With FarSight Studio's The Pinball Arcade hitting the PlayStation 3 and Vita today, Zen Studios wants to make sure everyone knows they've got their own pinball platform heading to Sony systems this spring, and it's (technically) free.
As they did with Pinball FX 2 on the Xbox 360 some two years ago, Zen Studios is finally doing on the PlayStation 3 with Zen Pinball 2. It's not so much a pinball game as it is a pinball delivery system, a framework featuring innovative social scoring leaderboards, with individuals raising their "ProScore" and groups of friends clumping together to up their "TeamScore". So yes, essentially this is Pinball FX 2 but with different naming conventions in place and cross-platform entitlement between the PS3 and Vita: every table downloaded will be unlocked on both systems.
Zen Pinball 2 will be a free download this spring, released alongside the set of four new Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles tables. Downloading the platform will automatically upgrade Zen Pinball and Marvel Pinball owners to the new platform, with older tables receiving a quick makeover to bring them up to speed.
All-in-all, Zen Pinball 2 will launch with 26 tables, a mix of the old and the new. Players will be able to play trial versions of each table, purchasing the ones they want from within the app.
"We are so excited about the future of videogame pinball, and Zen Pinball 2 is the most advanced pinball platform available on any digital network. We are happy to upgrade physics, provide new trophies and introduce compelling new social features and more to all of our existing players at no charge," said Mel Kirk, Zen Studios vice president of marketing and public relations via official announcement. "We have really focused on keeping the community intact, offering compelling new features and connecting the cross-platform experience between the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita."
More video game pinball to more people is never a bad thing.