Zen Studios' managing director on saving pinball, Star Wars, and more to come

Digitally Downloaded writes: "Zen Studios is basically doing everything right in the market. It's the forefront developer and publisher of videogame pinball titles, and so has been heralded as something of a saviour for the entire pinball industry.

And at the helm of Zen Studios is a businessman, not someone who has come from the games industry."

[Soldierone]

It's easy to do "everything" correctly, when all you do is pinball titles lol

[MattS]

It's easy to say Zen Studios only does pinball games. You'd be wrong, but it's easy to say!

[Soldierone]

It's that and quick little casual games, unless I'm missing something?

I never said I don't enjoy the pinball games. In fact I love them. However they are not really an EA or even a Zynga yet. (I mean that in terms of content, not business tactics as Zynga sucks hardcore at that)

[MattS]

You underestimate how hard it is to build an entire franchise and global business out of Pinball.

I never claimed they were of the same size of EA or Zynga, but you seem to think what they're doing is easy. It isn't

[Robotronfiend]

No it is not. Reference "Farsight Studios" for evidence. They crapped all over pinball fans. They released a "Williams COllection" which was decent, although a little buggy. THen they released Pinball Arcade and bundled one "new" table with one table from the Williams Collection. No option to buy separately, so you have to double purchase - and the physics are still pretty rough. Pinball Arcade also launched WITHOUT TROPHIES. Who does that these days? Now new tables from PA are all $5 each, or $8 if you want access to the operators menu. /rant. Sorry, I love pinball in all forms and hate to see companies like Farsight milk fans for cash like they think they're Capcom.

[Kevlar009]

I wouldn't expect the videogame pinball industry to be very lucrative, regular pinball is pretty niche in today's world

I didn't read this article as "oooooooo Pinball, so exciting -_-", rather "This man and company has carved their own profitable niche in the gaming industry despite not having a video game background, see what makes them special"

Just a nice little success story in a tumultuous market. Looks like they want expand jut out of arcade pinball titles, they might make something even more grand one day. Interesting read