Avengers will be released before Xmas when Santa slides down the chimney, but AMD have said Avengers wont be offloaded n available here in OZ til end Jan/mid feb...subject to Stern sticking with their currently announced stock production schedules.
No one is waiting for WOZ for any titles release cause respectfully, Stern will have designed and sold John Borgs new model which is due out in spring(USA time) before the WOZ production has even caught up n finished what he has sold already (aprox 1100 units of WOZ).
WOZ may be released in very small numbers (fifty for the show in the USA in 4 weeks time for dealers to look/play with etc) and another 50 machines by early Jan, but they are only just recieving computer boards for the game in the next few weeks, and large numbers of WOZ machines to the public wont happen in my mind really to Feb onwards next year, plus some time.
The more machines/titles/varied stock Stern releases before WOZ starts hitting the streets, the better for Stern.
WHY ? because JJP have peoples monies for the 1,000 Emerald City machine already, and perhaps 100 or so Std models, but in order to get another 1,000 sales of Std WOZ machines (which JJP need) they will now have to compete with buyers also looking at a AC/DC, X Men, Avengers and so on etc.
Its just smarter for Stern to power ahead and now run its own race since it has seen most of the WOZ project inside n out like most of the pinball world has by seeing the machine, or just by looking at the photos n videos etc via Pinballnews website etc.
Stern will now try every trick in the book to better JJP by adding some enhancements, and by keeping others which it knows work already. example - maybe a bigger Dot matrix display like the huge Sega ones we had with Batman Forever/Frankenstein etc, but probably wont go to a LCD as yet, probably 12 months away, if at all....and if they do a LCD, expect it on a LE, and a dmd on a Pro etc...with pricing to suit..I cant see the Pro ever having a LCD.. Most feedback is that people want the dmd to stay. etc.
As long as JJP and Stern try to out do each other, we will win, if prices stay the same etc, and dont climb.
