Happy Friday everyone! I really wanted to get out some sort of pinball and arcade news before the end of the week, so here's a collection of smaller stories from the past several days that I've found interesting.
First and foremost, Barrels of Fun updated the FAQ sections of its website with an update on Labyrinth production. The games seem to be shipping even faster than I had personally anticipated, which is great to see...especially for a brand new manufacturer. So check your order numbers versus the info below to see when your game is coming:
"When will the machines ship?
Machines are shipping now. We are confident that invoices 562-702 will ship between December 1st and the end of February. You cannot interpolate as to how many machines this is because there are several invoices with more than one machine on them for Distributors."
There's been some chatter over the past couple of days that Stern Pinball might share a teaser for Jaws today. I'm pretty sure that's not happening. Instead we got a Factory Friday update from them containing footage of Stranger Things Premium on the line, just like last week's update.
I personally think that teasing Jaws now would be a mistake on Stern's part. What do they gain by teasing Jaws immediately before taking their factory down for a scheduled two-week break? Wouldn't they be better off letting their distributors sell as many of their in-stock Stern titles prior to Christmas as possible? If they did tease it, it would be all over the more mainstream news and anyone who doesn't follow the hobby closely would knows that Jaws is coming. Then they might be inclined to wait to buy a new Stern until Jaws arrives rather than buying a game now.
Sure one could argue that Stern has seen a number of other pinball manufacturers rush to announce new games before the Jaws launch recently and that Stern could try to steal some of their thunder with a teaser, but I still think that they would have been better off waiting until closer to when Jaws machines can actually ship before teasing it. This whole show a game that isn't going to begin shipping for months is kind of for the birds, in my humble opinion. Maybe it's sort of hypocritical for me to say that because I love to talk about every new game as soon as it's announced lol, but as a customer I'd much prefer an announcement very close to the ship date.
There's a relatively new Jaws Pinball group on Facebook that I follow. Someone shared this picture there this morning (see below). I have no idea what this is from. Could it be the game? I suppose. In the comments section below the picture someone stated that they have seen Jaws on the production line at Stern now. It would be smart for Stern to hit the ground running with a ton of in box Jaws machines ready to go as soon as it's announced. The game is going to sell well anyhow, but it would really fly off the shelves so to speak if it was available for immediate delivery.
Switching over to the arcade side of things. All of a sudden, perhaps after seeing the success that Atari has had lately with its retro push, SEGA has decided to create remakes of some of its biggest classic arcade games.
According to a recent article, SEGA has filed trademarks for a number of classic franchises in Japan, including Altered Beast and Jet Set Radio. SEGA is also talking about bringing back Crazy Taxi, Streets of Rage and one of my absolute favorites Golden Axe. Here's it's short teaser trailer for the new classics from the recent video game awards:
SEGA trademarks a number of classic gaming franchises including Altered Beast
Crazy Taxi Is Coming Back After 21 Years, and It Has a Lot to Live Up To
In other arcade news, the old school kiddie arcade Chuck E Cheese is pulling the plug on its famous animatronic robot band. It's kind of sad to see them go, I even have a picture of my family at Chuck E Cheese near the robot band from years ago (see below).
Kids are losing the Chuck E. Cheese animatronics. They were for the parents, anyway
Have a great weekend everyone!
Ooh last minute addition...Nudge Magazine just shared the following picture of Looney Tunes being produced at Spooky Pinball. Supposedly they will have more pictures and an interview with the Spooky folks soon.
To put the below picture in perspective, the birthday boy with the crown in the picture is now a Junior in college and the little dude that I'm holding in my lap is a freshman in high school and six feet tall! You can sort of see the band in the top left corner of the pic.
that sega reboot is pretty exciting to see
Can you let us know this new Jaws pinball group on FB? Thanks!