Episode 1219: "Why a $27,000 Resident Evil Pinball Makes Total Sense"
World Pinball's $27K Resident Evil is "honest" but unsustainable; 2025 pinball market oversaturated and overpriced.
Goddamn Kaneda is right, again!
Synopsis
Kaneda criticizes World Pinball's $25,000–$27,000 Resident Evil pricing as simultaneously the "most honest" and "craziest" pinball price ever, arguing the steep cost reflects the brutal economics of limited-run manufacturing. He contextualizes this within a crowded 2025 release calendar (Transformers, Sonic, Fallout, Back to the Future) and discusses secondary market pricing pressure on Beetlejuice and Pokémon LEs, market saturation, and his concerns about unproven manufacturers launching flagship products with long delivery windows.
Highlights
- World Pinball is a Sweden-based company that has never made a game before and is pricing Resident Evil at $25,000 (LE) and $27,000 (CE) with only ~400 units planned.
- These prices are necessary for World Pinball to avoid bankruptcy given their limited production run and manufacturing overhead.
- New-to-market pinball companies with early reveals and long delivery timelines (10+ months) historically fail to deliver on time and many customers lose preorder money.
- There will be a Back to the Future SLE with 88 units for America and 88 for Europe.
- Beetlejuice secondary market prices have declined from peak FOMO (~$22K+) to ~$14.6K (near break-even MSRP), but machines at original MSRP have not lost value.
- Pokémon LE and Winchester LE pricing shows Resident Evil at 2.5x Winchester's cost ($11,600) despite similar feature count is unjustifiable.
- Spooky's Q4 reveal strategy (end-of-year announcement, full-year production cycle) is the only manufacturer timing strategy that prevents market saturation.
- May–July is the worst time for pinball sales due to seasonal competition from vacation spending and outdoor activities.
Notable quotes
“I think that World Pinball over there in Sweden pricing a Resident Evil machine where they're only going to make, I think, 400 total units at $25,000 for the LE and $27,000 for the CE is the most honestly priced game in the history of pinball.”
“Unless you have outside money and annuity funding your little pinball venture, you will go out of business.”
“It's dead on arrival. We know this. I mean, this is going to become the punching bag of the pinball content space starting today.”
“The only game that could really command $25,000 for one is Back to the Future SLE, which I'm here to tell you and confirm for you. There is going to be an SLE of Back to the Future.”
“Keith Elwin has said that Transformers has the most amazing mech he's ever seen in a Stern machine.”
“I've seen it all. It's one of these games where like, here we go. I've got a game and there's nothing more to do in the game. The Insider Connected is not set up.”
“Transformers is going to kill the Pokemon hype. Fallout is going to kill the Transformer hype and then Back to the Future is going to kill all the hype and then Goonies might kill the Back to the Future hype.”
“To me, putting the greatest mech ever into a Multimorphic game is like buying the nicest suite on the Titanic.”
“These pinball prices are stupid. The more the prices go up, the more I look at my children and say, hey, we're good with one, man, right?”
Entities
- American Pinball· company
- Chicago Gaming Company (CGC)· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Multimorphic· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- World Pinball· company
- Back to the Future· game
- Beetlejuice· game
- Goonies· game
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child· game
- Pokémon· game
- Resident Evil· game
- Sonic the Hedgehog· game
- Tales of the Arabian Nights· game
- Transformers· game
- Winchester· game
- Cassian Wynn Caloris· person
- Chris Turner· person
- Gerry Stellenberg· person
- Jason Knapp· person
- Kaneda· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Lyman Sheets· person
- Steve Ritchie· 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!