowski, and Bob Gale, who co-wrote and produced the films, are rumored to be involved as well.
Still, is Back to the Future the license everyone says it is? The first movie is 41 years old, and nobody has built a machine on it since Data East 36 years ago. Part of the reason is probably that it isn't evergreen the way a lot of modern franchise IP is. No new movies or shows are feeding it, and other than a stage musical, which is a niche thing, nothing is bringing in new fans. You either grew up with it or you didn't. The film's Wikipedia traffic, which our Hype Index tracks, has been flat at about 24,000 views a week.
A Back to the Future license doesn't automatically come with the actors, the DeLorean, the music or film footage. Michael J. Fox famously wouldn't let Data East use his likeness in 1990, so the Marty McFly on that game's art is a lookalike in sunglasses (Brad Faris, son of the game's artist, Paul Faris). The lore in the pinball community has always been that Back to the Future is exceptionally tough to license, which may be why nobody else picked it up before now.
Then there's Dutch's track record. The Big Lebowski was announced in 2014, first reached buyers in 2016, then stalled for years in a payment dispute with its contract manufacturer before Dutch brought production in-house. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland shipped under DPX, a sub-brand Dutch ran with Melvin Williams, which wound down in February when Williams left and new investors came in. Alice builds have run slow, and its toppers slipped again this spring. It's wild to think about it this way, but Back to the Future would technically be Dutch Pinball's second-ever major release under its own brand name, and the first it builds with those new investors behind it.
So be excited, but I wouldn't rush a deposit. Wait to see the game, what it costs, how it plays, and when Dutch can actually ship it.
