Bad News for People looking to purchase new tables

[locutus442]

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Official Announcement. (WMS)

Our longstanding licenses for the Williams and Bally pinball trademarks will finally come to an end on June 30th, 2018. Therefore, after this date tables from these manufacturers will no longer be offered for sale within the Pinball Arcade. However, customers who purchased any of these tables prior to the deadline will continue to own them and have access to them within the Pinball Arcade, and we will continue to support them as we do the other tables in our collection. This change will affect all of our devices and platforms.

So if you’ve ever been interested in owning these great tables, please purchase them now, before they disappear!

FarSight will continue to release new tables for the Pinball Arcade. We are excited to announce that Season 8 will launch later this summer and will feature all of the recent Stern tables in Stern Pinball Arcade along with several new tables.

We’d like to sincerely thank all of our customers and fans over the past decade. Your amazing support of our game has helped build the Pinball Arcade into the greatest pinball simulation of all time. Pinball forever!

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Everyone,
Here's the list of what will no longer be available for purchase after June 30th, 2018. (In no particular order)

1Tales of the Arabian Nights
2Theatre of Magic
3Medieval Madness
4The Machine: Bride of Pin•Bot
5Cirqus Voltaire
6FunHouse
7Gorgar
8Monster Bash
9Black Knight
10Creature from the Black Lagoon
11Elvira and the Party Monsters
12No Good Gofers
13Taxi
14Scared Stiff
15Twilight Zone
16Star Trek: The Next Generation
17Attack from Mars
18Dr. Dude & HIs Excellent Ray
19Firepower
20Cactus Canyon
21Space Shuttle
22White Water
23Centaur
24PIN•BOT
25The Champion Pub
26Whirlwind
27Terminator 2: Judgment Day
28Fish Tales
29Black Rose
30Black Knight 2000
31WHO Dunnit
32High Speed
33Junk Yard
34Diner
35Bram Stoker's Dracula
36The Party Zone
37Earthshaker
38The Addams Family
39Cyclone
40Jack Bot
41Xenon
42Red and Ted's Road Show
43Safe Cracker
44The Getaway: High Speed 2
45F-14 Tomcat
46No Fear: Dangerous Sports
47Judge Dredd
48Fireball
49Hurricane
50Inianapolis 500
51Eight Ball Deluxe
52Doctor Who
53Swords Of Fury
54Paragon
55Firepower II
56World Champion Soccer
57Fathom
58Spanish Eyes
59Wild Card
60Banzai Run
61Sorcerer

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WMS Licensing FAQ's

1. Why has the license not been renewed? Whose decision was it?

The company that controls the WMS IP chose not to renew our agreement.

 

 

2. When will the Williams/Bally tables stop being sold?

June 30th

 

 

3. Will there be discounts on the tables before the contract expires? If not, why?

No, our agreement with WMS prohibits there being any sales on their tables before we have to take them off the market.

 

 

4. Will there be any updates/bug fixes for the tables before/after the contract expires?

Yes, we will continue to support all of the tables in Pinball Arcade.

 

 

5. What will happen to the tables that are already owned (or unlocked, as with the Kickstarter rewards) once the contract expires?

Everyone who owns a WMS table will still own it, and have full access to it. We will modify the game via updates before June 30th on each platform so that players can no longer buy WMS tables if they haven’t already. In most cases, if you don’t own a WMS you won’t be able to see that table in the game at all.

 

 

6. Would future hardware (iPhones/iPads, Android devices) be updated to allow the Williams/Bally tables to work correctly, or will there be a time when these are completely unplayable?

We will continue to support all of the tables in Pinball Arcade for customers who bought them. This includes support for users who need to re-download tables they’ve already bought.

 

 

7. With the loss of the Williams/Bally tables, what's the future of the app? Will we see it continued with new non-Williams/Bally tables?

Our “Season 8” release will include all of the Stern tables that we’ve done to date for SPA plus a couple more. We will continue to develop and release non-WMS tables. Once the WMS tables are removed from sale, the remaining tables for sale in the game (Stern, Gottlieb, and Alvin G) will be restructured into different packs based primarily on the table manufacture.

 

 

8. What's happening with the staff at FarSight? Will there be layoffs?

There are no plans to lay off any FarSight staff.

 

 

9. Is FarSight working on other projects?

Yes, in addition to developing many more digital versions of Stern tables, more Gottlieb tables, possibly more tables from other manufactures, and an awesome 2D pinball experience for mobile, we’re working on a couple new cross-platform games that are yet to be officially announced – primarily for console.

