The Pinball Arcade Hits PS3 and PS Vita on April 10th

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The Pinball Arcade Hits PS3 and PS Vita on April 10th

The Pinball Arcade for PS3 and PS Vita

We’re very excited to be launching the Pinball Arcade on the Sony Entertainment Network. We have four great tables running on the most accurate pinball physics engine ever developed. What’s more, The Pinball Arcade will offer players the ability to buy our game (and any DLC tables) once and own it on both the PS3 and PS Vita versions! The PS Vita version supports the front and rear touchscreen and will be a great way for people to play our game while they’re on the go. We can’t wait for the game to be launched on April 10th. We can confirm that the game will run at a smooth 60 frames per second, and the lighting effects and real-time reflections make the graphics look stunning. This is the best pinball simulation we’ve created so far!

If you’re a fan of either real pinball or video pinball, we’re pretty confident that you’re going to love our game. FarSight has been making digital pinball games for years! We have received overwhelming support by the mechanical pinball community – and these are the people who insist on realism in their pinball games. We have acquired licenses from Bally, Williams, Stern, Sega, Data East, Gottlieb, and obtained other ancillary rights like Monster Bash and Creature from the Black Lagoon from Universal to name just a couple. We are focused on building the greatest possible collection of classic tables that we could distribute digitally ourselves.

The Pinball Arcade for PS3 and PS Vita

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A couple of weeks ago, we attended the Texas Pinball Festival, where a lot of people asked us how FarSight got involved in pinball simulations. People also thought it was interesting that we decided to transition from being a console game developer (with millions of retail unit sales over the past 20 years) to self-publishing our own games digitally. The fact is – we’ve been waiting for the age of digital distribution to get to where it is today for quite awhile.

If it would’ve been possible, FarSight would have made this transition 10 years ago when we created an original puzzle game called Mojo which featured a rolling ball. We saw a lot of potential in the game (and we still do!), but we had a difficult time finding a publisher whose sales department believe that our puzzle game could be successful in the retail space. Crave Entertainment saw a place for the game as a value title. After it shipped, FarSight and Crave together thought that making a pinball game from the engine created for Mojo would be relatively easy. Looking back – wow, we were pretty naïve about all of the nuances needed for pinball physics back then!

We loved pinball and were very excited to make a pinball game; however we knew that great pinball design is a skill that takes years of experience so we looked into what manufacturer license/s would be feasible to obtain ourselves. Our first pinball game, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection was successful. We followed this up with a game that had much better physics and a better collection of tables in our opinion, PHOF: The Williams Collection. However, despite great reviews, the sales were not nearly as good. We weren’t about to give up, though.

We knew that we had a great game. We just needed more people to get their hands on it – and this was the perfect opportunity to get into digital publishing!

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101 Comments

27 Author Replies

  • Oh hell yes! Been waiting for this one. And available on both the PS3 and Vita? Most excellent. Birthday present to self: sorted.

  • Cool but what about LBP Vita release date?!?!?!

    Remote play?!

    • No, they’re technically separate games and not connected via Remote Play. Ownership is linked so that if you buy the game on one – you get it for both.

  • I bought a $300 console and i feel like my friends phones can play more games! What’s the deal sony?!

  • PS Vita YouTube App or Flash/HTML5 support?

  • ^^^ Agreed where is Youtube, Flash, and Skype!?!?! And remote play?! Why were we given a broken product!?!?!?

  • dude, love your games on the psp, this will be a great compliment for the zen pinball series, question though, did you get the rights to the Terminator 2 pinball game? If so, please make a table for that, cause back in the day, me and my wife would spend 2 hours on 2 quarters beating the crap out of that game :)

    • That’s one of the tables that we will be trying to get! T2 might even be in my personal top 10. I love that table.

  • @Nick930930

    Didn’t know you could play UC:GA, Unit 13, Raymans Origin, etc on your friends phones.

  • 60FPS for PS Vita to? What is the Max FPS on PS Vita’s screen?

