JERSEY JACK PINBALL
ANNOUNCES SECOND
GAME AS THE HOBBIT


Date: 30th November, 2012

Keeping the title of the next game under wraps is getting harder than ever these days, and today Jersey Jack Pinball officially announced what many people already unofficially knew - that their second game would be based on the upcoming movie trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien's book, The Hobbit. 

The Hobbit movie with Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins
The Hobbit movie with Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins

Personalised e-mails went out to registered buyers of The Wizard of Oz earlier this week which detailed the staged payment scheme for the Limited Edition model of The Hobbit.

When The Wizard of Oz's Emerald City Limited Edition first went on sale, the same kind of staged payment scheme was offered, but the price for that game was a total of $6,500, rising to $7,500 for those who delayed their purchasing decision.

The Hobbit Limited Edition comes in at $7,500, rising to $8,000 if the initial pre-order period is missed. These are factory-direct prices. Dealer prices may vary.

Because The Hobbit pinball will be based on the three movies and use assets from all of them, it will have to wait until the third installment - There and Back Again - is released in the summer of 2014.

The Hobbit pinball will be another wide-body machine with programming from Keith Johnson who created the rules for, and programmed, the highly collectible The Lord of the Rings for Stern Pinball. It hasn't been announced yet who will be designing it, who will be the artist or artists, or who will create the sounds and music.

The Wizard of Oz buyers are being offered the chance to pre-order their machine and secure the same Limited Edition serial number for The Hobbit. It is expected there will be 1,500 Limited Edition machines produced for The Hobbit compared to 1,000 Emerald City machines for The Wizard of Oz.

Here's the letter previous customers who bought their machines direct received:

We have recently returned from a spectacular IAAPA amusement parks show in Orlando, Florida. We had eight Wizard of Oz pinball machines in our booth which was packed daily. We are thrilled to have been recognized there by winning a coveted Brass Ring Award for product innovation.

I would like to update you on our plans to ship production games. We have continued to refine certain details of the game. Because of changes we made, the timeline to receive final circuit boards and custom power supplies have dictated our delivery dates. Today, I am confident that we will be shipping customer games sometime in late January/February 2013 – roughly 90 days from now. Games will ship in the queue in which the game order was placed.

Great games take time and we want to get this game right. We are doing everything we can to make something special that is reliable, fun and worthy of our efforts and your patience and we believe we have done that.

We have shipped the games from IAAPA to certain distributor’s showrooms and we are building and shipping more games in these next few weeks which will be on location and at other distributors. Last week we placed our first game on location at iPlay America in Freehold NJ.

We have sold all 1,000 ECLEWOZ games, and many people, like you, have paid us in full as we asked. Thank you for that.

On Friday, December 14, 2012 we will have an Open House Holiday Party at our facility in Lakewood, NJ which you and your family are invited to attend. It will be from 3 PM - 8 PM and we will have WOZ games to play, door prizes and other game related items for sale.

If you cannot attend we will still enter your game number in the hat for the door prizes! You can RSVP to this event by emailing Jen at [email protected] and letting her know how many people will be in your party.

Now that we have produced a game, the natural question we keep being asked is what game is next. I wanted to hold off on talking about the next until we had real WOZ games, which we certainly have. At IAAPA we told some customers that our next licensed game will be The Hobbit Pinball Machine and the excitement was off the charts. International distributors expressed a strong interest and some made place-holder orders on the spot.

With that, we are now accepting pre-orders for the Limited Edition version. The Hobbit Pinball Machine will be released in a timeframe consistent with the third Hobbit movie in mid 2014 as the game will embody all three movies. The first Hobbit movie release date is December 14, 2012, the date of our Open House. All of what we do on this game, as was the case with Wizard of Oz Pinball, will be based on approval of our licensor.

The game will be a full-featured wide body with the bells and whistles you have come to expect from a JJP game. Keith will be programming the game as he did with LOTR Pinball as well. More details will follow with the public announcement in a few weeks but it will not disappoint!

As a buyer of ECLEWOZ you now have the opportunity to reserve your same game number(s) as you have now for The Hobbit LE Pinball which will have 1,000 Limited Edition games as before but we added 500 game due to increased demand (game numbers 1001-1500). The price for The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball is $7,500 on a Pre-Order basis and we have a payment plan that spans until mid 2014 as the game ships. We need to start this now to ride the wave of publicity for the first Hobbit movie which opens in a few weeks on December 14th and in order to give everyone enough time with the payment plan.

