Stern Pinball

"Both of those can stand their own next to Harry Potter and then Stern is like a distant fourth... If you might start out by saying Spooky or Barrels or JJP. Stern is fourth."

Stern has fallen to fourth place among manufacturers

"a dude spending $13,000 on a Stern, which is crazy to begin with because no Stern machine is worth anywhere near $13,000. We all know it."

No Stern machine is worth anywhere near $13,000

"Stern is back. Stern is back, baby. Like, they are back. This company's been taking lashes not just from me, from everybody, and rightfully so... That company has been demoralized for like four years. It's been a toxic work environment."

Stern is back after years of criticism and toxic work environment

"I think if you're going to remaster anything, remaster stuff that's just impossible to get. I think Batman on the new platform would be fun to see. I think Ghostbusters would be fun to see"

Stern should remaster classic games like Batman, Ghostbusters, LOTR instead of AC/DC again

"And then you go over to Stern. And Stern continues to be, out of all the companies, the one company now where people feel like they're just not getting the value. It's at Stern Pinball."

Stern continues to be the company where people feel they're not getting value

"Everything else since then has been somewhat of a sales disappointment and a little bit of a cultural flop. If you ask me, D&D never really caught on. You didn't really see people catch on with King Kong. You didn't really see Star Wars take off. The Walking Dead didn't take off. John Wick didn't take off. Venom didn't take off."

Stern's recent games have been sales disappointments and cultural flops

"Stern Pinball is like the opposite. Like they were doing things better years ago... So you're telling me you can make Godzilla for 10.5 with everything in it and get every single asset imaginable. And then years later, we're ending up with an assetless King Kong without as much magic."

Stern made better games years ago - new management and Spike 3 platform are worse

"They easily could have done a poll. What would be the secret? We know they're doing remasters... why didn't they at least survey the community. Would you like to see kiss AC/DC? Would you like to see Tron?"

Stern should survey community before choosing remasters

"the fact that Stern got that so wrong is really indicative in my honest opinion of a company that's missing the mark big time. There is no way Stern Pinball with all of their knowledge of this community should ever create such a failure of a remastered"

Walking Dead Remastered failure shows Stern is out of touch with community

"Can we finally get to a place in the pinball universe in which the largest company in the world will just tell us a month in advance when we can expect to see their next game? Why can't they just do that? It's not like we don't know what's coming. It's only pinball."

Stern should provide month advance notice for game releases instead of keeping everyone waiting

"My worry is stern is going to chase the money and not chase the legacy. They are really going to be about volume, volume, volume, because now their customers are the private equity investors. That is my take on the modern world lately. The world has become a weird place where we are putting simple profits over people."

Stern will chase money over legacy due to private equity ownership, prioritizing volume over creativity

"I mean you put these games next to the Stern machines. And they make the Stern machines look so cheap"

Modern boutique games make Stern machines look cheap in comparison

"It just hasn't really worked out for anyone who's gone in early on any of these Stern games"

Stern Pinball's new pricing strategy hasn't worked out for early buyers

"Stern keeps burning its own customers. They did it again on Jaws"

Stern keeps burning its own customers with better versions after LE releases

"Stern Pinball has lost. All the confidence and all the trust between the collectors and Stern. They just kept remaking stuff"

Stern has lost all collector confidence by constantly remaking games

"I just think all Stern are stupid buys now at new inbox prices. I think all Stern new inbox now are just stupidly priced. I don't think they've done anything to justify the pricing of any of their machines."

All new Stern machines are stupid purchases at current pricing

"Here's the thing that I think has happened is Stern's lost a lot of the base. The core people that are just pinheads that used to buy every new Stern and a lot of those people, they're just burned. They're tired. They're burnt out of losing so much money."

Stern has lost their core base due to poor value retention and buyer burnout

"It's now 2026. And Stern Pinball, I think, needs more than just a game that checks the boxes. I think they need a game that is magical. That has like mechanics. Mechanical engineering. That's awesome. They need a statement game for this new spike three platform."

