Welcome to this Pinball News report from the launch party for the new ABBA game from Pinball Brothers. We’re at the Clarion hotel in the Swedish city of Örebro which is around a two-hour drive west of Stockholm. The Clarion hotel – host of the ABBA Pinball launch party We brought you details of the game’s appearance, design, features and prices in our article on Thursday, but this is the first time Pinball Brothers have presented the game to the public. The launch party is promoted in the hotel’s entrance It is also promoted on the street outside, alongside the appearance of the band Punsch Access to this launch party was by ticket which could be purchased online, although the tickets cost a fairly nominal sum of SEK100 which equates to around $9 (£7.41/€8.63). The party begins at 6pm but already preparations are underway. The stage where the band will play from 8pm Pinball Brothers will have four ABBA pinball machines at the launch party. Three of them will be located in the bar area, while the fourth will be in a side conference room for personal demonstrations. Before the start of the event, one of each model was lifted onto the stage. The Voyage Collector Edition is placed on the stage It is joined by the Arrival Limited Edition model A little after 6pm the party began, with Daniel and Christian from Pinball Brothers introducing the two models of the ABBA pinball. Christian and Daniel from Pinball Brothers Before that, they assembled members of the game design team to receive appreciation from the audience. Members of the ABBA pinball design team Some of the crowd at the launch party The first promo video for the new game was shown to the assembled audience. The promo video is shown As part of the introduction, the duo were joined by Ludvig Andersson, son of ABBA’s Benny Anderson, who produced the ABBA Voyage show and was instrumental in selecting the themes for the two models’ artwork. He spoke about how he had wanted to create an ABBA pinball for many years and ultimately ended up speaking to the Pinball Brothers team and working with them to make it happen. Ludvig Andersson The whole introduction is now available as a 4K video. Once the interview was over, the four ABBA pinball machines at the Launch Party were made available for guests to play. Guests get to play the new ABBA pinballs More guests get to enjoy a third ABBA pinball machine We shot a couple of short clips of the gameplay to give you an idea of the playfield layout, the video animations, the music and the lighting effects. The gams featured here were running a fairly early version of the code (it was numbered V0.035) so there is a lot more functionality yet to be added. Then, at 8pm the band Punsch started their performance. Punsch performing at the ABBA pinball launch party The band included many ABBA hits amongst their playlist of songs Their musical performance was greatly appreciated by the assembled crowd of pinball fans, ABBA fans and hotel diners. There was an appreciative audience for Punsch’s performance For anyone looking for a quieter environment to get to grips with the new ABBA pinball game, there was a side room available where the fourth machine was set up to play. Playing the new ABBA pinball in a quieter side room You could actually hear the game’s sounds in this room Later in the evening, the members of the design team who were at the launch party came together for a group photo. Members of the ABBA pinball design team That brought the ABBA pinball launch party to a close. The machines in the bar were folded down ready for transportation back to the Pinball Brothers office. The three games from the hotel’s bar area on the stage on Sunday morning The two Arrival and one Voyage edition machines That concludes our coverage of the Pinball Brothers’ ABBA pinball launch party in Örebro. We’re now flying back to the Pinball News office after a fun weekend. We plan to have an interview with Pinball Brothers CEO, Daniel Janson, in the next few days in our joint PINcast with Pinball Magazine, once the events at the launch party and the resulting feedback from players has been been been fully considered.