 

 

10This sucks, right?

 

We are very disappointed by the WMS license holder’s decision – so it’s not great. But we’ll be working to enhance the players’ enjoyment of all of the tables in Pinball Arcade for years to come.

 

[K0t0bl1tz]

Oh no, the copyright crap strikes again... ? Of all people, Williams - you backstabbing sons of... Ugh!

 

Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure to purchase the remaining seasons ASAP. Just bought the 4th one.

 

I mean, 61 tables to be de-listed?? Bloody come on!!

[SugarIsTheDevil]

So this probably means the trophies will become unobtainable? Or will they change the requirements?

Edited May 8, 2018 by SugarIsTheDevil

[Kittet3]

7 minutes ago, SugarIsTheDevil said:

So this probably means the trophies will become unobtainable? Or will they change the requirements?

I would err on the unobtainable side just because the trophies are tied to specific tables and it would be a huge change if they change the requirements. 

[SugarIsTheDevil]

Yeah if I'd have to guess I'd also say they'll be unobtainable. So it's either buy all seven seasons before June 30th or be content with a list full of unobtainables on your profile.

[Lordguwa]

5 minutes ago, SugarIsTheDevil said:

Yeah if I'd have to guess I'd also say they'll be unobtainable. So it's either buy all seven seasons before June 30th or be content with a list full of unobtainables on your profile.

 

7 seasons will be impacted FML. wish they would discount the tables by 50% but due to the policy they can't. i'm going to take a look at some of them i might pick up a table or two based on the ones i played in my childhood if i see nothing available in this coming month.

Edited May 8, 2018 by kingdrake2

[The-Man-In-Black]

I have a hell of a lot of trouble believing that their " agreement with WMS prohibits there being any sales on their tables before we have to take them off the market".  They've had plenty of sales on these tables before, and I seriously doubt they worked out a whole new agreement with such restrictions to cover the last couple of months.  Of course, I have no way to prove this and it's conjecture on my part, but I'd be willing to bet that Farsight knows there's going to be a last-minute uptick in sales anyway from people who want to buy it before they're gone, so they simply don't want to offer discounts to people who are likely to spend full price anyway, and they're just using the "agreement" as an excuse since it can't be disproven.

 

Not that trophy hunters were buying this game much anyway, since the difficulty in most of the trophies is insane, but any TPA players going forward are going to have enormous gaping holes in their trophy lists since the trophies being removed make up the overwhelming majority of the game.

 

 

[K0t0bl1tz]

10 hours ago, The-Man-In-Black said:

Not that trophy hunters were buying this game much anyway, since the difficulty in most of the trophies is insane

 

Yes, and I may never get some of them but I'd hate to see something truly unobtainable on my profile. While being a trophy hunter, hard games don't scare me. Since they added more trophies earlier this year, I was going to buy all seasons eventually but they've initiated a hurry-up mode (pun intended). So I'll just make sure everything's in my library by the deadline and then I'll get back to this game after I finish Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX3.

[Maxie_M0us3]

Yeah, wathever... All pinball games released on PlayStation so far always have expensive DLCs. This makes a lot of money for trophies and, most importantly, just pinball games! I mean, fucking hell... it’s way too high.

 

I'll never get into pinball games due to the cost for having all the content and trophies.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Maxie Mouse

[K0t0bl1tz]

8 minutes ago, Maxie Mouse said:

I'll never get into pinball games due to the cost for having all the content and trophies.

 

I made that costly mistake by adding a couple of 'free' pinball titles without looking at their actual trophy sets. At least I could transfer most of my library from ZP2 to FX3, and in both of those games you can actually save your progress and upload your save to the cloud or a USB stick. So more easy ultra rares for this old cat ?

[Lordguwa]

16 hours ago, K0t0bl1tz said:

 

I made that costly mistake by adding a couple of 'free' pinball titles without looking at their actual trophy sets. At least I could transfer most of my library from ZP2 to FX3, and in both of those games you can actually save your progress and upload your save to the cloud or a USB stick. So more easy ultra rares for this old cat

 

i never knew one could use cloud save for the trophy's for zp2. that's a game changer.

[K0t0bl1tz]

6 hours ago, kingdrake2 said:

i never knew one could use cloud save for the trophy's for zp2

 

Found out about it from this thread myself not so long ago:

It's much easier this way but still may require many retries. At least you don't have to start all over any more.

 

As for TPA, no such feature it seems. I only hope that the Wizard Goals for seasons 2-7 are not as insane as in Season 1 with Genie, Ripley's, Medieval Madness and some other tables.

