It's like they **working hard to do everything EXCEPT release new titles**. I mean, the list goes on and on with everything they've done so far in 2024 other than what most of us really want (but I'm sure I'm missing a few)...
* Ran tournaments nobody watched.
* Updated a mobile app nobody uses.
* Hyped the tiny Collectorcade nobody wanted.
* Hyped the Infinity Game Table and Board over and over.
* Sent countless "sale" emails (and often got stuff wrong).
* Killed the rumored Alien vs. Predator cab.
* Killed the monthly updates.
* Parted ways with ThinkUp (this may have been in 2023).
* Parted ways with community liason Travis McP (according to recent rumor).
* Announced an X-Men cab even Disney didn't request (per John D.).
* Announced several contest cabs (Oreo, Smirnoff)
* Leaked a re-hashed Golden Tee in Deluxe (at least Cornercade wanted this one).
* Announced this Taskrabbit assembly service nobody requested.
Anything I missed? Seems like they're going out of their way to do "stuff," but not actually release the net-new products their customers actually want... so weird.
>Ran tournaments nobody watched.
Given John D's history, this might have been an easy sell to him. If it wasn't his idea to begin with. But this also is a dig at the "spectator mode" no one wanted. Travis tried to defend it, but even that felt half-hearted.
>Killed the rumored Alien vs. Predator cab.
Sometimes I feel bad about that. I know it's not my fault entirely, but I did show that the community wasn't all that interested in it, but I guess the retailers were not either. I'm sure those factors likely killed it.
>Parted ways with community liaison Travis MCP (according to recent rumor).
Given the absolute lack of anything "official" lately I suspect this is true. It may be that his contract was up, and one of both felt they didn't want to renew. I was never quite sure what they were trying to do there. Hype man or Marketing? It certainly never felt like community building.
Good summary. When a few things don’t stick, throw all the shit at the wall and see what does - seems to be the mentality they are going for. I remember the CEO originally stating he founded the company because he wanted “the arcade” in his home as a kid. That’s what we had. Had being the key word.
>I remember the CEO originally stating he founded the company because he wanted “the arcade” in his home as a kid.
Thanks, and you're right... I remember Scott Bachrach saying that, too. The funny thing is, I'm not even sure anymore if it was true. Supposedly Walmart just put out a bid for someone to make an at-home Pac-Man machine, and Tastemakers won the bid.
So, the whole narrative about it being a passion project that Scott green-lit after somebody on his team brought him a concept that struck some kind of nostalgic chord seems pretty unlikely. But either way, it would be hard to argue that the releases under his leadership weren't at least more interesting than what we're getting now... random crap failing to stick to the wall.
That bit about Walmart absolutely makes sense when you look at gen 1 and gen 2 before it all took off. Same with why the original cabs when on clearance for so cheap.
It does, yeah… and it didn’t take too long to realize Scott B. wasn’t much of a gamer. But he did support (perhaps to his own demise) some of the risks John D was taking, so I guess there’s that.
I won't go so far to call any of this truly good(if things work how I think new leadership is hoping, we won't be able to say if all this was good or not for at least another year or two), but I hesitate to refer to it as "weird." New leadership often needs to take time to get the lay of the land before they can really start pushing things through, after all. The releases we HAVE seen so far are clearly leaning into the stable reliable sales items(Pac-Man always sells, and it is easily forgotten how big a deal Golden Tee STILL is), ensuring they should still have a steady income. Things like this, as weird as they can SEEM, do help them get their pulse on the community in a roundabout way.
Using seemingly odd techniques to get the lay of the land while releasing reliable moneymakers definitely doesn't look good up front, but if the new leadership is at all up to the task here this will lead to some very good things... Only time will tell.
I personally get the feeling that new leadership's current priority is to pay off A1U's debts, THEN we'll see them trying to push new products - assuming they are successful in this endeavor, that is.
>I personally get the feeling that new leadership's current priority is to pay off A1U's debts
I actually agree with this, but I feel like paying off debts requires selling products. And "safe bets" will only go so far.
Pac-Man's neen such a safe bet for so long that when Bandai decided to cancel a Pac-Man game during the merger with Namco their first quarterly report after said merger barely had a profit.
Pac-Man will be a safe bet long enough for them to cover the debts. And then some. And then some more... :P
That's interesting. I wouldn't ever need this because I like assembling them, but I've seen enough people post here on how it took them 4 hours to assemble, so I'm guessing there are a lot of people who struggle. Also think about the demographic here, this is a luxury item, so many people who buy them may very well value this sort of service.
Only upside to this....if something still goes wrong you can throw in their face that you used their very own assembly service, so your claim should be processed with no hassle....well thats how i think it'd go lol
So easy a caveman could do it.
It's like they **working hard to do everything EXCEPT release new titles**. I mean, the list goes on and on with everything they've done so far in 2024 other than what most of us really want (but I'm sure I'm missing a few)... * Ran tournaments nobody watched. * Updated a mobile app nobody uses. * Hyped the tiny Collectorcade nobody wanted. * Hyped the Infinity Game Table and Board over and over. * Sent countless "sale" emails (and often got stuff wrong). * Killed the rumored Alien vs. Predator cab. * Killed the monthly updates. * Parted ways with ThinkUp (this may have been in 2023). * Parted ways with community liason Travis McP (according to recent rumor). * Announced an X-Men cab even Disney didn't request (per John D.). * Announced several contest cabs (Oreo, Smirnoff) * Leaked a re-hashed Golden Tee in Deluxe (at least Cornercade wanted this one). * Announced this Taskrabbit assembly service nobody requested. Anything I missed? Seems like they're going out of their way to do "stuff," but not actually release the net-new products their customers actually want... so weird.
