Episode 1211: "The Case for Callouts"
Kaneda argues callouts are essential to pinball experience; criticizes Spooky's Beetlejuice strategy and Stern's pricing/IP enforcement.
Why company's need to nail the callouts.
Synopsis
Kaneda discusses the critical importance of callouts in pinball game design, examining how voice acting and audio personality can make or break a game experience. He expresses concern about Spooky Pinball decision to ship Beetlejuice with callouts disabled and compares this to successful examples like Evil Dead, Rick and Morty, and classic Williams games. He also covers Pokemon pricing trends, Stern's IP enforcement issues, criticism of artist Brian Allen aggressive art style, and predictions that Sonic the Hedgehog will be game of the year with Pokemon as best-seller despite pricing concerns.
Highlights
- Spooky Pinball is shipping Beetlejuice games to customers with callouts turned off by default
- Jersey Jack's Sonic the Hedgehog contains approximately 5,000 unique callouts or words
- Pokemon LE prices have dropped from $18,000-$20,000 range to approximately $15,000
- Rick and Morty pinball was made in limited quantities (750 units) making DLC updates economically unfeasible for manufacturer
- Sonic the Hedgehog CE will have candy apple red armor finish
- Pokemon will be the best-selling game of 2024; Sonic vs. Fallout will compete for game of the year
- Stern is not enforcing IP protection against mod makers selling Pokemon custom parts (master balls, inner art blades)
- Previous Stern pricing was: Pro $5,000, Premium $6,500, LE $8,000; current Pokemon pricing is misaligned with market
Notable quotes
“They are now shipping these games to customers with the callouts turned off. And this continues to be a little bit mind boggling to me because it's like, wait a minute... You're telling me that you made call-outs for a game to the point where you feel the game is better without them.”
“If you removed those call-outs from the Evil Dead game and just had the clips from the movie and turn the call-outs off, how much of a good experience would it be playing Evil Dead?”
“Rick and Morty. Now, look, let's go back to Rick and Morty for a second. Isn't everybody disappointed that Rick and Morty as a game was set up in a way where they could easily add new seasons to the game itself? And when the game came out, they said they were absolutely most likely going to do something like that. And they have not done it.”
“I still think this game is going to be the game of the year unless one other game I think could knock it out. I think it's going to be a battle between Fallout and Sonic the Hedgehog.”
“And yes, I don't think it's worth $13,000. And no, I don't think the premium is even worth $9,500... A pro should be five grand, a premium should be $6,500, and the LE should be like $8,000.”
“You're not protecting the buyer who bought the game from you... if you're going to spend time making stupid posts about pinball machines wearing jeans, did you see this on Facebook? You look like idiots.”
“Every time you do an art piece on a game it got to look like the characters just did some meth and their eyes are popping out... Brian, what is it? Is this it, man?”
“The world is on fire and pinball prices are insane... I should have been able to give my family that game for no more than $8,500. It just doesn't feel right.”
Entities
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Batman 66· game
- Beetlejuice· game
- Evil Dead· game
- Fallout· game
- Fallout· game
- Godzilla· game
- Goonies· game
- Lord of the Rings· game
- Pirate's Curse· game
- Pokemon· game
- Rick and Morty· game
- Sonic the Hedgehog· game
- Toy Story 4· game
- Willy Wonka· game
- Winchester's Mystery House· game
- Brian Allen· person
- Bruce Campbell· person
- Ed Robertson· person
- George Gomez· person
- Josh Brolin· person
- Kaneda· person
- Michael Keaton· person
More from Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast
→ All content from Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast
Episode 1229: "Something We Can All Agree On"
Kaneda condemns Stern's incomplete game launches and urges community to withhold support until quality improves.
Everyone wants the same thing, but we won't get there if we keep buying right away.
Episode 1228: "The Shills Coming for Kaneda & Everything Happening in Pinball Right Now!"
FRIDAY SHOW SPECTACULAR!