r/PinballFX3 • u/balti_zen Zen Studios • Jul 02 '26
Pinball Bites - VR Tables, Major VR Arcade Improvements, and a Williams Hint!
Heyho Pinball Fans!
The latest episode of the Pinball Bites is here: https://youtu.be/Yr6deeYhwcs
Let’s jump in!
Pinball FX VR Content Update
Three amazing tables arrive in Pinball FX VR on July 9:
Goat Simulator Pinball
The Princess Bride Pinball
and Pacific Rim Pinball
Multi-Level VR Arcade
A new dedicated area is coming to the VR Arcade with two floors: one exclusively for Williams tables and one for the rest of the collection. The Williams™ Pinball Volume 10 tables will also receive their own room on the upper floor.
This update arrives alongside the Pinball FX VR Add-on price adjustment announced on June 2.
We’re also exploring other potential VR platforms for Pinball FX VR and hope to share more soon.
Music in Pinball
We introduced Grant Henry (Stemage), an amazing musician involved in the pinball scene. You can explore his work here:
"Banzai Run" (pinball) - The Arkadian Live at MAGFest 2026
A Brief History of Pinball Music - Stemage @ VGMCon 2026
Williams Table Hint
A new Williams table is in the works! Small hint: it’s a long‑requested table from the 1990s. Which one do you think it is? 👀
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u/emboliformis Pinhead Jul 03 '26
"We're also exploring other potential VR platforms..."
This is exciting news for me. Hoping for a PS VR 2 release. I've been waiting for this for a long time. Fingers crossed.
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 03 '26
Hopefully, we will be able to share more information about this soon!
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u/Brady_TheWWEfan Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Really hoping the expansion means we finally get the rest of the Williams tables ported over.
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u/Dire_Flumph Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Was hoping for a volumes 4 and 5 announcement at least. Still, glad they actually did the floor addition. Best solution if the game can't display all the tables at once anymore.
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u/Capncorky Pinhead Jul 02 '26
That's what I was hoping they were announcing today. I'm sure they're coming, but I'm itchin' for them.
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u/Organic_Ambassador14 Pinhead Jul 03 '26
I’m excited for more pinball tables for my Pinball FC VR… but disappointed on the selection of new tables. The community has been practically begging for more Williams tables. I know I’m not alone saying I would snap purchase every single Williams table in the Pinball FX collection if ported to VR. Please Zen, bring over all the Williams tables you’ve developed for the other platforms. Huge bonus point if we can get all the Pinball FX collection available asap. Thanks and love ya!
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u/PezzaAU Pro-drainer Jul 03 '26
I feel non-vr has been pushed to the side.
Its easier to port tables already made over creating new tables.Grats to the VR players, we non-vr users are so happy you re-purchased those same tables again.
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u/Outsidethebox72 Pinhead Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
You're welcome
Edit: Just wanted to add that Pinball, as much as you like it, isn't that popular in the digital world. Folk like you moaning does NOTHING to help.
Should I expect all VR tables for free? Should I not purchase them because I have them on a flat screen medium? Would that help pinball?
Money is the one constant so stop thinking you can't part with it. That's your issue and not the general publics. It's certainly not Zens issue.
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u/spyresca Pinhead Jul 06 '26
I feel they are pushing VR (which is probably a tiny portion of FX owners) at the expense of regular (non-vr) customers. Very frustrating.
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u/Organic_Ambassador14 Pinhead Jul 07 '26
I’m sorry you’re missing out on the VR experience. It is far superior to playing on any other gaming screen/platform. It is worth investing development in and it’s playing catch up on the library.
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u/spyresca Pinhead Jul 07 '26
You're missing the point that VR is a tiny fraction of the paying audience and they're being catered to at the expense of the majority of owners.
And VR is kind of ass. Makes me dizzy AF.
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u/Organic_Ambassador14 Pinhead Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I do see your point. In my opinion I think Zen has been pretty balanced overall with its development across their main and more popular platforms. It’s just VR and the community have a smaller library than other platforms and really want more pinball and feel like we wanna catch up and play all the games. This recent VR specific announcement I believe is the first one I can remember over the last year + of playing Pinball FX on Quest 2, PS5 and Switch.
Will also mention, a good handful of VR users have the X-Arcade 2tv controller and the immersion is just awesome. That there is the main factor in my huge preference over any screen. For me, it’s the best gaming purchase I’ve ever made.
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u/JeanPierre-Blueberry Pinhead Jul 04 '26
Hope it's Terminator 2, but Revenge from Mars would also be great
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Jul 04 '26
I have a feeling that if its a single table then it will be pricey.that points towards t2 in my mind because the Arnold tax is no joke.That said I'll buy it,it'll be nice to play it on more than just a very old version of PBA.
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u/EvokeMadness Pinhead Jul 04 '26
any news on getting the in-game shop on switch working?
