Pop-A-Shot, inventors of the original basketball arcade machine, have announced that their return to the arcade market with the Pop-A-Shot Elite, is now available for operators to buy. With a few exceptions of some games that have already shipped, units purchased now will begin shipping in June, but in case demand is high and you’re interested, you’ll want to get that taken care of sooner rather than later.
That’s pretty much the long and short of it, but since we like to provide more details in case you had missed the news from trade show coverage, here’s a refresher – plus an update on the pricing.
The Pop-A-Shot Elite
The Pop-A-Shot Elite marks the return of the iconic brand to the commercial arcade space, after a 20 year hiatus. Instead of presenting a more durable version of their popular home options, they’ve come up with a machine that it set to compete against various options that exist in the present industry.
The Elite features a compact form factor, a protected 49″ HD screen, and a QR code player/score tracking system that opens up local/regional/national tournaments. The latter is the most innovative feature, where it is similar to Stern’s Insider Connected, and is the first time that such a feature has been found on a basketball machine.
According to the email, some units have already shipped out there, although it isn’t clear how many were a part of the first production run. That said, this does mean that the game has been released, and as the email I got about this says, this game is “officially in market.”
The one thing that has been up in the air is the price. They were sharing a lower price at the Vegas show, but after the tariffs, the price went up to $6600 MSRP. That is in such a flux that it’s hard to say where it will end up in the long run, although I imagine that once all the dust settles there and there are fixed new rates, then they’ll adjust that accordingly (hopefully down to where it had been). I don’t know where pricing is currently at for similar video basketball systems, although initially the price was below anyone else making a similar system, so I would say that $6600 is still competitive.
If you’re interested in grabbing one, you can find a list of the Elite’s authorized dealers right here.
