First up, late yesterday Chicago Gaming Company officially announced, with photographic evidence lol, that it has begun shipping its Cactus Canyon Expansion Kits. Well over two years in making, the kits hit a number of roadblocks along the way, but they're here. They are a great tribute to the late Lyman Sheats (who started the project) and they make a fantastic pin even better.
Next up, earlier this week American Pinball released an official code update for its 2023 game Galactic Tank Force. Code updates aren't normally particularly noteworthy, but this one is because it is the first code update for any game that AP has released since January 31st of this year and the first new code for GTF since April of 2024. It's nice to see the company and the creators of the game who are no longer there continuing to support it.
On Tuesday, Pinball Brothers released its most extensive gameplay video yet of its new game Predator. They recruited the world's #3 ranked pinball player Arvid Flygare, to blow the game up on camera. I have embedded the video below:
Five days ago I wrote an article here about how Turner Pinball's second game was on the production line and scheduled to begin shipping this week. That it did. Yesterday, they shared pictures of Merlins going out the door. Along with the pictures, they stated that games ordered now will ship just in time for Christmas.
Very cool to see this. I've always liked Jon Norris-designed games and I love seeing boutique pinball manufacturers succeed. Congrats to Turner Pinball and people who have ordered the game. I hope to find one in the wild again to play soon.
In other news from the Company, it released a code update for its first game Ninja Eclipse this week as well. This is the last code update that will have to be done via USB. All future code updates will be via WiFi, which is really cool.
We can't forget about the industry's behemoth, Stern Pinball. As I predicted, correctly this time unlike with the teaser lol, we did not get the full reveal of its next game Star Wars Fall of the Empire this week. Stern's current target date for the reveal is indeed Tuesday, September 9th...BUT...Stern is still awaiting final licensing approval from Disney for its marketing material. So there is a chance that they will not be allowed to reveal the game that day.
I have to think that they will do everything in their power to get the necessary approval to reveal that day. If they don't, they run a huge risk of the game leaking before they want it to with distributors and content creators being shown the game next week. Manufacturers are always better off controlling the narrative and showing the game off the way they want to than having pictures leak first. I told you they showed off the teaser trailer too early :)
On Friday, aka Factory Friday, Stern showed off video of King Kong: Myth of Terror Island on the line (see below). I've heard that Stern's next game, Star Wars, is that it will be on the production line during the second half of September with machines starting to ship during the last week of the month.
There has been chatter lately that Stern do another run of its 2019 game Stranger Things Pro and Premium models in the near future. I have not confirmed this yet, but if Stern does do another run it could be a precursor to them putting the game in its proverbial "Vault." Another run of it soon makes a ton of sense with the premiere of the Netflix show's final season scheduled for November 26th. I'm sure that Stern can ride that hype to more sales.
Well, it's almost time for college football, so I gotta go. Man I love the Fall. It's by far my favorite season...football, beautiful cool weather, Halloween, did I mention football? lol.
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Thanks for hanging out. Have a great weekend everyone!
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