Stern needs a statement game for Spike 3 platform, not just something that checks boxes

"I marched into that company, not as Kaneda, as Chris, a dude with 25 years of marketing experience. And I cared. They didn't even expect anything from me. I spent so long making an entire deck and an observation and an analysis of their company. They didn't even ask for it. I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do. And I cared. And they ignored every single thing I said."

Personal grievance with Stern management for ignoring detailed marketing analysis and recommendations

"What's happened at Stern Pinball isn't an isolated thing at Stern. It is what is happening all over the world. Companies are losing their identity. They are losing their culture and they are losing their creativity in the name of one thing. In the name of growth."

Stern Pinball has lost its identity and culture due to obsession with growth, bringing in outside executives who don't understand pinball

"Stern Pinball is in big trouble. And there is no denying the fact that Stern Pinball relative to everything else happening in the hobby is one of the least exciting companies right now. And they need, they need to get their asses kicked a little bit. I think to turn a page."

Stern Pinball is in big trouble and least exciting company in pinball right now

"I think this has been one of the worst years in the history of Stern Pinball. And I think they're in big trouble"

Stern Pinball has had one of their worst years in company history and is in big trouble

"You know, it's funny watching Stranger Things season five right now. I feel like Stern messed up. I really do. I feel like Stern should have released D&D to coincide with the final season of Stranger Things in which Dungeons & Dragons is like a central part of that show. But I digress pinball companies have the worst marketing."

Stern should have released D&D to coincide with Stranger Things final season for better marketing

"I think what we're going to see when we go through the award show is that stern pinball has some work to do. That quantity does not equal quality. And I've witnessed award shows, ladies and gentlemen, where stern pinball has swept, where they won almost every category. And I think what's happening now in pinball is a changing of the guard as I've been saying over the last year. I think the boutique companies have really improved their product."

Stern quantity doesn't equal quality - boutique companies have improved and are changing the guard

"I think Stern, out of all the companies, they blew it. Like they really blew it. They had a chance. To have both like the mass volume games and the collectible games that everybody wanted. And they absolutely blew it. They treated their customers that collected their games like crap. And they're never going to get them back. I mean it. They're never going to get them back. It's too late now."

Stern Pinball has completely blown their opportunity to make collectible games and treated collectors terribly

"No, I mean this when I say it, I think pros are going to 3,500. I think premiums are going to 5. I just mean it. There's just so much of everything old that's out there. The new stuff is where all the excitement is going to be."

Stern prices need to drop significantly - pros to $3500, premiums to $5000

"I think Stern's three tiered model is what's now dead I do I just think Stern's you know Stern Stern's trying to have it all at once now and it's just not gonna work like I just don't think they're gonna be able to sell their L.E.s for 13"

Stern's three-tiered pricing model is dead

"That stern pinball over there culturally has become a bit of a toxic work environment. And you can kind of feel it. You can kind of sense it."

Stern Pinball has become a toxic work environment

"I really think Stern has no way out. I'm just going to guess, but I think in just a couple of years, Stern pinball is in big, big trouble. I mean, imagine if they lost Keith Elwin. If Keith Elwin just went somewhere else, imagine how much trouble Stern pinball would be in. That's how vulnerable they are."

Stern Pinball is in big trouble and vulnerable

"The value of all of their models is contingent on the LE holding value. If the LE doesn't hold value, it doesn't stabilize the premiums and the pros. It's like a house of cards."

Stern's three-tier pricing model is collapsing because LEs are losing value

"I'm tired of little pez head dispensers being shooter rides. This is just so lazy. What is happening? I wouldn't mind this stuff if the games were much cheaper."

Stern accessories are lazy and overpriced, particularly criticizing Star Wars accessories

"Star Wars is embarrassing. Walking dead is another flop."

Star Wars pinball is embarrassing and Walking Dead is a flop

"And this is why if Pokemon in two weeks is a flop, I think Stern's in big, big trouble gang. They have to be. I don't see the unboxings. I don't see the orders. I don't see the enthusiasm anymore."

Stern Pinball is in serious trouble with consecutive flops and Pokemon needs to succeed

"I would have given Keith Elwin like two years to design all three games as individual titles. That's right. I would have allowed Keith Elwin to make a new hope game in Empire Strikes Backgame and a Return of the Jedi game."

