Will the Second Stern Pinball Cornerstone Game of 2023 be Foo Fighters?

Welcome to the 600th ever post on the Knapp Arcade website. I've been publishing pinball and arcade news on Facebook and Instagram since 2015, but the KnappArcade.org site is newer than that. 600 posts isn't the milestone that 500 was (didn't notice that one) or 1,000 will be (God willing) but it is a round number :).

Now for a piece of trivia that I bet a lot of people don't know. Did you know that the term "Foo Fighter" was actually coined in World War II by U.S. fighter pilots? It was their name for the Unidentified Flying Objects that they often saw in the skies over Europe. They often appeared as a ball of bright light or fire. I've always thought that it was a cool term and a great name for a band.

There has been lots of speculation about what the theme of Jack Danger's first pinball machine for Stern will be. Some people believe that it will be based on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Others have said that it will be a music-themed pin. I'm going to talk about the latter rumor for a little bit.

If it is a music pin, the long-rumored Foo Fighters theme makes a LOT of sense. It is 100% known that the famous artist Zombie Yeti is doing the art for Jack Danger's game. Mr. Yeti has already done a number of cool concert posters for Foo Fighters (see below). Back in 2018, Zombie Yeti convinced Stern to manufacture a pinball machine for another band that he did artwork for, Primus. So there's historical precedent for another game based on a band that Zombie Yeti has done work for in the past.

During a recent interview, Stern Pinball's George Gomez stated that Jack's game is "thematically a move in a different direction for us." A cornerstone game based on a more modern band probably qualifies as that. Of course, that statement is vague enough that He-Man might as well LOL. Still, if I had to bet, I'd put my money on Foo Fighters being the second Stern game of 2023. Time will tell. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us.

Happy Holidays Everyone!