Great question Monster.
It seems to me that many of the ball manufacturers are abandoning particles all together. I really hope Storm doesn't follow that trend because I see real value in the different looks you get from both solid and pearl particle balls. Storm, Brunswick, and some of the smaller ball companies continue to offer particle balls but I am hard pressed to find 1 particle ball in the entire Ebonite conglomerate.
Pearl particle balls have been sucessful for Storm so I would expect them to continue down that path for a while. I don't think the Shift was the last pearl particle for them, but I do expect Storm to only have a couple of particle balls at any given time.
The Double / Secret Agents have their place but as far as I can tell they haven't been huge sellers. I haven't seen anyone throw a Jolt Particle so I am assuming that isn't a big seller either (I could be wrong and am happy to be corrected). The only particle in Storm's current lineup that seems to be a big seller is the Shift; so why not another on the popular Thunder Road core?
p.s., sorry for highjacking this thread with a different topic, but I felt that Monster's question was one of the most interesting one's on this forum in a while.