  • Hallelujah! It’s finally here. Let’s see those new graphics and physics put to the PHoF tables as well as the new ones!

    Hope to see some love for the “player” Gottlieb’s like: Black Hole, Genie, Big Shot, Victory… (Haunted House and Joker Poker please!). Also, hit it home with Williams and the new brands! There are too many games that deserve the honor.

    First day purchase!…Now I just need to know how much it costs. Thanks for working up a sequel!

  • I got 2 questions:

    1) What will be the price?
    2) What kind of trophies list can we expect? (Platinum? Double-unlocking trophies (get one on PS Vita, also get it on PS3 at the same time)?

    Thank you for the answers

    • $9.99 for the 4 tables at launch. 2 table DLC packs will initially be $4.99. Medieval Madness and Bride of PinBot will be the first DLC pack.

    • Each table will have two silver trophies and a bronze. You’ll be able to earn them all twice – once on the PS3 version and once on Vita.

  • Looks pretty interesting. Pricing? Will there be a demo?

    There should be a guide or FAQ list that the Playstation Blog gives developers before they post about the most likely questions PSN gamers are going to ask.

    • The game is trial-to-buy, so the initial download is free. You’ll be able to play all of the tables up to a certain score before you’re asked to buy the game (for $9.99) or exit out to the Main Menu.

  • @10: Haha, snap.

  • All I want to know is… will there be a Gilligan’s Island table? That is the only table I ever played enough in real life to develop an emotional attachment to, and I would LOVE to play it again :)

    • I think that this is the first ever request for Gilligan’s Island. It’s not near the top of our list, but it would be a fun table to license and add to our game.

  • finally a release date. I love pinball and l love marvel comics. This is the game I’ve been waiting for

  • This sounds like it could be awesome. I would love to be able to play Rocky and Bullwinkle and the Data East Star Wars pinball machines on my PS3, along with many other great pins. Here’s hoping there will be a demo so we can try it out.

    It would be cool if they released new tables on a regular basis like Harmonix does with music for Rock Band.

  • I enjoyed the PHOF game. My hope is that you guys bring some more modern pinball games in that I used to play a ton of in the arcades. Things like the classic Adams’ Family table and the South Park table. Those were some fun tables.

    I understand if there are additional licensing issues with those however, so I understand if you can’t pull them, but it would be absolutely astounding if you could.

    I’m already heavily invested in the Zen/Pinball FX series. I believe they can coexist, but I’d like to know if there will be a demo table or something so I can feel out the physics and see if there is a wide a breadth of table adjustments as there are in Zen Studios’ games.

    • We will be including many tables that include ancillary licenses. If fact, we’ve looked into both tables you’ve mentioned. Addams is very difficult to secure all of the rights. South Park is more likely to happen, but we need to build our user base up first. Licenses can be very expensive.

  • Thanks for the post Bobby King, the game looks great! Perfect for some Vita time..

  • still waiting for a good game to come out sony i mean this is cool and all but its not what we paid $250+ for even you guys who are a die heart fan of the vita can agree so please if you can keep the hate to a minimum.

  • @18 I have to disagree with you. I have 8 games on my Vita and it has been out less than 2 months. I also have several games on my wish list for the next few months, including this Ponball game.

    I have been a huge fan of the Williams collection. Super excited for this and will buy just about any table they make. Very excited by the prospect of seeing some if the Licensed tables.

  • Never bought a Pinball game for the PS3 but for the PS VITA it just makes so much sense.

    Looking forward to trying this on my VITA

  • Wow, It seems like there is a great new PSN release for the Vita that comes almost out of nowhere! I hadn’t heard of this coming to the Vita and am super excited now! I was hoping Zen pinball would make it’s way to the Vita screen, but this seems like a great game with the potential for lots of great tables. Top that off that it’s only 5 days away as well!

    Bobby King – you’ve made me a happy person today… Cannot wait!

