The tables do look different in Unreal however, you'll need a keen eye to tell the differences between FX3 and FX. The change to Unreal is one of the reasons, but let's dive deeper: Zen's reasoning for the upgrade isn't clear as it is on their FAQ page. Given these, it's safe to say that no third party licenses are guaranteed for a transfer. 60+ Bally/Williams tables were missing upon its return, and the months that followed are history. On the same topic, when Pinball Arcade released on the Switch in early 2018, it was pulled after a few hours on launch day, because third parties did not approve. Would Farsight have done the same thing as Zen if there was a "Pinball Arcade 2"? Most likely. The differences between PS3 and PS4 weren't all that many, unlike Zen in this case. Farsight didn't allow purchase transfers on consoles when hopping from PS3 to PS4, and people were not happy about having to repurchase tables. No doubt they looked at possible avenues here. This was a Nintendo problem, since no NNID purchases on 3DS/Wii U don't transfer to My Nintendo Accounts (Switch). This isn't Zen's first rodeo with this, but they aren't responsible for the following: The Wii U version of Zen Pinball 2 didn't see any entitlements transfer to FX3 on the Switch. Things got messy for Zen to deal with at that point, not factoring the imperfect transfer process on Steam from FX2 -> FX3. Anyone who says "no" in this process, it's out of Zen's hands. Universal and Williams are up in the air, but that's not the point. We don't know who said this, but given the key word "again", this implies the licensed tables from FX2. Zen is incredibly generous to have provided free transfers for us for as long as they have.Īround 5:00 in the podcast below, Mel (COO of Zen) mentioned how some licensors wouldn't allow transfers again. FX2 and ZP2 to Pinball FX3, 2017, on Xbox, Playstation, and Steam.Īll of these have at least one license involved, which likely means license holders wanted another bite of the apple.Microsoft was to blame, due to poor reception from XB1. FX2 Xbox 360 to Xbox One in 2014, initially saying "no" to that process.Zen Pinball 1 & Marvel Pinball to Zen Pinball 2, for PSN, in 2012.Pinball FX1 to FX2, for Xbox 360, in 2010.Providing history on this front, we have the following purchase transfers: This transfer process remained on the same engine, and the physics between the two remained mostly the same, up until Williams. Pinball FX2 players were very fortunate to get table transfers from FX2 to FX3.
Know that 79 (or a total of 81) of the FX3 tables are licensed, so even third parties have a say as to what Zen can do with each respective property. Unlike most other games, table transfers aren't as simple as tying assets from one engine or game to another, even if they look the same. Zen's primary reasoning for this is the engine change, as given in the above section. This news was known since March 2021, when they initially announced the 1-year exclusivity deal. More information on new gameplay features follows in the below sections. A good portion of the team was also relegated to the custom engine before the big leap resources are now freed up for Zen to optimize, fix issues, and introduce new features across the board.įX in Unreal also allows for more potential in graphical capabilities, like Ray Tracing and HDR, assuming players' graphics cards provide that power. With the change to Unreal 4, Zen can pump out more tables at a faster and more consistent rate. Consider also the struggles Zen had with Volume 6 Space Station was created before Universal Monsters and Volume 5.Ĭompare the amount of new content we've received in FX2 vs. Given Zen's traditional 9-month cycle for new originals, Zen must have changed engines as early as 2019, with the choice made likely within the 5-month gap. Fast forward to 2020, where we only got Volume 6 and a teaser for Mandalorian.with no FX3 logo. They've seemingly slowed down in 2019, given the gap between Volume 4 and Universal Monsters. Know that Pinball FX3 released in September 2017, a little over 4 years since FX2's arrival here, and about 7 years since FX2's original release on Xbox 360.Įvery year, Zen consistently released 10+ tables. With technology rapidly changing these days, it's proved difficult for Zen to keep up with engine upgrades and implementing new features. You can already imagine how old the FX3 engine is, based on previous iterations.