I agree the whole point of an LE should be 'Limited'. I'm in for Hobbit LE. I definitely think 1500 of them is not limited but it's not the primary reason I'm buying one.
I also agree the pricing and regular increases are not a good move, which I hope will change when Heighway and Spooky Pinball etc. get up and running.
Surely Stern would do some kind of market research and forecasting of quantities they believe will comfortably sell. Now this may sound a little speculative but, as a nominal average figure they sell around 2500 pins (all model versions) of a particular title/theme which included 250 LE's, then that's 10% being 'limited'. If a title is highly likely to do very well, then 750 or 1000 LE's may still only be 10% of the total for that titles release, still keeping the exclusivity there. Stern would be very confident Metallica will do well off the back of ACDC's success, thus isn't there less risk to increase the LE numbers a little?
Personally I believe every pin pro, premium and le all should have the same playfield/rules and just have
LE - unique cab, trans, trim, maybe some different playfield plastics, with a certificate and placard)
Pro - pro cab with the same game play of a LE.
Code would then be the same, meaning less work and the true collectors buy a LE
+1
I think one of the reasons Stern like to keep there LE runs small is that they have so many versions on offer, If LE numbers increased there is potential it wont be the most 'limited' version of a certain title if there is a flop title.
Anyway back to Metallica - lookin forward to a video.
Yes video please...
