BlahCade 210: Acquisitions and Redesigns

Zen has been acquired, and AtGames has done a cabinet revamp.

The big news this episode is that Zen Studios was acquired by Embracer Group. We go into detail about the situation and give our take on what this means for the studio.

The other news is that AtGames has done some redesigns to their cabinet that make the product more attractive and better overall.

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Show notes

01:30 — Zen Studios acquired by Embracer Group

The huge news this episode is that Zen Studios has been acquired by a larger organization called Embracer Group and their subsidiary Saber Interactive.

We look into this announcement and speculate what it might mean for the studio moving forward.

In short, we think it makes a lot of sense and can’t see anything really negative about the acquisition.

Time will tell whether we are correct or not.

16:00 — AtGames refreshes their cabinet design

At Games has done some design tweaks to their cabinet and overall it’s all great news.

This segment focuses on the attributes of the cabinet and the back screen. There are some positives and some negatives to the changes, but the good news is that most of the changes are for the better.

Nice work AtGames!

27:00 — AtGames ports and backglass display

We’re both a bit disappointed that the interface panel is stuck on the top of the cabinet.

AtGames lined up a Toyshock and their cabinet side-by-side and the comparisons are rather stark.

43:00 — AtGames software difficulties

This segment focuses on the software FarSight provided and what AtGames should show us next.

There are some visual challenges with some of these tables when it comes to the Farsight software. Hopefully, some iterations are planned for the software shipped by Farsight.

41:00 — New engine and physics across all tables

Why is a new engine good news for consumers?

It means easier and faster game development and better quality control for cross-platform releases. But it might also mean better opportunities with Arcade 1UP with more advanced pinball titles.

54:00 — Backglass art

A reminder that the second wave of Arcade 1UP cabinets with the full backglass would look really great on those second screens. 😉

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Cabinet backbox art: If you want to make your digital pinball cabinet look amazing, why not use some of our free backglass images in your build.