New Marvel Table to be announced at New York Comic Con!

[draig3791]

Well, if you look at prior history, both the original Marvel Pinball 4-pack as well as Vengeance and Virtue were released mid-December. I think they realize that November isn't a good time to try and release something and have it be really visible - it'll get lost in the flood of "gotta have our game out for Black Friday to sell at $60 before it drops to $19.99 three months later" holiday releases.

Being a virtual release, it wouldn't really get any benefits from a pre-Thanksgiving release. Whereas if they release it a week or two before the holidays, it's still likely to have front-page visibility on the PS3 store so all those people who got PSN gift cards can direct their $2.99 in the proper direction.

Given prior history and marketing logic, I'm expecting a release around December 11th. But I have a one-in-two chance of being wrong 50% of the time, so who knows.

That'd be great for me (the December 11th) as MY birthday is on the 13th ;P

[Peridot Weapon]

To me PVZ was a step down in quality of Table development and numerous bugs/glitches.

The biggest issue I have with Plants VS Zombies is to a certain extent, your score is completely up to the whims of chance. I don't like the jack-in-the-box feature because there's no way to control what it will give you (and often it doesn't show up on the display so you don't even KNOW what you earned). Wolverine's "Amnesia" random reward was a better method - you could at least try a last-minute nudge to change a lackluster award to something else.

You also spend more than half of a typical game in You've Got Mail multiball (as opposed to the more interesting Repeater Multiball), and the shot needed to take advantage of accumulated sun is a bit tricky for a casual player to pull off.

[BarbieBobomb]

thanks for the link to that interview Barbie. It's great to get some insight on Civil War. Can't Wait.


That said. I think we should all be happy that any new table is coming to Zen/PBFX2 even if it is a marvel table. I love any table that Zen produces even if it's anther Marvel Table. Fact is players like certain tables and Marvel Characters. Moon Knight was a surprise and it was a great table. I was interested in Ghost Rider but I found the table not fun for me. X-Men was a surprise. It looked generic but oh how deep the table and Lighting up X-MEN was a real challenge.

To me PVZ was a step down in quality of Table development and numerous bugs/glitches. The multipliers don't advance sometimes no matter how many times I get in the Jack in the pot area. Some missions record ball out even though there are balls on the table. That to me was annoying as I was sitting around 1 billion on ball 2 and lost the ball. was expecting ball 3 but the game Said 'GAME OVER'.


I'm looking forward to see what new license Zen has picked up. It certainly has everyone curious.

No problem! I'm really excited for you to play Civil War. While it's still Marvel, it has a very distinct, different feel to it. It's gonna be rad!

[tenorhero]

thanks for the link to that interview Barbie. It's great to get some insight on Civil War. Can't Wait.


That said. I think we should all be happy that any new table is coming to Zen/PBFX2 even if it is a marvel table. I love any table that Zen produces even if it's anther Marvel Table. Fact is players like certain tables and Marvel Characters. Moon Knight was a surprise and it was a great table. I was interested in Ghost Rider but I found the table not fun for me. X-Men was a surprise. It looked generic but oh how deep the table and Lighting up X-MEN was a real challenge.

To me PVZ was a step down in quality of Table development and numerous bugs/glitches. The multipliers don't advance sometimes no matter how many times I get in the Jack in the pot area. Some missions record ball out even though there are balls on the table. That to me was annoying as I was sitting around 1 billion on ball 2 and lost the ball. was expecting ball 3 but the game Said 'GAME OVER'.


I'm looking forward to see what new license Zen has picked up. It certainly has everyone curious.

[Peridot Weapon]

They (the casual crowd) don't have to turn it on regularly. As long as they play the game every so often (once every few months), which many of them do. My point is that the table won't get buried or forgotten, because of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 or whatever latest greatest game comes out on that release date.

Fair enough. But the more of an impact they make during the first week, the more likely Sony will give appropriate attention to when the NEXT release comes down the pipeline.

Enough with my discussing marketing strategies, though. I'm impressed that it sounds like ZEN had to sell the idea for using Moon Knight as a table idea, and they were able to do it. It may not be my favorite table, but it adds a bit more diversity the Marvel lineup - they definitely could have tried a much "safer" table than that. That, World War Hulk and Fear Itself were fun tables because I got to learn bits and pieces of those tales when I didn't really know anything about them beforehand.