Stern should have made three separate Star Wars games for the 50th anniversary instead of one mediocre game

"Ever since the private equity company took over Stern people during COVID, this is what happened, man. The private equity came in during COVID. They demand the high margins. Gary has cashed out. I think they're just bleeding this thing until it's done, baby."

Private equity takeover of Stern during COVID is bleeding the company dry

"I don't know if you're a Stern. How you think that we would look at that image of that cabinet corner that we would look at that and say this is an improvement. That this looks like a quality build now. Does anyone believe that?"

New Stern cabinet corners look terrible and are an embarrassment

"I don't like the fact that you are now giving people who bought the premium the ability to have the same lit up side armor as the LE owners. I mean, it's like Stern doesn't get it. Like the very simple concept here of you continue to screw over the LE buyers."

Stern continues to screw over LE buyers by making premiums look just as good

"There's something happening over at Stern. It's not good. It's not good. There's, I do think we talk about this a lot. I think this company is at a moment of inflection, and I just don't really understand the strategy."

Stern Pinball is at a moment of inflection with a confusing strategy that won't work with consumers

"Like who was always like the cheapest option in the market? I mean, seriously, the mass produce, they make the cheapest game in a lot of ways... for what you spend, you are not getting your money's worth. And you know this right now, right?"

Stern makes the cheapest games in the market and you don't get your money's worth

"A lot is riding on this game. If this game is not a hit, Stern is in trouble. I think Stern is in trouble either way."

If Stern's next game flops, the company is in big trouble - they're already in trouble either way

"When I go to Ikea and I buy furniture and it's got those little pegs like the Stern cabinet and it's got brackets, I don't expect my dresser to fail or my cabinetry to fall apart but it's still cheap because I bought it at Ikea and it came flat in a box and I assembled it. This isn't like true craftsmanship happening now over at Stern with these cabinets"

Stern's new cabinet construction using brackets is cheap IKEA-style furniture despite being functional

"For $3,500 more, what did you give me? That is basically almost the bomb on an entire stern game. For $3,500 more, you didn't give me exclusive code. You didn't give me really a lot of these new games, even like exclusive artwork."

Stern's LE buyers are getting ripped off - paying $3500 more for minimal exclusive content

"I do think they might want to explore being more focused as an organization on just two cornerstones a year, where they put so much more effort and details into each game"

Stern should focus on just two cornerstone games per year instead of their current release schedule

"The reason why so much of this is happening right now is I just think the product overall has been very underwhelming for a long time. And so then it's easy to deconstruct it, to look at every single decision they've made, and say, hey, that's the reason why I'm not buying a Stern."

Stern's recent games have been underwhelming - that's the real reason people are nitpicking cabinets and other details

"We don't care about your growth as an organization. We don't. We're not investors in Stern Pinball. We are buyers of Stern Pinball products."

Customers don't care about Stern's business growth journey - they just want value for $13,000

"I think buying any of their products new and box is absolutely silly unless you're an operator. The home buyer who buys any of these games right away, I think is foolish."

Home buyers who purchase new Stern games are foolish - only operators should buy new

"It is so obvious that Stern pinball just can't really sell a product that is north of $10,000. once you go over 10 grand their product just doesn't cut it. It just doesn't look the part."

Stern can't sell products over $10,000 due to inferior quality compared to competitors

"What do you think is going to happen to the pinball market when all of these games have to make their way out there eventually? It's going to happen. The white walkers are coming baby to the value of your older stern machines."

Thousands of unsold Stern games in Chicago warehouse will crash the market

"I think buying new and boxed Stern's over $10,000 is just going to be a losing proposition moving forward."

Buying new Stern games over $10k will be a losing proposition

"They can't have a game come out where it takes over a year to get the topper to get the accessories. Does Spooky Pinball make your way to year? Does Barrels of Fun make you way to year? Does anyone else out there in the pinball world make you wait an entire year for the topper?"

Stern needs to stop making customers wait a full year for accessories and toppers