The Pinball Arcade Catch-All

I don't use Facebook so yeah... :/

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

FarSight needs a Community Manager more than just about any games company in history aside from maybe 3000AD. I hadn't heard about the Terminator licensing window (likely because I never read that anywhere, surprise) but yeah, I still don't have working PS3/Vita codes for the last two Kickstarter tables and they still haven't given me an answer. I so admire what FarSight is trying to do but they don't know how to handle Kickstarters properly. They need a dedicated support person and a dedicated community person.

They supposedly have one now (I believe her name is Rosa), but I'm sure that there's going to be a lot of catch up work.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I don't use Facebook so yeah... :/

If you'd like to PM me a contact email address, I'll write them through Facebook for you. It's up to you.

Pinball Arcade updates might finally be headed to XBox 360!? Still a rumor, but from Joystiq:

Xbox 360 developers may be able to self-publish their games on Xbox Live Arcade starting this August, according to a recent update from The Pinball Arcade developer FarSight Studios. Microsoft, however, maintains that there have been no official changes to the Xbox 360's publishing situation: "We have not announced any changes to our publishing policy for Xbox 360," a representative told Joystiq.

..

Sure, no comment, but for Pinball Arcade to finally be brought back to life on the XBLA is awesome!

I don't get why FarSight's had so much trouble just finding a new publisher. Crave was nearly broke for years and now finally is broke. If Pinball Arcade was making money, you think anyone (or just Microsoft Studios) would have happily scooped it up by now.

I think it's more a legal issue

Pinball Arcade is launching November 1st on Steam, table packs #1 thru 18 are available Day 1.

That's gonna' be an expensive-ass launch.

Definitely curious to see how this feels using a landscape-position display (PC monitor). Playing on my Asus Transformer in portrait position just works so well for me, as I use view setting #2. I've played several times in landscape position (with a lower viewing angle) while lying in bed with the tablet connected to the keyboard dock, and while it works decently enough, it's no match for playing the "right" way (portrait position).

One thing I am already disappointed in is realizing that they'll be using the same model for selling the tables, i.e. the same "packs", and not selling each table individually. As I've mentioned in this thread before, ever since Farsight stopped giving the option of buying tables individually (several packs ago), I've bought a lot fewer tables than I had before. If I only like one table in the pack and buying both tables is my only option, then I just don't buy it. That said, I'm still glad that they're doing the "free table of the month" deal. I played a LOT of Centaur when it was the free table last month, due to me liking it a lot but not buying the pack it's in because I had no interest in the pack's other table. And paying $5 for essentially one table is way more than I'm willing to spend.

MeatMan wrote:

And paying $5 for essentially one table is way more than I'm willing to spend.

And this is why God created steam sales. Once this has a 50% or more on a steam sale, I'll end up buying every single table, just like I did with Pinball FX2.

CatPhoenix wrote:
MeatMan wrote:

And paying $5 for essentially one table is way more than I'm willing to spend.

And this is why God created steam sales. Once this has a 50% or more on a steam sale, I'll end up buying every single table, just like I did with Pinball FX2.

Exactly. That's mainly why I'm so curious to see how the game feels on my monitor compared to my tablet. If I like it, then I'll eventually re-buy every table I already own on Android, and all the other tables, thanks to inevitable Steam sales.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

That's gonna' be an expensive-ass launch.

Shouldn't the tables transfer from iOS and Android?

shoptroll wrote:

Shouldn't the tables transfer from iOS and Android?

BAHAHAHA!

If Steam sold Android and iOS games, maybe. But since they don't, I fully expect to have to re-buy any tables that I want to play on PC, if any.

They do track purchases through an account but I'd be stunned if purchases made on other platforms transfer over. I'm 99% sure tables bought on iOS don't transfer to Android so yeah. :/

From http://www.pinballarcade.com/News/

Can I transfer my purchases to a different platform?
Unfortunately the markets do not share purchase information, the tables are tied to the market of original purchase.

CatPhoenix wrote:

From http://www.pinballarcade.com/News/

Can I transfer my purchases to a different platform?
Unfortunately the markets do not share purchase information, the tables are tied to the market of original purchase.

MeatMan wrote:

If Steam sold Android and iOS games, maybe. But since they don't, I fully expect to have to re-buy any tables that I want to play on PC, if any.

