Tables that will never get licensed

I recently stumbled across a video of a Super Mario Bros pinball by Gottlieb:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jhcHKNzb6CU

Back when I was a kid I had both a huge crush on everything Nintendo AND a deep-seated interest in pinball, and thus would probably have had a screaming fit of joy if I had ever walked across this machine.

Now, Twilight Zone was expensive, who knows if Addams Family will be feasible... The Simpsons pinball? That must be extremely costly as well.

But a Mario-themed pinball with a Nintendo license? I don´t EVER see this happening. At all. Nintendo is famous for being very protective with their licenses. Every so often threads about "Why doesn´t Nintendo make a Mario game for iOS? They´d make MILLIONS!" pop up on message boards all across the internet, and one thing a lot of people seem to forget is that Nintendo wants you to sell you their hardware first and their games second.

It seems that Nintendo used to be much more lenient with their licenses (the Mario movie really scarred me for life), but I don´t see this table ever coming to TPA. Which is a shame, just for the pure novelty factor of having a pinball made around the theme of one of the most recognizable videogame icons ever - that ultimately made home consoles come back big and destroyed the arcade market.

And recently I´ve been playing so many Mario-themed games that I´ve gotten kinda sick of the whole series for a while, but still... the table looks super fun. I just don´t see Nintendo giving their OK to bring Mario to another platform, even if it´s sorta indirectly via a recreation of a pinball table.

Are there any other pinball that are (almost) entirely unlikely to ever be licensed?

Never say never but gnr has been confirmed as nearly impossible. I would love to see a table based on several nintendo licenses like Zelda and dk but I agree that is not likely given their current state and none of the old Mario tables would be likely either. Disney is generally extremely protective and difficult to work with so all their franchises and Marvel comics would probably be very difficult to get. I would also say anything with PAC man. Namco is still sour over what midway did to the point that they still don't publish certain titles midway was involved in developing. The main exception being ms pacman.

Simpsons would cost, but I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility. It's a pretty tired franchise now.

I won't say Mario will never happen.

The industry as a whole is pretty scared for Nintendo's future after the last E3 where they had a terrible press conference, where they put in the launch lineup for WiiU and basically the first year of plans for it. Considering the WiiU is not more powerful than the current gen hardware, it's in a very weird spot as games coming out (apart from nintendo first party) from third parties will be ports from 360 and ps3 so people wanting those already have those consoles generally, and next year those 2 will get their successors and WiiU has to fully rely on its first party again (apart from gimmick features for the pad). For WiiU to succeed they had to have a few really big first party names come out THIS year (as next E3 and thereafter will be all about the new hardware for Sony and MS), which they didn't.

I listen to a lot of podcasts regarding gaming and everyone was astounded by 2 things: Nintendo blowing their opportunity and Sony not doing a single thing for Vita which also turned me away from that platform as I was interested after allt he ps3/vita crossplatform funtionalty on a lot of downloadable games.

Nintendo's hardware future is therefor in the balance, as the 3DS and WiiU shenanigans have blown away all the profit the DS and Wii gave them (according to analists) and this could mean that in future we might see the big N as a software house only and the Mario license might be more reaily available. (And I'm a big N-fanboy, with Zelda and Metroid as my favourite franchises). This isnt a hijack to discuss N's future but rather as a reason why I don't think Mario's license is or isn't an absolute no-go ever. I do think however it's highly unlikely.

See, now.... just prior to them bringing out the Wii I'd written them off but then they turned it around and surprised everyone - They are in a bit of weird place bringing out a console which is (in effect) comparable to the current gen and that controller? It's not for me... I don't think they'll have the same impact they did with the Wii. The elephant in the room is that EVERYONE knows that Sony and Microsoft are bringing out new hardware in the not too distant future but it wasn't mentioned at E3 and both companies were still trying to make out that the current gen were all that was on the radar.

Super Mario Brothers could be licensed if it is a wii u and 3ds exclusive.

pacreis said:

Super Mario Brothers could be licensed if it is a wii u and 3ds exclusive.

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...I never even thought of that! Would also be a nice way for Nintendo to promote their new Nintendo Network (or whatever that was called).

