Play Meter

Spring Show Preview:
Pinball heavyweights
and video dynamite
to debut in New Orleans
By David Pierson
Besides the 24 operator semi-
nars and besides the peculiar charm
of th e city of New Orleans - there is
something else that makes the
Amusement Operators Expo all the
more atractive to exhibitors and
convention goers alike . And that is
the show's timing.
Because of it , we can probably
expect to see an unusual number of
heavyweight games at the March
20-22 exhibition in New Orleans.
The reason is this: game manu-
facture rs in particular contend the
industry has long needed a show in
the spring to coincide with the
industry's peak buying season.
A careful study of when the year's
best games are produced seems to
bear out this contention. For , al-
though a fair number of new game
heavyweights are introduced during
the fall and winter months, an even
larger number of them make their
opening bows during the spring
months.
Co nsider as evidence PLAY
METER 's annual operators survey,
which determines the top twenty
pinballs and top twenty videos of the
year. PLAY METER's top twenty
games in both categories, because of
the wide sampling, generally are
regarded by the industry as a whole
as the year's "winners".
Now , considering the production
start-up dates for these winners, we
find that the game manufacturers'
contention for a spring show is well-
founded. For , in fact, a near
majority of these games are released
in the spring.
Here is the evidence , the tabula-
tion of how many of those forty
PLAY METER, April, 1980
game models (twenty pinballs and
twenty videos) were released each
month:
January - 4
February - 4
March- 5
April- 3
May- 3
June - 9
July- 0
August- 2
September - 4
October- 1
November- 1
December- 4
In the four months from Novem-
ber through February where the
timing of the AMOA Show is best for
the game, thirteen winners started
their production runs. But, in the
following four months , from March
through June , where a spring show
would be the best timing for the
game, twenty winners (or exactly
one-half of all the year's winners)
started their production runs. In
other words, inside of a four-month
period last year , this industry pro-
duced fifty percent of all its winning
games , and that period was in the
spring.
For the record , the slow months of
July through October showed only
seven winners.
In the area of pinball, eight of the
top twenty games started their
production runs during the AMOA
prime time months, and nine of the
pins started their production runs
during the next four-month period.
But in the video game category ,
where the new game releases are
probably more critical because of the
greater chances of copying , only five
of the top twenty games were
produced during the four-month
AMOA show time slot. By contrast,
eleven of the twenty were produced
in the next four-month time slot.
Why all this concern with timing?
What does it mean to the conve ntion
goer? What does it mean to the
operator who is in the market for new
games?
It means manufacturers will have
fewer tricks up their sleeves because
there won 't be a great concern with
other manufacturers ripping off their
games before they produce them
themselves.
In an interview in the January
issue of PLAY METER , Ralph C.
Lally II, editor and publisher of
PLAY METER and the sponsor of
the AOE Show , said that he felt a
spring date for an industry show was
essential because "we 've found that
game manufacturers are hesitant to
release new pieces at the AMOA
Show in November , knowing that
they will not be fully geared up to
start selling those games until the
early spring. And the reason for their
hesitancy is that if they premier a
good game at the AMOA Show , it
gives their competitors about three or
four months lead time to copy the
new game. So , by the time the peak
buying season hits, their competitors
will be in an excellent position to steal
their thunder and capture a sub-
stantial part of the market for that
piece"
Lally's comments were borne out
almost immediately. When American
visitors attended the IMA Show in
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