Pinball FX is click-clacking its way to PlayStation 5 this year as previously reported – but existing fans of the franchise may not be thrilled to learn that you’ll need to repurchase any tables you may already own. Zen Studios has, historically, allowed you to transfer your content across – but it’s starting from scratch with this next-gen version.

The Hungarian developer has justified its decision by explaining that any legacy tables that it ports will be retrofitted with its new physics engine, which obviously requires significant development effort and tuning to realise. A lot of its tables are also based on licenses like Marvel and Star Wars, which will probably require some renegotiation.

Nevertheless, the news will certainly disappoint franchise faithfuls, who’ve become accustomed to taking their library with them across platforms. This author alone probably owns somewhere in the region of 30 to 40 tables, so it’s certainly disheartening to see all of that content left behind. Hopefully the team gets its pricing right.

In terms of the game itself, new features include Pinball Royale, a Battle Royale-inspired multiplayer mode, as well as new challenge modes and revamped competitive play. There’s no word on DualSense support, but this feels like the ideal accompaniment to the adaptive triggers, so we’d expect Zen Studios to put in some good work here.

The developer has also teased “original tables featuring brand-new IPs set to be revealed as launch approaches”, so feel free to share some suggestions in the comments section. Is there any franchise in particular that you think would make for a great Pinball FX table? Nudge us down below.

[source youtube.com]