Two things I think the devs should do

[NoLifeDGenerate]

1. How many versions of this entirely digital game do we have to go through in this digital era before you guys get your shit together and stop de-listing tables? You have to know this hit and run licensing only pisses people off, especially when there's no disc to hunt down on ebay. I guess it's a good thing bittorrent exists, huh? This kind of bullshit is why we still didn't get a 20th anniversary remaster of Goldeneye 007 from N64.

2. I loved the Williams Arcade Pinball Collection that was on consoles a while back, but I can't stand these piece work releases like Pinball FX. I just want to eventually see a giant complete bundle for the game on all platforms before you move onto Pinball FX4.

[DragonLord]

And they also shouldn't take away features that was already in the game, like split screen and stereoscopic 3D. I just bought four tables on PS3 to import to the PS4 version of zen pinball 2 becouse Pinball FX3 didn't have these features i mentioned. And guess what, i can no longer import those tables into the PS4 version of Zen pinball 2 becouse the tables are delisted from the store, despite the description on PS3 still said you can import the tables.
Now i have to call sony to get my money back becouse i have no faith that the split screen and stereoscopic 3D features will come back. Also, there are some tables which ultimately can not be imported to FX3 becouse of... who knows why (maybe licensing?), but i don't care anymore. I will not buy any tables ever after this trouble i had with this. I had enough.

[Skode]

Licensing is both expensive and complicated - even Rockstar struggles with it. Your not talking tables vanishing after a year, your talking tables being licensed on multiple platforms, across multiple versions and over a period of many years. How many companies do that?

Only Rock Band is up there with PFX on that. All these years on a different console generation I'm still getting to play my fave table Excalibur - that's through hard work and effort with the compamies own IP. Now think all that time and expense with a licensed IP... Paying tens of thousands for a table like SF2 that literally has zero chance to recouping the costs on.

I hate losing tables too but you have be realistic, in fact I think there's a level of "entitlement" here because Zen have been so good on that front. It's not like they don't want to retain all tables.

[NoLifeDGenerate]

Licensing is both expensive and complicated - even Rockstar struggles with it. Your not talking tables vanishing after a year, your talking tables being licensed on multiple platforms, across multiple versions and over a period of many years. How many companies do that?

Only Rock Band is up there with PFX on that. All these years on a different console generation I'm still getting to play my fave table Excalibur - that's through hard work and effort with the compamies own IP. Now think all that time and expense with a licensed IP... Paying tens of thousands for a table like SF2 that literally has zero chance to recouping the costs on.

I hate losing tables too but you have be realistic, in fact I think there's a level of "entitlement" here because Zen have been so good on that front. It's not like they don't want to retain all tables.

It's not like anyone else is lining up to license pinball tables. Maybe these companies should revise their fucking expectations. Either way, they can't be nearly as bad as the goddamn record companies are with music. People are pissed about this recent GTA4 revision pulling music. It's time for ALL publishers to realize that this digital world we're dealing with needs to be handled better. We're in the second generation (in console terms) of digital gaming and still dealing with the same stupid licensing shit, and that first generation was fucking long. Once this stuff goes up, it should NOT come down.

[cantankerous--]

It's not like anyone else is lining up to license pinball tables. Maybe these companies should revise their fucking expectations. Either way, they can't be nearly as bad as the goddamn record companies are with music.

I think it's more that they had licenses for specific systems and they are a small dev team and the licenses for the systems already within contracts had not expired, but new systems rather than repurchasing for the new systems new licenses they opted to just convert for the new system and currently, not kidding the framerate kind of sucks and people like me cant get around that, so I have no idea how well downloads for the switch are, but I assume not great and probably not justifiable for them to pay another license fee for the tables you and I both want. They intend to update the switch, and supposedly rebuild each table to be 60fps and maybe then I will be on board to buy all the tables again, but now, its on a system that in a month will probably have a custom firmware and I might just use it to download all the tables like I did on my modded ps3. My ps4 I bought every table, its not modded, but on my Nintendo, unless they make it better, I cant imagine myself ever buying all the tables again.

[McLovin]

A huge mega bundle would be pretty amazing indeed. Not sure what the realities of that are though or how it could be achieved (we are working with a lot of different companies).

I understand where you are coming from though NoLife, no one likes to switch a generation and not be able to play the same stuff, continuity is key in a lot of aspects of life and gaming. We have been very fortunate to work with the licenses and brands that we had the opportunity to, and we are always excited to bring beloved characters to pinball.

That said, we recognize the need in the community to keep licenses for as long as possible - that's why we have made the two new original tables Son of Zeus and Adventure Land. The originals stay for good, like DragonLord said with Excalibur.

Cantankerous glad you're back bud! Actually the Switch has became one of our prominent platforms lightning fast, and the 60 FPS patch just released TODAY!