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Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast
Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast
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Episode 1195: "Kaneda Rants About Dungeon Crawlers, Pokemon Scalpers & $1,000 Alice Game"

PodcastAnalysis updated today19 min listen
TL;DR

Kaneda critiques Dungeon Crawler Carl viability, Pokemon scalper oversupply, and miniature pinball quality for price.

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Synopsis

Kaneda delivers a sprawling rant on Barrels of Fun's business viability, criticizing the Dungeon Crawler Carl theme as niche and arguing that 500-unit game runs cannot sustain a boutique manufacturer. He also discusses the Pokemon LE scalping market collapse, praising the $1,000 Alice miniature pinball machine despite delamination issues, and provides market analysis on game secondary market depreciation trends.

Highlights

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook series has sold 6 million books but this will not translate to successful pinball machine sales at $11,600.
  • Barrels of Fun sold all 525 Winchester Mystery House units and then asked people for deposits on a topper, signaling cash flow issues.
  • A pinball company cannot stay in business making only 500 units of a single title given R&D, licensing, music, software, and facility costs.
  • Dune Pinball could only sell 700 units despite being 'a spectacular looking machine'.
  • Pokemon LE scalpers are oversupplied with 12+ machines listed at $20,000 on Pinside with no buyers; realistic price should be $17,000.
  • The $1,000 Alice Goes to Wonderland miniature pinball machine has a playfield delamination issue from plexiglass that warps ball trajectory.
  • Pokemon LE buyers are mostly speculators and distro curmudgeons, not genuine Pokemon franchise fans.
  • George Gomez and Stern are not threatened by boutique manufacturers like Barrels of Fun.

Notable quotes

“Do you think Chris Turner needs Turner Pinball to be successful, to put food on the table? Spooky Pinball, this is it. This is this family's livelihood.”
Kaneda
“Even after they sold all 525 Winchester Mystery Houses, they after that asked people for deposits on a topper. We've never seen a pinball company require a deposit on a topper. That reeked of some cash flow issues.”
Kaneda
“There is no way a pinball company can really stay in business if you're only making 500 of a single title.”
Kaneda
“I think you're about $3,000 off. I think 17 grand, that's a $4,000 profit for doing nothing. I think 17 grand, you got yourself a deal.”
Kaneda
“It's $1,000 for a freaking full game. People are spending like 600 bucks on a shooter rod for Evil Dead. People have spent $2,000 on a Foo Fighters topper. It's an entire miniature game.”
Kaneda
“Nobody is used to losing so much money to unload their existing games to get the new stuff. It used to be like, you played a game for a year. If you lost, you lost 500 bucks. If you made money, you made three to $4,000. That's how it used to be for like a decade. Now it's like, I lost 4,000.”
Kaneda
“If you're going to scalp a game like Pokemon, you got to move fast. You can't wait two weeks. It's like a killer. The big window is right away.”
Kaneda
“I think Transformers is going to be really interesting. I think a lot of people saw what happened with Pokemon, and I think they're going to run at Transformers. The problem with trying to scalp Sterns is very simply this. If you don't want it, you don't want to pay in full.”
Kaneda

Entities

  • Barrels of Fun· company
  • Spooky Pinball· company
  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Turner Pinball· company
  • Brian Savage· person
  • Chris Turner· person
  • David Van Ness· person
  • George Gomez· person
  • Kaneda· person
  • Kong· person
  • Alice Goes to Wonderland· product
  • Beetlejuice· product
  • Big Trouble in Little China· product
  • Dune Pinball· product
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl· product
  • Evil Dead· product
  • Harry Potter· product
  • Pokemon LE· product
  • Transformers LE· product
  • Winchester Mystery House· product

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