The Payment Schedule is as follows:

$500 - NOW

$1000 February 15, 2013 - (Price changes to $8000.00)

$1500 May 15, 2013

$1500 September 15, 2013

$1000 January 15, 2014

$1000 April 15, 2014

$1000 July 15, 2014 – As Shipping Begins

The price will change on Feb 15th 2013 if LE’s are still available to $8,000.00. We expect The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine to sell out completely in less time than ECLEWOZ sold out! After all, everyone can now see the type of quality games we are building and our second game will move along much faster than our first game did and we must ship this game as the third movie hits the theaters!

A refundable deposit of $500 placed by December 15, 2012 will secure your Hobbit LE Pinball with the same game number you have now for your ECLEWOZ. Any order paid in full will have their freight charges (up to $400) paid by JJP.

Only paid in full buyers of ECLEWOZ will be able to reserve The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machines at this time.

We have a huge interest from selected distributors we discussed this with at IAAPA to get The Hobbit LE and regular games and certain game numbers. Some of them missed out on ECLEWOZ and don't want to miss this one too. That's why we have this time frame to help you decide before releasing unreserved game numbers to other buyers after December 15, 2012.

This is not a public announcement or press release but rather a courtesy offer to you as a valued and loyal JJP buyer. We will not take orders from the public for your game number until all current JJP buyers have had an opportunity to decide on The Hobbit LE Pinball as those people would be asking for game numbers from current JJP buyers and that would not be fair to you. JJP and WOZ Pinball would not be possible without you!

Remember also that some people did not order ECLEWOZ and are waiting for the long rumored public announcement of The Hobbit Pinball Machine from us to place their orders. If you would like to place your Pre Order for The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine, just e mail [email protected] or [email protected] and they will take your order. You can also call them at (732) 364-9900 ext 203 (Jen) ext 202 (Katie) or call me directly toll free at (800) 473-5225 if you need additional information.

It's a very, very exciting time for all of us at JJP and for Pinball. We are thankful that you had the confidence and belief in our Team to create a wonderful game for you with The Wizard of Oz Pinball. There is so much more to come and soon!

Jack Guarnieri
President & CEO Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc.
732-433-4333 - Direct
www.JerseyJackPinball.com

Emerald City Limited Edition buyers who bought their machine through dealers should contact the dealer if they wish to pre-order The Hobbit and keep the same number.

So it was today that Jersey Jack Pinball publicly announced The Hobbit as their next game with a press release containing similar information to the e-mail above, but also declaring pre-orders for the Limited Edition models open to the public.

Dear Jersey Jack Pinball Fan:

These are very exciting times for us. 

Two weeks ago we were at IAAPA - The International Amusement Parks Show in Orlando Florida. We had eight games in our packed booth for all four days.

Our Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine won a coveted Brass Ring Award for Best New Product beating out hundreds of games on the show floor.

We have shipped the games from IAAPA to certain distributor's showrooms and we are building and shipping more games in these next few weeks which will be on location and at other distributors. Last week we placed our first game on location at iPlay America in Freehold NJ.

We would like to update you on our plans to ship production games. We have continued to refine certain details of the game and are confident that we will be shipping customer games sometime in early 2013, roughly 90 days from now. Games will ship in the queue in which the game order was placed. 

Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. proudly announces that we have licensed all three Hobbit Properties from Warner Brothers for our pinball machine which will embody all three movies. The game will ship as the third movie hits theaters in July 2014.

We are now accepting pre-orders for the The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine. We will be building 1500 of the LE Version and it will be a full-featured wide body in a similar fashion as with Wizard of Oz Pinball. Joe and our design team will get to work early next year and Keith will be programming the game as he did with Lord of the Rings Pinball as well.  Click here to place your order for The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine! 

In Peter Jackson's trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, the first film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, opens this holiday season, on December 14, 2012. The second installment in the franchise will be The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and the film will be released on December 13, 2013. The third in the trilogy is The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which will be released worldwide on July 18, 2014.

On Friday, December 14, 2012 we will have an Open House Holiday Party at our facility in Lakewood, NJ which you are invited to attend. It will be from 3 PM - 8 PM and we will have WOZ games to play, door prizes and other game related items for sale. You can RSVP to this event by emailing Jen at [email protected].   


We'll be back with lots more about The Hobbit as details are revealed and deadlines reached. Remember, we have 35 reports about The Wizard of Oz already here at Pinball News, and we full expect to bring you the same world-beating in-depth coverage of The Hobbit over the coming weeks and months.


Back to the The Hobbit page Like this page? Share it with your Facebook friends:
Back to the Games page
Back to the front page