It worked on Hero Academy, and I'm not using two pools of cards in SolForge. It really depends on how the data is served.

Edit: wow, that is a terrible backend design Farsight is using

On the plus side, I'm enjoying the heck out of the ST:TNG table on Steam/PC now that it's finally available.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted a copy of this table for my house, but with a price tag of $2000+ for the physical table I figured it would never happen... but now it has! Amazing!

WolverineJon wrote:

On the plus side, I'm enjoying the heck out of the ST:TNG table on Steam/PC now that it's finally available.

Haven't tried ST:TNG yet but Arabian Nights looks and runs better on my PC than my iPad. I'm kinda glad I didn't buy too many table packs there. A real shame the licenses aren't platform agnostic but I don't see myself playing this much on the iPad now.

I find it really odd that the additional tables for Pinball Arcade have to be purchased in game using steam wallet instead of it simply being DLC packs. (From post #4 on this link http://steamcommunity.com/app/238260... )

Because of this, it is impossible to gift tables or the whole game, which is kinda a shame really. And it will probably be more difficult for them to advertise when they have tables on sale for a steam sale (assuming they would put any of this on sale).

And even with all of that, I am so tempted to buy the season one pack for Attack from Mars and a few other Midway modern classic pinball tables; if I didn't have so many other games to play.

I agree it's weird (especially the lack of giftability), but if it was Valve's decision I can see why they did it that way. Farsight sells each table individually, in a 2-pack, and then in a season pass. On top of that you have the "Pro" versions for some tables which gives you additional configuration options for the table. Plus there's skins for the actual ball if you want to customize further. That's a lot of DLC they'd need to juggle and there's dependencies and multiple bundles which I'm not 100% sure Steam currently supports.

As for promotion... I dunno. They finally started doing a monthly newsletter a few months back and they can make announcements in the Steam community which will show up on people's news feeds. I think they can easily get the word out if they need to.

shoptroll wrote:

Farsight sells each table individually

Not lately they don't.

Edit: Wait a minute... there's a Mac version of Pinball Arcade, but you can't get it through Steam? I hate having to choose between OS X and Windows when ports exist for both...

I installed it on Steam and configured it, and all it does is nothing. Oh well, time to see why this game doesn't run on my PC. I wish this was on the 360.

The Season Pass / Pro packs are now available through the Steam storefront and not just in-game.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/1...

shoptroll wrote:

The Season Pass / Pro packs are now available through the Steam storefront and not just in-game.

Season 2 pack has fewer tables than season 1 but costs $10 more? Bullsh*t.

Regarding pricing, I really don't like the direction Farsight has been going for the last 6 months or so.

MeatMan wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

The Season Pass / Pro packs are now available through the Steam storefront and not just in-game.

Season 2 pack has fewer tables than season 1 but costs $10 more? Bullsh*t.

Season 2 is newer. The pricing makes sense to me.

The reason there's fewer titles in season 2 is because season 2 isn't finished yet.

shoptroll wrote:
MeatMan wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

The Season Pass / Pro packs are now available through the Steam storefront and not just in-game.

Season 2 pack has fewer tables than season 1 but costs $10 more? Bullsh*t.

Season 2 is newer. The pricing makes sense to me.

By that reasoning, (on mobile) 2-packs for season 1 should cost less than 2-packs for season 2 because they're "older", but they're all $5. The pricing does not make sense to me.

Season Two is in process. It will have the same exact number of tables when it completes. If you buy it now, the other tables will be autodownloaded and unlocked.

That said, I would argue they're going in order of awesomeness, and none of the season 2 tables are nearly as awesome and classic as MOST of the season 1 tables.

rabbit wrote:

I would argue they're going in order of awesomeness, and none of the season 2 tables are nearly as awesome and classic as MOST of the season 1 tables.

Agreed. Granted, part of the reason I've bought way fewer tables from season 2 is because Farsight stopped selling tables individually, but just as relevant is the fact that, as a whole, season 2 doesn't interest me as much as season 1.

2 1/2 years later it's coming back to the 360 with a huge update. Of course the release date is.... TBA.

MaxShrek wrote:

2 1/2 years later it's coming back to the 360 with a huge update. Of course the release date is.... TBA.

Just in time for the end of the generation. Though I imagine that same work will easily transfer to Xbox One.