  • Sweet! Looks to be a good game. I will be getting it for sure. I too disagree with all the gripes about vita not having youtube support or flash, its a GAMING SYSTEM, go get a laptop if you want more options……

  • Looking forward to it. Here are the tables that I would love to see being ported to this game.

    Rollergames (Williams)
    WipeOut (Gottlieb)
    Robocop (DataEast)
    Judge Dredd (Bally)
    Black Knight 2000 (Williams)
    Batman (DataEast)
    Attack From Mars (Bally)

  • This is cool and all, but where is the improved browser and skype firmware. You should stop worrying about your device getting hacked, and fix what is really needed. It better come sometime this month, along side the playstation suite beta.

  • 6 tables sound like a bit small but looking forward to it as well

  • Looking forward to this. PHOF is one of my favorite games on the PS3!

    Quick question: Will the table and wizard goals for “Tales” be the same as they are on the PHOF collection?

    • On Tales, yes the goals are the same. We have fixed the Harem multi-ball bug that made one of the goal next to impossible.

  • I’m with Gnordy, I have 17 games for my vita. This pinball is just going to add to my list. A buy one, get the other version free offer and yet you still have whiners showing up. You want some cheese and crackers, guys. Seriously, if you don’t like this vita you supposedly own, then sell it and give it a good home.

  • This sounds great. Will be a day one purchase for me. I especially like the idea of buying it once and then owning it on both PS3 and Vita. Do you guys have plans to bring any older tables as DLC, like anything from the early to mid 80s? Thanks a lot!

    • Most of our tables will be from the 90’s, but there are several from the early to mid 80s that we’ll be recreating.

  • I will be picking this one up for sure! I have never played a pinball video game, but the one purchase/two system deal is just too amazing!

    Can’t wait to try it out, especially on Vita where a game like this should have the perfect place.

    PS: If there is a South Park table DLC or any Star Wars type ones I will purchase those instantly as well.

  • I have been waiting months for this.

  • @BobbyKing. You read my mind. The “Harem” goal was the only standard table goal on the entire disc I couldn’t get, though I probably met the requirements for all the Wizard goals on “Tales.”

  • Hmm I don’t know..$9.99 feels abit overpriced for 4tables and same with the DLCs that will come later.

    PS+ Discount and you got youself a buy :)

    Oh and will this be released for Europe too?When if so?

  • @Bobby King: My top requests are Twilight Zone, Gold WIngs, Corvette, Guns and Roses and Playboy (the bally model).

    And will future tables utilizes the Color DMD tech (www.colordmd.com)?

    EIther way, this is a day one purchase for me. For both Vita and PS3.

    • We saw a real MM in Texas that featured a colored DMD. We haven’t looked into supporting it yet, but it’s a possibility.

  • Is Chris Kline still on board for the music soundtrack?

  • PrimeroIncognito

    Finally! Woo hoo! This pinball junkie has been dying to play this!

    @kivi95: Are you serious? Please tell me you’re joking…

  • ed-said-you-dead

    Does it come with a time machine so I can find the time to play it?

  • Not gonna lie… … I came here for pie. Cake would of been equally acceptable… but I see neither. Pinball is alright… but it’s not Pie (or cake), so I’ll just sneak out the back.

  • Will this be out the following day (i.e. 11th April) in Europe?

    Thanks in advance!

  • PrimeroIncognito

    @hush404:

    I’m still trying to figure out why people make posts like the one you just made. If you’re not interested, why even say anything at all? Heck, why even click on the page in the first place? I couldn’t see myself going around to all the blogs about games that don’t appeal to me just to post “not interested” and then leave. Who cares that you’re not interested?

    And pinball is better than both cake and pie.

    All that stuff will just make you fat anyway. :)

  • I love video pinball. My favorite machine of all time is Gorgar. If you can get the rights to that table and release it, I would buy at a high price.

  • Bobby,

    I love your previous releases. I have both the Gottlieb and Wiiliams collections on PS2 and the Williams collection on PS3. I am really looking forward to Pinball Arcade. I will be buying it day one and will pick up all future expansions.

