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What does 'PRO' actually mean?

Monkeyboypaul

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I get Premium and Limited Edition, but Pro... What does it actually mean?

'Professional' worked for Windows XP, and it was top of their line-up (excluding Ultimate for W7), but for a big toy at the bottom/lower end of the product range (ignoring Home Editions)...

I'm sure there's some marketing ******** behind this...
 
I imagine just that -

Professional is for the operator - I.E. someone utilising the game in a professional manner to earn money.

Premium is aimed at the home market, with some other features that are "nice to have" but shouldn't make the game any different as an experience (I think they got that wrong on TWD - but don't want to start that whole debate)

LE - is purely the collector end.

I cannot ever see myself getting into the PREMIUM or LE market - I simply cannot justify the extra price and someone who has champagne taste but lemonade money, that keeps me grounded, although the storage facility and subway on GB are tempting, WHEN (and I will at some point I am sure now) own a GB a Pro will be just fine.
 
I didn't realise that Stern Pros are actually the base model. In any other walk of life I'd assume that "Pro" was some kind of trim level above a base version, but apparently not.

Quite curious to know why this is the way it is.. is it because having a "Premium" or "Limited Ediiton" and another trim level that is neither of those things is too off putting to consumers?

It confused the hell out of me when I was looking to buy a Tron.. as there is only a Pro or a LE, and no Premium at all.
 
Was this in reaction to home edition games too?

I don't know much about it but wasn't there a home edition avengers and spiderman or something?
 
Was this in reaction to home edition games too?

I don't know much about it but wasn't there a home edition avengers and spiderman or something?
That's right, they simplified the playfield down and the mechs as well. I'm pretty sure the cabinets were smaller too
 
I didn't realise that Stern Pros are actually the base model. In any other walk of life I'd assume that "Pro" was some kind of trim level above a base version, but apparently not.

Quite curious to know why this is the way it is.. is it because having a "Premium" or "Limited Ediiton" and another trim level that is neither of those things is too off putting to consumers?

It confused the hell out of me when I was looking to buy a Tron.. as there is only a Pro or a LE, and no Premium at all.

Agreed, and the reason i posted this thread.

Your Tron LE playfield is probably labelled Tron Premium, because it was a run of Tron with Premium features that also happened to be limited in number, probably because they didn't think they could sell more than 400! Hindsight...

LE's aren't really limited anymore, they just usually have a better level of trim than the unlimited Premiums - most of which you can do yourself or buy upgrades.
 
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The Premium didn’t exist when Tron was released in 2011, I believe AC/DC was the first to have a Premium version in 2012.
Premium is basically the same as LE but not limited, however they usually add a few cosmetic extras like mirrored backglass to the LE, but the playfield is usually the same.
LE is strictly aimed at home buyers and would often require preordering on the day of announcement before they sold out.

To me, the Premium is the standard model, and Pro is the economy model for operators, with features removed that were designed to be in the game.
 
Its what Stern et al are like at prizing the cold hard cash from our hands...
 
The Premium didn’t exist when Tron was released in 2011, I believe AC/DC was the first to have a Premium version in 2012.
Premium is basically the same as LE but not limited, however they usually add a few cosmetic extras like mirrored backglass to the LE, but the playfield is usually the same.
LE is strictly aimed at home buyers and would often require preordering on the day of announcement before they sold out.

To me, the Premium is the standard model, and Pro is the economy model for operators, with features removed that were designed to be in the game.
I guess it's a matter of semantics, which is what I think @Monkeyboypaul was talking about in the OP.

In any other walk of life a "Pro" version of something would mean a feature set or trim level or whatever higher than the standard model. The whole Windows X Pro vs Home, Office Professional vs Student or Standard, for example. The fact that "Pro" can also mean "Used in a Professional environment" is misleading I think.

Surely the standard non-Pro, non-anything version of a pinball machine - the cheapest version - is by definition the one that operators would buy. Do they really need a "Pro" moniker to know that?

And Premium vs LE.. just as confusing. As was said earlier my Tron LE actually says "Premium" on the playfield/cabinet. When is a Premium not a Premium.. when it's an LE?

I tend to think that this confusing terminology is by design, simply because Stern feels that people are turned off by buying a non-anything version of something. It has to have some added moniker.
 
I think its all a load of balls anyway. Bally, Williams and (dare i utter the word) Gottlieb never used to make 3 versions of a game and they did well back in their time. I dont like the gap between Pro and Premium. If Stern simplify games purely for operators how on earth did operators cope in the 90s with crazy Bally/Williams mechs?
 
I think its all a load of balls anyway. Bally, Williams and (dare i utter the word) Gottlieb never used to make 3 versions of a game and they did well back in their time. I dont like the gap between Pro and Premium. If Stern simplify games purely for operators how on earth did operators cope in the 90s with crazy Bally/Williams mechs?

Badly, and pinball almost died out.
 
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