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Stern to test market with lower-feature lower-priced Batman. Costco


NMD

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They posted this on their facebook;

 

We are running a market test with Costco. A lower-feature, lower-priced Batman game custom-designed for Costco is available only at 16 locations around the country Each unit is priced at $3,299. The test is designed to determine the market reception to a pinball game model that is simpler and lower cost than our traditional games. We will continue to build our traditional pinball games as well as collector models.

 

Someone has commented that;

 

"Not sure if everyone else knows what was modified but from what I have heard the teeter-totter in upper left is missing and the joker spinner is missing."

 

Will be interesting to see, do you guys think itll bring in more first time buyers or more ops will pick the game up?

 

Stern have been interacting a lot with people lately on facebook and have also given a glimpse of their new website soon to be released which will include a forum.

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I really enjoyed playing sterns batman and although i only had 10 games on it i never made it to the teeter totter device anyhow so i cant see it making that much difference in fact it could improve the overall gamplay of the pin if that area of the pin became more accesible to a newb player like myself:laugh: the spinning joker was a nice touch but isnt that important in the overall gameplay.stern might be on a winner there once the us reccesion is finished.
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Didnt I say 6 months ago they needed to make simpler machines with a cheaper price tag, huh? huh? Was I right? huh? huh? :)

 

I guess we can only wait and see if it will work for them or not, $3300 is still a hefty price tag but alot more achieveable than $4500

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I like BTDK as it is. I'd buy an original one with updated home roms. The teeter totter is cool and the game would be pretty so/so without it. The spinning joker I can take or leave biut it's nice to have it on the playfield. I like the artwork on the cab and the gameplay is pretty cool. The heath ledger tribute/tie in is a bonus for me too.

A lot of peolpe don't like this machine but it appeals to me, it's on my radar if I could find one ata decent price.

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Very interesting, I just hope that they look at that Spanish manufacturer and start taking some of their ideas on board with regards to the electrical design of the machines.

 

Wonder if they'll remove the coin door and make it free play only (i.e. only for home use)?

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Yeah seems to be quite different doesn't it, and if it's only ~$1000 cheaper i don't know that it'll sell that well, being so different - if it was only missing what was first said then maybe.
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http://groups.google.com.au/group/rec.games.pinball/msg/972cc4208be1f355?hl=en

 

I think the guy at the bottom of that link has a pretty interesting point, what if Stern release a game straight to costco for the home market? There would be nothing to compare it to and what if it played nice? You may see people buying it at the costco price point. People are also saying they feel that Iron Man was made on the BDK costco budget because of its lack of toys, probably a similar cost to produce the costco BDK and IM though with costco BDK they already had an entire machine to work with.

 

I don't think the "mini playfield" on BDK would be a huge loss, its pretty pointless anyway like the one on LOTR. I dont like how they have taken a ramp out of the game though.

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the idea of having cheaper pins being made is great, and the cheaper version is a good looking machine on its own, would probably sell beter if they released cheap version as 1st release for home/private sales, then release the premium machine say 6-12 months later for comercial use.
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Ok , so I buy a Pin from Cosco ,take it home and she don't fire up , who comes around to fix it ? who pays for the service call ?

I know if I buy a pin from AMD and it spits the Dummy AMD pays for a service call out of their pocket .

It's factored in to the profit bizo.

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Yeah but where's the cost saving in doing that? its no different than what Ford and Holden did and still do. you get your base model EG Kingswood, the cheaper version Belmont then the upmarket one Premier.
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Anything that generates income for Stern is good. If they solely relied on 'complete' pins they will only just survive or go bust. If these Cosco pins really take off then Stern will have CASH to spend.

 

Can't be all bad right?

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