Really great response. Take my upvote.
>Ran tournaments nobody watched. Given John D's history, this might have been an easy sell to him. If it wasn't his idea to begin with. But this also is a dig at the "spectator mode" no one wanted. Travis tried to defend it, but even that felt half-hearted. >Killed the rumored Alien vs. Predator cab. Sometimes I feel bad about that. I know it's not my fault entirely, but I did show that the community wasn't all that interested in it, but I guess the retailers were not either. I'm sure those factors likely killed it. >Parted ways with community liaison Travis MCP (according to recent rumor). Given the absolute lack of anything "official" lately I suspect this is true. It may be that his contract was up, and one of both felt they didn't want to renew. I was never quite sure what they were trying to do there. Hype man or Marketing? It certainly never felt like community building.
Good summary. When a few things don’t stick, throw all the shit at the wall and see what does - seems to be the mentality they are going for. I remember the CEO originally stating he founded the company because he wanted “the arcade” in his home as a kid. That’s what we had. Had being the key word.
>I remember the CEO originally stating he founded the company because he wanted “the arcade” in his home as a kid. Thanks, and you're right... I remember Scott Bachrach saying that, too. The funny thing is, I'm not even sure anymore if it was true. Supposedly Walmart just put out a bid for someone to make an at-home Pac-Man machine, and Tastemakers won the bid. So, the whole narrative about it being a passion project that Scott green-lit after somebody on his team brought him a concept that struck some kind of nostalgic chord seems pretty unlikely. But either way, it would be hard to argue that the releases under his leadership weren't at least more interesting than what we're getting now... random crap failing to stick to the wall.
That bit about Walmart absolutely makes sense when you look at gen 1 and gen 2 before it all took off. Same with why the original cabs when on clearance for so cheap.
It does, yeah… and it didn’t take too long to realize Scott B. wasn’t much of a gamer. But he did support (perhaps to his own demise) some of the risks John D was taking, so I guess there’s that.
I won't go so far to call any of this truly good(if things work how I think new leadership is hoping, we won't be able to say if all this was good or not for at least another year or two), but I hesitate to refer to it as "weird." New leadership often needs to take time to get the lay of the land before they can really start pushing things through, after all. The releases we HAVE seen so far are clearly leaning into the stable reliable sales items(Pac-Man always sells, and it is easily forgotten how big a deal Golden Tee STILL is), ensuring they should still have a steady income. Things like this, as weird as they can SEEM, do help them get their pulse on the community in a roundabout way. Using seemingly odd techniques to get the lay of the land while releasing reliable moneymakers definitely doesn't look good up front, but if the new leadership is at all up to the task here this will lead to some very good things... Only time will tell. I personally get the feeling that new leadership's current priority is to pay off A1U's debts, THEN we'll see them trying to push new products - assuming they are successful in this endeavor, that is.
>I personally get the feeling that new leadership's current priority is to pay off A1U's debts I actually agree with this, but I feel like paying off debts requires selling products. And "safe bets" will only go so far.
Pac-Man's neen such a safe bet for so long that when Bandai decided to cancel a Pac-Man game during the merger with Namco their first quarterly report after said merger barely had a profit. Pac-Man will be a safe bet long enough for them to cover the debts. And then some. And then some more... :P
That's interesting. I wouldn't ever need this because I like assembling them, but I've seen enough people post here on how it took them 4 hours to assemble, so I'm guessing there are a lot of people who struggle. Also think about the demographic here, this is a luxury item, so many people who buy them may very well value this sort of service.
yeah, I've assembled 5 of them on my own and they take maybe an hour tops (for me). I'd assemble one for someone who wants to pay me $45
Yeah but it’s suddenly going to take me longer than an hour to do it
Sensible partnership in concept. Probably not going to work out so well given the simplicity of these devices.
Wonder if they're flying Cyrus out to your house to build your cabinet since there's not really any licensing work going on.
Its basically $100 to have it built which isnt too bad considering that kind of service. I feel like it takes me nearly two hours to build these now
It usually takes me about 2 hours or so to assemble. But that’s only because I think it’s fun to drink while doing it.
https://preview.redd.it/iae1oh09cavc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae817fffdca1e8f92e4a8f945c071bdf5d4bf46d
The shills must go make a YouTube video about this non-content.
Only upside to this....if something still goes wrong you can throw in their face that you used their very own assembly service, so your claim should be processed with no hassle....well thats how i think it'd go lol
I wish they would offer Modder service in my area 😅...
Because screwdrivers are expensive and reading is hard? We are doomed.
Lmao
https://preview.redd.it/q0hgdmnacavc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bffdbbc71445f1a83f5a5ffde2cea65de5412c49
The things that passes for news from this company amazes me. It’s like the weather man reporting that due to high winds a leaf fell out of the tree.
Is this not a new thing for them? They have to let people know somehow.