Story dated 23rd January 2001.

The latest figures have been published showing the state of pinball across Europe.

Intergame magazine's report details the number of pinball machines in various European countries along with the figures for other amusement machine types.

Denmark - 1,000
1 game per 5,336 people
(Video - 2,000; Touchscreen - 2,000; AWP - 7,000)

Germany - 1,684 up 50% on last year
1 game per 49,167 people
(Video - 1,613 down 31%; Touchscreen - 6,673 down 24%)

Greece - 2,500
1 game per 4,241 people
(Dedicated Video - 2,000; PCB Videos- 50,000)

United Kingdom - 2,000
1 game per 29,756 people
(Video - 27,500; AWP - 250,400)

The term AWP refers to Amusement With Prizes machines or Slots.

If the figures for Germany are true, the 50% increase in the last year is astonishing, matched by a similar decrease in the popularity of video games and touchscreens which perhaps more accurately represents the state of the country's amusement games.

This decline was demonstrated at the recent IMA trade show in Germany where visitor numbers remained steady at around 9,000 despite a significantly lower number of exhibitors with 100 stands and a halving of the floor space to 12,000 square feet.

For pinball fans, though, IMA was important as the launchpad for Stern's new High Roller Casino game.

Pinball News reader Karin Kolbe reports from the show:

From Jan. 16 - Jan. 19. the IMA took again place in Nuernberg, Bavaria where it went one year before from Frankfurt.
The coin machine branch goes through a bad crises, the introducing of the Euro next year is only one reason. I think, this crisis is a worldwide problem.
One effect was that this years show only had half the space compared to the last year.
It also was hard to find new games. Most of the games are only further developments of existing games.
But what is new on the pinball-sector? There was the world-premiere of Stern's new game High Roller Casino! But what a shame, in a small corner there where only three games. So only a few insider took notice of this fact.
The game itself is not a Williams-game but very nice. Nice to look at and nice to play. Like Striker Xtreme the year before the machines where prototypes.
The second day Gary Stern arrived in Nuernberg and brought new software for the HRC. The animation was better than before. There where still some mistakes but I think when the machine goes into production all will be o.k.
For me it will be a big problem that the price of the new Stern-pin is so high. So we will find not much of the new game here in Germany. Who will buy a game that earns less money, will have a lot of maintenance and cost a lot of money? I don't know.
So let's see what will be the future of pinball.

IMA show organisers were keen to stress that the number of orders was much higher than expected despite the withdrawal of two of the show's top three exhibitors.