Pinball FX | PS4 Review

I'm going to preface this review with a quote I posted yesterday. It explains exactly what I think of live service games, and in turn how I feel about Zen Studio's latest Pinball game release ...

"Live service games in an overly saturated market of live service games fighting for a finite collective of people with a finite amount of money to spend are not the solution for financial business gain within the industry. It reeks of greed, and that greed in turn will eventually be met with the exhausted resources that are gamers and their money. Rendering any efforts for a sustainable business to be forfeit."

- Brad C. (OtakuDante)

When you startup "Pinball FX" the first thing you'll see is the worrisome online server access, and the loading screen. This is problematic in that it points to an obvious lack of game/table ownership for the gamer who is invested. Should the service go down, for whatever reason, all prior purchases will be rendered inaccessible. This leads me to the second glaring issue that is the game's long winded EULA. A waiver of rights that holds Zen Studios, and it's partners free of legal action due to loss of access of paid content. The waiver of rights also claims any content that is produced as the company's property. The wording points to a self-aware company that realizes times are uncertain and services may go down for a number of reasons including terrorism, riots, war, and disasters. As such one has to wonder why they chose to make this latest pinball release a live service rather than a game collection that gamers actually own, and can access even when servers are down? One word comes to mind. Greed. That, or desperation.

Pinball FX is, in all regards, a game that asks fans to commit to the grind, and one of two pay to play methods. New to the mix is a free-to-play season pass model wherein the gamer basically pays for a month or a year's subscription for temporary access to all currently available tables. New, and old. This is bought, and paid for using real money that is exchanged for tokens. Tokens also play into the virtual pinball room theme that Zen Studios is going for. A decorative locale for access to all your tables, and content. This includes paid for and won decorative items, and profile features that showcase your skill, and efforts at mastering each and every table. With the season pass you will, for the allotted time, be fulfilling season pass objectives to earn special items only available for that season.

Alternatively, you can also buy tables and table sets with the items to be unlocked attached to the DLC at no extra cost. The problem with the DLC though is that a lot of the tables are rereleases that fans have owned and previously bought. Multiple times over. You cannot import old bought tables this time around. Quite honestly this is a slap in the face, and another reason why spending any amount of money on the game is a risk to loss in the future. There is no real incentive to re-buy tables or purchase new ones when access to the game, and it's tables are wholly server reliant. Leaving the only reasonable option to be the adoption of a monthly or yearly season pass, and that adds up over time.

The Verdict ...

I'll give it to you straight. I'm not spending a dime on this game, and I'm not going to support it. As a fan I feel let down by the studio's transition to the live service model as it denies me ownership of what I'd pay for. Furthermore, access gated by online servers are an uncertainty in these trying times. The real kicker is that Zen Studios seems to be fully aware of this due to the legal wording in their mandatory EULA. This is either greed or desperation, and either is inexcusable. I expected more from this studio. I've supported them in the past, and for years. I was a fan of their pinball creations, and the attention to detail their developers put into it. Now though all I see is a pair of wanting hands stretched out, palms up, begging for money that is not deserved. For a product I will not own, and that I cannot pass down to others. Please do better in the future Zen Studios, if there is enough of a future for you to do so.