[Dorktron2000]

I think Zen will release more "original" tables than Marvel tables in 2013. I imagine that in the past, the Marvel tables simply sold more and they brought a lot of attention to their platform and that's why we have such a large amount now. I don't have Marvel fatigue as much as you guys, but 8 out of the last 10 releases have been Marvel with this next table obviously being Marvel as well so things have clearly been lopsided.

I wish that were the case but it doesn't sounds like it. There is another big name license after Marvel coming up and we haven't heard much in the way of original table ideas coming soon.

[Pyrii]

I think the fact these table comes as "packs" makes it worse, because if only one of the tables has your interest, you have to pay for 4 tables (plus 3p extra :P) to get at least one table you want and up to 3 you're not interested in. This makes it far less likely for me to actually buy the tables. I thought the idea of ZP2 being free and buying the tables individually was to promote choice.

[parathod]

I think Zen will release more "original" tables than Marvel tables in 2013. I imagine that in the past, the Marvel tables simply sold more and they brought a lot of attention to their platform and that's why we have such a large amount now. I don't have Marvel fatigue as much as you guys, but 8 out of the last 10 releases have been Marvel with this next table obviously being Marvel as well so things have clearly been lopsided.

[shogun00]

Those of us who turn the game on regularly aren't really their target audience to "market" to, however. You can't increase your sale potential by just relying on those few thousand people.

They (the casual crowd) don't have to turn it on regularly. As long as they play the game every so often (once every few months), which many of them do. My point is that the table won't get buried or forgotten, because of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 or whatever latest greatest game comes out on that release date.

[gamer4life]

sry typos..

Meant to say *see some more....and *not Marvel related

[gamer4life]

more marvel.......

I would reall love to some some more original tables like Sorcerers Lair, Epic Quest, Paranormal, Earth Defence, something, anything not Marvel related. Like Plants vs Zombies. I absolutely love that table. The Marvel thing is just getting old. The first Marvel pack was amazing. The second one was pretty sweet too. But now they are just getting stale. I mean I saw Zen Pinball 2 was coming out and I freaked. I got super excited and downloaded it right away....only to see that the first ZP2 table pack was of course....more Marvel. Now dont get me wrong.. I love the marvel tables. Every table you guys make is a masterpiece that sucks hours of my life away. I just really wanna see more crazy original ideas...now marvel related. I mena you got a license with Pop Cap for PVZ... try something cool there even. Maybe a Peggle table could be interesting. Who knows. I know you guys have it in you so im looking forward(and hoping) tohave my mind blown once again just like the first time I ever played sorcerers lair. I know you wont let me down. Time to get back to the PVZ tournament.

[Peridot Weapon]

It's not like Marvel Pinball, where the only way a casual fan knew about new tables was by looking at the add-ons section.

Those of us who turn the game on regularly aren't really their target audience to "market" to, however. You can't increase your sale potential by just relying on those few thousand people. It's making sure that the people who downloaded Zen Pinball 2 because it was free (and because they had the original Marvel pack through PSN+) are aware that new tables come out. Every sale they make to someone in THAT group is a victory.

Releasing the table in the "cool down," post Thanksgiving, when no big names are expected for several weeks - that's the best chance to reel in the casuals. Whereas the majority of us who post here would pick up a new table any day of any week. It's safe to say they have OUR dollars.

This will go against the grain of the die hards here but seriously how many more times can you milk Captain America and Iron Man on us.

As many times as they announce new movies around certain characters, we'll continue to see new tables with those same characters. The only way to prevent this is to have The Mandarin defeat Iron Man to break the cycle. Of cousre, then we'd get "Iron Mandarin" as the next table after that.

[BarbieBobomb]

Hey everyone!

We set up a meeting at NY Comic Con for Chip from The BTeam Podcast to chat with Chris Baker, the Interactive Manager at Marvel, and here it is! As some of you may know, Chip is a HUGE fan of ours (over 500 hours on Zen/Marvel Pinball!!) and a friend as well, so it's awesome to see him completely nerd out while talking to Chris about the Civil War table, and other Marvel games. There is a bit of audio interference, but still worth checking out. Chris reveals how the Civil War table starts each game... Click here to watch and find out more

[Rafie]

thanks Rafie i'll do some more sleuthing on the series

Np. Also if you get a chance, if you haven't yet, check on Infinity Gauntlet! Another great series within Marvel. Highly recommend it.

[RabidShark]

thanks Rafie i'll do some more sleuthing on the series