Put me in the "never say never" camp. I never would have thought we'd see any licensed tables at all, yet here we are looking at several being in the Pinball Arcade. There are people on the Shout Factory MST3K board who talk about films that will never be licensed and yet they're getting released; I'd argue those are a lot tougher!

Has there been a Harry Potter pinball table? That'd probably be a lucrative table if there hasn't..

GNR will most likely never happen.

Sir_LANs-a-lot said:

Has there been a Harry Potter pinball table? That'd probably be a lucrative table if there hasn't..

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I've heard Rowling was approached but turned it down. Strange she would turn down a pinball table, which most likely would have been awesome, but approved the multitude of crappy Harry Potter console games.

Richard B said:

I've heard Rowling was approached but turned it down. Strange she would turn down a pinball table, which most likely would have been awesome, but approved the multitude of crappy Harry Potter console games.

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Hm, I'm pretty surprised! there's probably lots of good features you could incorporate into such a table and like you say, there's been plenty of other console games out.

It'd be cool if they could get both Mario pinball games as Nintendo Exclusive titles to get people to download it. I'd pick it up if I had a 3DS or a Wii U. I'm pretty sure GNR is out of the question. I hope The Who's Tommy wouldn't be too hard to get. Considering the game has pretty much every song from the Broadway show in it, I don't know if that would rack up the costs. I really want to see Lord of The Rings and Spider-Man. But considering that The Twilight Zone cost 55K to get the rights to and it had one licensed song and one major actor on the backglass, I don't know what it would cost to get everybody from Lords and Spider-Man to give the OK.

Big Bang Bar...does anyone even know who owns it, really?

Im sure JK Rowling was just considering that the likely resting place of a modern Stern pinball game 99% of the time is in a bar. Considering that if it was my youth focused creation I would pass and console myself on the loss of a few 100k dollars by having a glass of shredded money tea, a money bath and then cry myself to sleep on my king size money bed.

I've often wondered how the BBC would respond to the possibility of licensing Doctor Who. On the one hand, the fact that Doctor Who is a live property actually complicates things: the table is a Sylvester McCoy-era tie-in to the classic series, and presumably the BBC would prefer a licensed product promoting the current show. On the other hand, they've shown willingness to license and promote products aimed at classic-series fans before (new audio dramas, books, endless DVD re-releases). Their stated goal in these things in general is just to get the best deal they can to provide content for the UK license-payers who fund them. So it might not be impossible.

Both PlayBoy Magazine tables , Star Wars , Indiana Jones , and the number one table that will never get licensed Tron , because as a Disney IP , the house of the mouse law team would never condone a outside 3rd party to get license for any Disney based intelectual property , even if the money was there to be licensed.

Sinistar said:

Both PlayBoy Magazine tables , Star Wars , Indiana Jones , and the number one table that will never get licensed Tron , because as a Disney IP , the house of the mouse law team would never condone a outside 3rd party to get license for any Disney based intelectual property , even if the money was there to be licensed.

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Doesn't Zen Studios have the Marvel license that is now owned by Disney?

Sinistar said:

Both PlayBoy Magazine tables , Star Wars , Indiana Jones , and the number one table that will never get licensed Tron , because as a Disney IP , the house of the mouse law team would never condone a outside 3rd party to get license for any Disney based intelectual property , even if the money was there to be licensed.

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They gave Stern, which, to my knowledge, is not owned by or affiliated with Disney, the license in the first place. Tron Legacy wasn't very profitable, so it's unlikely they'll release any more movies, which means this property isn't going to see a lot of mileage in the future. They've also licensed their properties to companies that make shovelware games since the days of the NES (such as Mickey Mouscapade), so I don't think the property's integrity is really higher than their love of money.

If Disney owns Marvel, it may be possible to get a bulk discount (which I'm sure Zen got), so TPA could get Spider-Man, Iron Man, and X-men all in one swoop.

Richard B said:

If Disney owns Marvel, it may be possible to get a bulk discount (which I'm sure Zen got), so TPA could get Spider-Man, Iron Man, and X-men all in one swoop.

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I would love to see that happen.