Well, this is one way to end the month – with news on a test game by ICE. Called Quarterback Pro, this is an American Football tossing game that is perhaps being aimed at replacing ICE’s NFL 2 Minute Drill. It has been quite a while since we’ve heard about new-new piece from ICE, but before we get to all of that, a disclaimer:
The following game has not been officially announced and has been spotted at random on test. As a beta test, it could see significant changes for a wide release, if it even sees that at all – sometimes, games don’t test well and are quietly retired.
No Huddle Football
First off, reader Jdevy sent in a photo of this game last night that is labeled as No Huddle Football. If you compare it to the Quarterback Pro pic further down, they appear to be the same game, just with a name change. What the production name might end up being is anyone’s guess – perhaps it could come with NFL branding, or it could remain more “vanilla.” If so, that does allow ICE a little more freedom on the game’s design, but also can help them avoid some particular headaches that come with players all over it. Aside from the heightened costs, sometimes games that are branded with players end up becoming sour to the public, in the event that a prominent player on a game has some trouble with the law or says/does something controversial [I know of at least two games where this issue has caused different manufacturers to start reconsidering putting star players on a machine].
Quarterback Pro
Here’s the game seen at the Supercharged in Edison, NJ, as shared on the Arcade Heroes Discord by S1ckHands tonight. It is a little unusual that we see the same game pop up on test with two different names, so close to each other in terms of time. Maybe ICE is testing the waters on different naming/art conventions, or it was just coincidence in timing. I would assume that No Huddle is the older of the two, as the marquee for QP is more detailed, and the name rolls off the tongue better. This one below is also a much nicer photo; The naming could also stay like this as it would match up nicely with ICE’s recent soccer game, World Football Pro.
The goal of the game is simple – throw footballs at the targets for points. Each target has a little RGB LED display next to it (instead of the more traditional red numerical LED that most redemption games come with), which I assume will allow it to use dynamic score changes. There are two other larger LED matrix displays on the game, and a panel showing yardage towards the touchdown.
When will this game hit production? Well, it’s on test and hasn’t officially been announced yet, so it’s always possible that it could never see mass manufacturing. In the event that it does however, I would expect to see this on display at the ICE booth here in March at Amusement Expo 2024. It could make a lot of sense for this to launch, given that Bay Tek has their own football tossing game, Tundra Toss, coming out soon – this game is significantly smaller though, which also likely means it will come in at a much lower price.
Your thoughts on this new sports redemption game?
