The Executive Vice President of American Pinball, David Fix, has left the company, the latest in a series of recent departures from the Palatine, Illinois-based pinball maker. David Fix at the public launch of American Pinball’s current title, Barry O’s Barbecue Challenge After four years in charge of American Pinball‘s production and marketing operations, David’s contract hasn’t been renewed. This follows a series of lay-offs in the weeks leading up to Christmas, with Ryan McQuaid, Steven Bowden and Zofia Ryan amongst the most recent to part ways with the company. David joined American Pinball in December 2020 as their Director of Operations and Marketing, having previously worked at Dave & Busters and arcade game manufacturer Innovative Concepts in Entertainment (ICE) in Buffalo, New York. He was soon promoted to Executive Vice President, running the Palatine operation’s game development, production and marketing, with his initial one year contract extended by a further three years. Although he was very much the public face of American Pinball, many aspects of the company’s back office operations, such as financial control, staffing, legal and HR functions all remained with the parent company, Aimtron. David shows Pinball News around the American Pinball factory David’s departure comes just as American Pinball is preparing to announce their seventh title, following on from Houdini, Oktoberfest, Hot Wheels, Legends of Valhalla, Galactic Tank Force and Barry O’s Barbecue Challenge. The mechanical design and artwork of the new game are understood to be complete, but the software needs additional work before it is fully production-ready. With lead designer, Ryan McQuaid, and rules designer, Steven Bowden, no longer at the company, Software Developer, Casey, is believed to be the only one still be working on the game, with Jessica in the Art Department developing marketing material for its eventual launch. Here’s how David told us of his departure from American Pinball. 2025 should be an exciting year for American Pinball, with game 7 poised for release, which I believe will be the best game ever designed and produced by American Pinball! It has also been one of my greatest privileges and a personal highlight to have collaborated with the licensor and incredible team that has put their heart and soul into this project.With a touch of sadness, I am announcing that after my past exciting 4 years at American Pinball, ownership and I have not renewed any contract for my continuation with American Pinball. As ownership adjusts their operation and plans for American Pinball’s future, I will wish them all the best and success that will come with the new Game 7 launch. However, I am very proud to leave American Pinball with their impending new game design ready to go, and will be excited to see how it is received later on this year when it goes into production and officially released!Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy 2025 as we all continue into the exciting changes the new year will bring. See you at Pinball Expo 2025!!! It is understood American Pinball’s parent company, Aimtron, is looking to transition the business towards the contract manufacturing of other company’s designs rather than designing and marketing their own games. Aimtron is already well-versed in contract manufacturing electronic boards and modules for numerous customers all around the world, with established operations in India, China and the US, including within the same building currently housing American Pinball’s operations. The American Pinball and Aimtron building in Palatine, Illinois The incoming US President, Donald Trump, has previously stated he will be imposing tariffs on global imports, although the scope of products affected and level of such tariffs don’t appear to have been decided yet. Such a move could impact non-US pinball manufacturers such as Pinball Brothers, Pedretti and Dutch Pinball, making their products correspondingly more expensive and less competitive in their single biggest market. Having a US-based contract manufacturing operation assembling their games for domestic sales could be one way to circumvent any tariffs. There was always the suspicion Aimtron would look to make changes at American Pinball, ever since the parent company sold off a chunk of their Indian operation’s shares in an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in June 2024, which listed Aimtron Electronics Limited on the Indian stock exchange (NSX). Although it was the Indian operation which was listed, the floatation prospectus included American Pinball as one of several foreign group companies owned by the Indian parent. Previously, the whole of Aimtron was majority owned and run by founder, CEO and Chairman, Mukesh Vasani, with American Pinball as a beneficiary of his benevolence. Now that Aimtron Electronics Limited is run by a management board with fiscal oversight and responsibilities to shareholders, there is increased pressure on Mukesh and his son, Nirmal, to reassess American Pinball’s operations. It is Nirmal Vasani who has been wielding fiscal and personnel control of American Pinball’s business, managing the staff hirings and lay-offs, as well as signing off any large capital outlays. With David’s departure, until a new VP is appointed Nirmal has effective control of the whole company. Without David to spearhead the launch and promotion of the seventh title and most of the development team laid-off, it’s unclear how or when the game will be officially announced. Previous launches have seen machines already at American Pinball distributors for immediate sales to locations and home buyers. Despite all the lay-offs, it does seems the company is gearing up to start building games. They have recently been advertising on their social media feeds for new production line, engineering and support staff. A recent post seeking new production and support staff Finally, it’s worth remembering how American Pinball also has a pipeline of future pinball designs in various stages of development, including one especially promising game from designer Dennis Nordman. When these designs are combined with a talented team game developers looking for fresh employment, American Pinball could prove an attractive purchase for another company looking to gain a foothold in the pinball business or for an established non-US pinball maker to set up an American manufacturing arm. We expect to find out more about the future of American Pinball in the next couple of months, and will bring you all the latest developments right here at Pinball News. In the meantime, David Fix will be a special guest on the next Pinball News and Pinball Magazine Pinball Industry News PINcast, which will be published at the start of February.