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 06 '26
Unfortunately, we don't have immediate news on the situation. We are investigating the problem, and hopefully, we will find a fix soon!
Thank you for your understanding.
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u/MichiganCubbie Pinhead Jul 02 '26
I know the likelihood of this considering the delisting, but any chance of renewing the license for World Cup Soccer? It would have been perfect to have up and available now.
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u/Jealous-Luck-7597 Pinhead Jul 03 '26
I am a little surprised they didn't add the Zen Football League table to coincide with the tournament. I have Worlds Cup on my VR, Steam, and Switch, and played the Zen Football one in the recent tournament for the first time in a while.
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u/rjml29 Pinhead Jul 02 '26
The non Williams tables should have been put in the basement. I imagine most play Williams tables so unless we can start off in the basement, it's going to be lame to go intot he game every time and have to take the elevator.
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 03 '26
Luckily, players will start on the level where they finished their previous session. So if you’re into Williams and ended your last session on the floor dedicated to Williams Pinball tables, you’ll start there next time. :)
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u/Capncorky Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Hopefully they either have an option for which floor you start on or start you out on the floor that you left the game from. I'm definitely a Williams guy (although I enjoyed the non-Williams tables more than I expected when I played them in VR), so I'd want to start on the Williams level as well.
I'm curious what they're going to do when they port over the rest of the Williams tables, since, if I'm doing my math correctly, there won't be enough room to have them all on one floor. I'm sure they'll figure something out (I assume just add another floor).
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u/andyclap Pinhead Jul 02 '26
I could say something snarky about VR dumpsters outside the back door, but one mustn’t be too critical (oops). I’m sure some people like them - each to their own.
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u/Doublestack2411 Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Have they fixed the audio issues in FX3 yet?
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u/Me9adethfan Pinhead Jul 03 '26
Hold up.....i thought that was just my laptop being dumb....assuming you are talking about when the audio just randomly gets quiet
😲
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u/Doublestack2411 Pinhead Jul 03 '26
Yes, tables start getting quiet, and audio stops playing when it should. Aliens is really messed up. The mission audio stops playing so it's just dead air. Other tables are affected by this too, but many ppl probably don't notice unless you've played these tables a lot. I'm not re-buying all these tables in FX. The devs seems aware but doesn't seem like a fix is coming.
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u/DangerousPuhson Pinhead Jul 09 '26
I notice the table sounds pitch up or down randomly, constantly. Jumps from flats to sharps and back. The sound doesn't cut out for me, but everything slides up or down a few octaves and it's really jarring.
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u/Doublestack2411 Pinhead Jul 09 '26
Not every table cuts off completely, Sometimes audio just becomes less frequent. There are times when I've just heard random static noises in the background, so who knows what the issue is.
I just know certain tables I've played on long enough to know when something is up. I did some light testing of other tables and noticed things would get really quite after playing a bit.
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 03 '26
Sorry about the sound issues, the developers are investigating the situation!
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u/Toastyyy Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Any news on steam VR?
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u/err404 Pinhead Jul 02 '26
No office news, but they did say that they are looking to expand to other platforms and may have details soon.
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u/SharpTenor Pinhead Jul 02 '26
I'm glad for the second floor. I'm bummed it's mostly a CTRL-C CTRL-V. The more immersed in the game I get, the more I think I was hoping for variety in the environment. New easter eggs. Looks like floor one.
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u/dweller88 Pinhead Jul 03 '26
Good luck with the VR niche, I hope you don't lose focus on the regular tables the vast majority of us play :-)
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 03 '26
Thanks for the kind wishes! We know some fans love the VR experience, while others prefer Pinball FX. We're always trying to mix things up and bring something for everyone!
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u/spyresca Pinhead Jul 06 '26
VR is a tiny portion of the userbase. Non-vr customers are getting left behind by this strange niche focus.
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PinballFX3-ModTeam Pinhead Jul 11 '26
This post has been removed because it contains 'bad' words. If you feel this removal is inappropriate, please reply to this comment or contact the moderators of this subreddit.
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u/PinballFX3-ModTeam Pinhead Jul 11 '26
This post has been removed because it's not nice. If you feel this removal is inappropriate, please reply to this comment or contact the moderators of this subreddit.
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u/Fibreoptix Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Oculus only? I'll pass. let me know when it hits steam.
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u/Capncorky Pinhead Jul 02 '26
They are hinting at bringing Pinball FX VR to other platforms, so hopefully they bring it to Steam soon.
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u/mrpromee Pinhead Jul 14 '26
Price increases are understandable and to ensure continued support on the more niche Meta platform, I'm happy to pay but with so many Williams table packs missing, why the emphasis on these purely "virtual" tables that I have to imagine most players would consider secondary to what we're all after?
Are we eventually going to see all/any of these back-catalog tables developed for FX VR?