    I have a couple questions. First, I read somewhere that you were consulting with Keith Elwin about ball control/flipper physics (tap passes, post passes, etc…). Is this true? What can you tell us about any improvements you’ve made with the physics engine? Second, I’ve read about some of your future releases. I’m really excited about them but I noticed that they heavily favor the more intricate tables from the late eighties to present. That is totally understandable and expected, but I’m hoping you will release more tables from my favorite era, which is the late seventies/early eighties solid state machines. Gorgar, Firepower, Sorcerer, and Black Knight get the most play at my house from your previous collection. Will you be re-releasing those tables with improvements, and can we expect more tables of that type (Seawitch, Flash, Solar Fire, Blackout, Xenon, Meteor, Eight Ball Deluxe, Mata Hari, Centaur, Fathom, etc…)?

    • Yes, Keith visited our studio and gave us some great comments. Our physics engine is improved in terms of more accurate gravity and flipper accuracy and we think it’s already the most realistic pinball engine ever. That said, we know there are improvements to be made especially in terms of techniques like live catches, drop catches, and flipper acceleration.

  • I loved both Pinball Hall of Fame games, and I’m surely going to add this to my collection next week. The attention to detail as seen in the “making of” videos is impressive. This is actually one of the Vita games that I’ve been anticipating the most, since getting the system back in February.

    I’m also very happy I’ll be able to pay one low price and have the game on both my PS3 and Vita. This is a great way to encourage people to buy more add-on tables as well.

    Just one question: Will the online scoreboards be shared between PS3 & Vita, or will each version maintain separate scoreboards? I’ll be playing both versions of the game anyway, but it would be cool to see all of your scores (and your friends’ scores) on both systems.

  • Whoever made DLC a common, everygame thing is a scam artist. Remember expansion packs? When they used to be worth the money? It would be almost like getting a whole nother game for half the price. Now, if you want a different character its 5.99 or something ridiculous like that. I agree, some games need dlc to make the replay value higher. But most of the games coming out now are 60$, so why make us pay more. OH THATS RIGHT, BECAUSE THEY KNOW WE WILL. This game is loaded with dlc. If they wanted to they could release the game with 5-10 more tables but nooooo they want to make us pay! I will not purchase this game. Even though it looks BEASTLY

  • 35# I’m as seriously as you can be!!

  • Please tell me that you are working on getting Twilight Zone. That will definitely secure a Vita purchase from me.

  • PrimeroIncognito

    @WHO-PHLUNG-PU:

    It’s funny that you say that, because while I normally would agree with you, actually, these pinball game developers (well, only Zen so far, FarSight soon to follow) are the only ones who are doing DLC the right way. They continue to develop and release more tables after the initial game is released, giving the game new life later on down the road. They don’t just have a hundred tables waiting in the wings to release later for more money… and even IF that was the case, $2.50 per table is incredibly fair, in fact, I think it’s absurdly LOW and an absolute steal! But it’s not like that anyway… they continue to make NEW tables. It’s DLC done right, the way it was always meant to be.

    Especially in the case of Zen studios, you can clearly see the difference between their older tables and the most recent ones. Every new table they release is more polished and fine tuned than the one before it. Their dedication to their craft and constant drive for improvement is quite apparent, and definitely refreshing to see.

  • Will we get to vote for our most wanted tables?

    • You can vote now on pinballarcadefans.com. Later this year, we’ll have an official vote to actually select a table.

  • PrimeroIncognito

    @kivi95:

    Then you’re incredibly cheap. Sorry, just calling it how I see it.

    $2.50 (that’s 2 dollars and 50 cents!) per table, for a timeless game like pinball, is so ridiculously cheap that I wonder how the developers can even stay in business. Then you come along and say it’s too expensive… good lord, give me a break son.

  • Please get the Simpsons Pinball Party table!

  • PrimeroIncognito

    I’d really love a virtual version of the Back ToThe Future table… I hope that one is on the list.

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