Fickle licensing agreements are the bane of video games. We’ve seen complete video games pulled from sale (such as Alan Wake) or chunks misplaced or needing to get replaced (Grand Theft Auto 4’s soundtrack), however the harm on the horizon for The Pinball Arcade is nearly unparalleled. Due to the present rights-holders for Williams & Bally pinball tables being unwilling to renew their license, the overwhelming majority of the sport’s many DLC tables will likely be faraway from sale on the finish of June.
While different pinball video games do effectively sufficient with bodily unbelievable (if entertaining) tables created fully for the digital area, Pinball Arcade has at all times billed itself as extra of a simulation for pinball aficionados. Its assortment of tables are formally licensed, extremely genuine recreations of basic desk designs of yesteryear, with Williams and Bally’s tables making up nearly all of its near-hundred designs – over 60, if I’ve counted appropriately.
Developers FarSight Studios have announced that as a result of present holder of the Williams & Bally license not eager to renew their license for the sport, gamers now have till June 30th to purchase these digital tables (together with the basic Black Knight 2000, which you’ll be able to see in motion beneath, captured by YouTuber LexGame) earlier than they’re pulled from sale. Thankfully, present house owners won’t discover their pinball tables disappearing into the ether, however Pinball Arcade’s intensive record of $30-40 desk packs is quickly to be gutted, leaving largely Stern, Gottlieb, Data East and Sega designs.
FarSight have said that the studio isn’t in danger, and that no layoffs are deliberate, which is a few small reduction, not less than. An eighth season of tables – largely centered on producer Stern – is on the horizon, and as soon as the Williams/Bally purge is full, the surviving tables will likely be repackaged totally on a per-manufacturer foundation. It’s a really unhappy state of affairs, and one which I can solely think about will end in considerably elevated piracy of the older model of the sport.
Just so as to add one ultimate nail to the coffin, the Williams rights-holders have forbidden FarSight from discounting the to-be-removed packs between now and after they’re pulled from storefronts, that means that anybody wanting to select them up can have to take action at full value, which prices greater than a little bit bit. Granted, it’ll value considerably lower than shopping for an actual refurbished Williams pinball desk, however nonetheless removed from perfect, and one more reminder that time-limited licenses are dangerous enterprise.