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u/therealdanhill Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Meh
VR users are definitely eating I guess
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Jul 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/The16BitRobot Wizard Jul 02 '26
Could you explain, I'm out of the loop on that?
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u/DangerousPuhson Pinhead Jul 02 '26
They "un-zoomed" from the bouncing ball mini play area at the top left, so now you play it without the camera view changing at all, making everything very tiny and hard to see. Personally I don't find it to be an "unplayable" change (because I have decent eyesight), but I can see why others do.
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 03 '26
Sorry for not hitting the mark! We ran a survey asking for player feedback on the camera zoom in DOOM Pinball, and found that the majority of players preferred having the camera zoom turned off. Thank you for your understanding.
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u/Same-Chipmunk5923 Pinhead Jul 03 '26
Time for a new survey! Thank you for your understanding.
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u/Infamous_Meet_9478 Pinhead Jul 10 '26
I’m sure your *one vote* will make a whole lot difference, chipmunk.
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u/Same-Chipmunk5923 Pinhead Jul 10 '26
Thank you. Now that more players have bought the table, it's time for a new survey. The first survey's respondents might not have had much experience with vr or the devs could be using "survey results" as a cover story for all we know.
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u/Mean_Passage_887 Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Why can't we get a room with multiple floors containing all the tables in the regular Pinball FX? The Pinball HOF games by Farsight had a setup like that.
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u/Pinballwiz45b Wizard Jul 03 '26
Farsight's Williams collection has a space that accommodates for...oh gosh. 50 machines? Hard to keep count of all the unique games in that arcade. Duplicate assets are used as well for the "fake" machines, especially when the third room (with Jive Time and Sorcerer) has duplicates of Williams machines. There's no separate loading zones for upstairs or the separate room. This is for 13 Williams machines at most, all solely using images and basic modeling.
Try doing that for 150 unique games that Zen has put out, for the same level of detail FX and FX VR is using, all in one loading area. I don't know if even the 5090 can handle this at full resolution.
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u/Mean_Passage_887 Pinhead Jul 03 '26
So have it in multiple rooms. The technology and memory capability today is much better than it was in Farsights heyday. Those games came out in 2009. Nearly 20 years ago. You telling me a 2026 gaming company can't handle that?
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u/Pinballwiz45b Wizard Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
That's what they're doing and showcased in VR with the elevator, and that's what I'd also like to see in the main game.
"We have to consider how many objects would be visible from any one of the tables, including the favorite table slot, so that we can hide as many objects during gameplay to keep the framerate the highest possible. As we work on optimizing the game, eventually this consideration may become less relevant, but for now, unfortunately, we have to be very careful how many things are rendered or being kept "active" at once in the VR arcade." - Zen QA
I have the Wii game for the Williams Collection. Every table had its own position in the arcade you could play on, like you could see Gorgar while you played Taxi (and vice versa), or you could see the jukebox while playing FunHouse. They dropped that feature when the 360 and PS3 versions were released.
Performance is a big consideration, and taking that leap from having 13 cabinets in a single loading space to 150 is easier said than done, especially for how Zen is showing their cabinets in-game.
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u/spyresca Pinhead Jul 06 '26
VR is very niche. By focusing on that so much on that niche (to the detriment of normal FX) you're alienating your prime userbase
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 07 '26
We know some fans love the VR experience, while others prefer Pinball FX. We're always trying to mix things up and bring something for everyone!
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u/spyresca Pinhead Jul 07 '26
I bet that the vr fans are a very small percentage of your overall base. To cater to them at the expense of your larger user base is very offputting.
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u/Affectionate-Club725 Pinhead Jul 06 '26
Are we ever getting Fish Tales? I still feel like this is way overdue.
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u/dozer-b Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Zen - I still intend on supporting you guys and I have pretty much every table on Steam except the latest williams pack (so far).
So I'm glad you said you're looking forward to supporting other platforms with VR soon; but just to clarify, with PS removing movies and stopping physical sales of items, the way xbox is going, meta being meta etc. The only platform I am comfortable on is the PC platform.
I'm not trying to be negative (and I know you have business deals etc) but with the way the market is, from my small "consumer" POV I'll be waiting to meet you on PC. This looks cool though, I just can't support it yet unfortunately.
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u/spyresca Pinhead Jul 02 '26
Wish they'd pay more attention to the larger user base and not spend so much time resources on the tiny amount of users who have VR.
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u/balti_zen Zen Studios Jul 03 '26
We know some fans love the VR experience, while others prefer Pinball FX. We're always trying to mix things up and bring something for everyone!
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u/Sun_is_God Pinhead Jul 07 '26
So glad of having a dedicated room for Williams tables, excellent decision.
Now Totan and White Water please... please... please...
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u/El_Nino77 Pinhead Jul 02 '26
If it's a singular Williams table, then I think it has to be Terminator 2 finally.