 

Btw, yesterday's patch 1.25 added Banzai Run from Williams to season 7 and one more trophy on the list (#118).

[Evertonian]

Same as pack #6 with just one more trophy for £24.99 on the PS store

 

Wonder if the new table is called Ratio Killing Rip Off

 

 

 

 

[Eternal21]

On 5/10/2018 at 4:04 AM, K0t0bl1tz said:

As for TPA, no such feature it seems. I only hope that the Wizard Goals for seasons 2-7 are not as insane as in Season 1 with Genie, Ripley's, Medieval Madness and some other tables.

 

I figured that after getting Genie, I'd be through the worst of it, but apparently there are a few even harder in later seasons. I'm doing them in order, and am currently stuck on 'Going Nuts'.

[PViddy]

UGH, i just spent $210 on season 2 for ps3 and vita and seasons 2 - 7 for ps4... I officially have all the tables now.... I really hate it when this type of shit happens....

[Carbon_Lancer]

20 hours ago, PViddy said:

UGH, i just spent $210 on season 2 for ps3 and vita and seasons 2 - 7 for ps4... I officially have all the tables now.... I really hate it when this type of shit happens....

lol yea no shit god damn expensive, but in reality I personally think $3 a table is worth it, atleast you didn’t mess up and buy tables for ps3 and vita that didn’t have trophies attached to it... atleast I saved a few bucks since I had season 1 for ps3/vita and they gave you a discount for the PS4 version... also you check for table 62 (Paragon) in your DL list? Don’t worry if you don’t see it you can still play it if you bought season 7

[PViddy]

14 hours ago, Carbon_Lancer said:

lol yea no shit god damn expensive, but in reality I personally think $3 a table is worth it, atleast you didn’t mess up and buy tables for ps3 and vita that didn’t have trophies attached to it... atleast I saved a few bucks since I had season 1 for ps3/vita and they gave you a discount for the PS4 version... also you check for table 62 (Paragon) in your DL list? Don’t worry if you don’t see it you can still play it if you bought season 7

 

Funny thing is all the tables were in my download list and then all of sudden they were no longer in my download list but are still playable. On the ps4 they just show purchased but u cant download them anymore for what ever reason... also I bought season 2 for ps3/vita cuz those have trophies.

Edited July 1, 2018 by PViddy

[RadiantFlamberge]

I can still see individual Williams/Bally tables on PSN.  With this being July 1 they'll probably be gone by the end of today.  If there's something you want, hurry over there & get it.  Amazon is no longer selling digital codes for them.

Theatre of Magic & Attack From Mars are a couple that I've got hooked on lately.  Black Knight 2000 is also good.

 

Hopefully the retail season discs don't get too much of an insane markup.

[Darkette]

Buying most of them in one hit is pretty crazy, unfortunately I had to do the same. Hope you guys can keep the motivation through season 6 + 7 because 2 gold trophies for 20+ tables of dedication isn’t rewarding at all.

[Carbon_Lancer]

8 hours ago, Dark said:

Buying most of them in one hit is pretty crazy, unfortunately I had to do the same. Hope you guys can keep the motivation through season 6 + 7 because 2 gold trophies for 20+ tables of dedication isn’t rewarding at all.

Ouch.... I was buying 1 or 2 seasons a week, I figure 2 seasons is same price as a new game.

[Butella]

i bought a used copy of season 2 today, 10 euros. season 1 and 2 cost me 30 euros this way. i enjoy pinball, but not 180 euros worth of dlc.

 

I would say season 6 and 7 got easier with the update, would think it means less tables to do if they update the game this way. All tables means all tables currently in the dlc right?

 

never mind, at the time of first writing this, the season packages were still available on the store.

 

So now its impossible to get all trophies in season 3 till 7 dlc

Edited July 10, 2018 by Butella

[servus99]

On 9.7.2018 at 10:48 AM, Butella said:

i bought a used copy of season 2 today, 10 euros. season 1 and 2 cost me 30 euros this way. i enjoy pinball, but not 180 euros worth of dlc.

 

I would say season 6 and 7 got easier with the update, would think it means less tables to do if they update the game this way. All tables means all tables currently in the dlc right?

 

never mind, at the time of first writing this, the season packages were still available on the store.

 

So now its impossible to get all trophies in season 3 till 7 dlc

 

Given that people still managed to get Season 7 etc. DLC Trophies means you can still do this in 2022/2023?

[tom_waits]

Most of the DLC was digital only and no longer available. If you already own the DLC then all trophies are still obtainable... just extremely difficult.