Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast February 2026 recap

Pokémon Pinball launches; Dutch Pinball Exclusive ends; Melvin joins American Pinball as creative director.

Synopsis

February 2026 was a major month in pinball news: Stern revealed Pokémon Pinball (designed by Jack Danger and George Gomez, co-designed with Tanyo on code), a massive licensing deal that sold out immediately with secondary market speculation; Dutch Pinball Exclusive ended in a split between Barry (Dutch Pinball) and Melvin Brown Williams over the planned Rasa game and new investor involvement; and Melvin was quickly appointed creative director at American Pinball under new ownership by Brian Vincent. The podcast also covered Stern code updates and Pokémon's unprecedented market impact as the world's largest media IP franchise.

Entities

• American Pinball· company
• Dutch Pinball· company
• Dutch Pinball Exclusive· company
• Pinball Magazine· company
• Pinball News· company
• Planetary Pinball· company
• Stern Pinball· company
• Wreck House· company
• Texas Pinball Festival· event
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland· game
• Pokémon· game
• Raza· game
• The Pokémon Company International· organization
• Barry· person
• Brian Vincent· person
• Eric Gilly· person
• George Gomez· person
• Jack Danger· person
• Jonathan Houston· person
• Melvin Brown Williams· person
• Mick Brown· person
• Mitesh· person
• Ron Lindemann· person
• Tanya Kleiss· person
• Insider Connected· product