Topic: Stern Pinball Arcade

Also of note is that the game has a new update, if you downloaded it when it first went up. This changes the icon (since the icon used the Cirqus Voltaire table), and strips out the previously free Tales of the Arabian Nights. You now get Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as the free table, just like Stern Pinball Arcade.

That's really lame that Frankenstein is the free table again.

So I had the original version and had Tales of the Arabian Nights. I downloaded the update and now its gone. I thought if you had got it before the update you'd get to keep it.

@dok5555555 That really sucks! Hopefully you were able to keep any tables you bought.

@LinktotheFuture never got the chance to buy any, but I wonder if Tales was also removed from those who bought the season one pack since it may have technically not been part of that purchase.

@dok5555555 @LinktotheFuture I bet it did get removed from everyone’s game when they update, since you are right it isn’t part of Season 1 pack. I’ve seen people speculating on other platforms to upgrade Tales to the Pro version so you technically “own” it after June 30th. Sadly the Switch didn’t have Pro option for any tables, so there was no chance to buy Tales.

I’m very worried what happens to people that did buy Seasons in TPA that first day. I’m hoping/guessing all those tables just show up in My Tables. I haven’t seen anyone online mention they successfully purchased any Seasons.

This is why I don't have auto update turned on for stuff like this. I guess its my own fault this time. Should have been more cautious.

So I sent a facebook message to their The Pinball Arcade facebook page about cross-buy between SPA and TPA. They replied saying they though cross-buy should be enabled, but had not received confirmation. They suggested I email [email protected], which I have done. Just waiting for a reply now, and will pass on the information when I hear back.

You know what? Now I need to go check and see if they sent out an “update” for my PS4 version of those tables.

@Murph I think only the Switch version is getting stripped of Williams and Bally tables before June 30th. All other platforms will have what they had before this announcement until June 30th. That means you can still buy what you want to keep before that date. The Switch version got this update because Farsight never had the licensing rights for these tables on the Switch platform, so they could not legally sell the tables.

@dok5555555 It wouldn't let you play the game anyways because it needed the update... but yeah Arabian Nights was my favorite table... I guess it's time to delete this... man this sucks so bad.

I received a reply from Farsight Support in regards to cross-buy between SPA and TPA on Switch:

“We currently do not have a cross buy purchasing in place, but we expect to have this implemented in about a month if all goes well.”

@madmatt213 What is the difference between Stern Pinball Arcade and The Pinball Arcade? Seems like only one is necessary.

@KaiserGX That atcually makes me feel a bit better, I didn't realize it was required. Still stinks they coudn't let you keep it.

@LinktotheFuture No real difference, which has always been the problem with SPA existing, especially now with all of the Stern tables being brought over to TPA. Only difference now is that some paid DLC limited edition tables still only being available in SPA, and they’re really just cosmetic changes.

I personally want all of the Stern tables that I’ve bought to be available in TPA so that I have a one-stop game for them. I don’t want to have to jump between TPA and SPA if I decide to play a certain table. Once cross-buy works, I’ll buy the other Stern table pack I need in TPA (or SPA if the cross-buy is one-way, that’s still my big question) and then probably eventually delete SPA from my Switch to save some space on my microSD.

@madmatt213 I wonder why they bothered with Stern Pinball Arcade in the first place?

Are there any tables in Stern Pinball Arcade that are going to disappear when the licensing runs out?

@LinktotheFuture I don’t know any behind-the-scenes info, this is just me guessing.

I think they originally created Stern Pinball Arcade partly as a partnership with the Stern Pinball company (most new & modern pinball machines you’d find in arcades and beercades will be Stern tables), and partly to develop, test, and ship the DirectX11 version of The Pinball Arcade on PC/Steam. When SPA first came out on PC, it was very buggy, but they worked on it and it got better, and then they upgraded TPA to run DirectX11.

As for Stern Pinball Arcade on gaming consoles, I’m not entirely certain why they keep releasing it. Probably still due to a partnership with Stern, and probably because the number of tables are still limited enough that they can sell SPA as a standalone physical game. They can’t do that with The Pinball Arcade due to the amount of tables they’ve added to it over the year (not due to the game size, but instead due to the amount they charge for all the tables are DLC).

Anyways, I don’t really see a reason why they should keep it around, other than they’ve dug themselves a hole selling it on Switch. Maybe they released it to test the waters for TPA on Switch, and for practicing development on Switch. From a business sense, if they ever make new Stern tables, they should release them at the same time in both SPA and TPA, as I can see there being some people that bought SPA physically and have no idea that TPA exists now on the eShop. If they can get cross-buy to work, it would work as great cross promotion for getting exclusive SPA players to check out TPA, and buy non-Stern tables.

And really, the folks over at Farsight are probably still in a panic over losing Williams and Bally that they may not have the time or luxury to be sitting around planning on what they’ll do with SPA. They need to do everything they can to fix the damage this is doing to TPA, and the quick and easy fix was to add all remaining Stern tables into TPA (I think only Star Trek, Mustang, and AC/DC were not rolled into TPA before today).

I went ahead and downloaded Terminator 2 and High Speed on my Wii U, and I must say that the gamepad is much more comfortable to play this on than Stern Pinball Arcade on the Switch.

I inexplicably bought all the packs in TPA on Switch other than the two Stern packs, as I’m waiting for the cross-buy between SPA and TPA to work. I guess this will get me to play all these Gottlieb tables I’ve been ignoring all these years.

GameStop has this on sale for $20. Glad I didn't buy any of the tables yet!