Stern Pinball

"when I look at this game, I do feel like Stern's mechanical engineering department isn't really doing anything magical in this game. Like nothing is something we really haven't seen before"

Stern's mechanical engineering department isn't doing anything magical in Jaws - nothing we haven't seen before

"What inside of Jaws pinball by Stern is state of the art technology? I would really love for them to explain to us where the state of the art technology is."

Stern's claims about 'state-of-the-art technology' in Jaws are questionable

"So even though I would love to celebrate this news, I still don't trust Stern Pinball is not going to pull a fast one on us. They've had such a history of pulling a fast one on the Pinball community."

Decision to no longer remake limited editions may still have loopholes

"For this much money, this is not working for me. It's not working for a lot of you. We all know it. For this much money, this is not the effort in these games"

Stern Pinball is charging too much money while cutting corners on mechanical features and assets

"The destruction of the LE buyer base and the destruction of that loyalty is really the biggest issue I see in Pinball because that's where all the FOMO is"

Stern has destroyed trust with LE buyers by releasing better versions later

"it looks like a Stern, it looks like Stern where they just kind of go far enough on everything but nothing really blows you away and that's my thing"

Stern consistently goes 'far enough' on everything but nothing blows you away

"After watching it, I was kind of worried about Stern. I'm like, oh my gosh, at these prices, how is Stern Pinball going to fill that factory every single week?"

Stern is vulnerable due to massive new factory and high prices

"I think Stern's year is going to be killer. And I think the year is going to be defined by Keith Elwin Jaws at the beginning of the year and Dutch pinballs back to the future at the end of the year"

Stern Pinball will have a killer year starting with Keith Elwin's Jaws

"Stern Pinball dropped Jurassic Park 30th and now Vyra Blood Kiss Editions back to back, basically destroying the collector goodwill that they've built up after all these years... now they've set a precedence where they are willing to cannibalize their own cornerstone games."

Stern destroyed collector goodwill by dropping anniversary editions back-to-back, cannibalizing their own games

"I think you're going to see downloadable content happening in Pinball. I think that's Stern's ultimate plan. Get everybody signed up, get everybody connected, and now you're going to start buying a game. You're not even going to get the full game when you spend $13,000 on it."

Stern will implement downloadable content with Spike 3 system

"The stuff coming off the line in the new factory is not as good as the stuff that was coming out of the old factory. So it just begs the question, like is Stern's quality control, is it where it needs to be? Are they rushing these games out? At these prices, they can't rush these games out."

Stern's quality control has declined since new factory

"You have to understand what Stern does. They operate like the mafia. They control the price of their products. Even after you buy it, they control the product."

Stern Pinball operates like the mafia, controlling prices even after customers buy games through MAP pricing

"So you're telling me Stern pinball goes on a witch hunt and then put stuff in writing that they never should have put in writing because they want to stop a guy who bought a game who's not even a dealer for less than he paid for it."

Stern going after someone for selling a game $200 below MAP shows they're terrified of true market values

"Where are the themes like Back to the Future? Where's Ghostbusters? Where's Die Hard? Where are the themes that are more Take My Money Now?"

Stern should focus on bigger nostalgic themes instead of current lineup

"Stern and Jersey Jack are fighting a war in which they're both going to lose this battle"

Stern and Jersey Jack are fighting a destructive pricing war

"I was also told that the pro cabinet actually looks the best. This is something Stern's been doing recently. They've sort of been putting really nice artwork on the pro packages because they wanna sell as many of those as possible."

Stern puts nicer artwork on pro packages to sell more of them

"If you listen, Stern marketing team, these prices are already too high. If you try to get more blood from this stone, people are going to stop buying your games for good."

Stern should not raise prices on Jaws despite the game's features - market can't handle it

"I think Stern does a much better job with their coding than Jersey Jack pinball. They don't get credit for it. And I think some Jersey Jack fanboys don't give Stern credit for this, but I much prefer a Stern code over a Jersey Jack code."

Stern has better coding than Jersey Jack and doesn't get enough credit

"if Stern and made pulp fiction, they would have charged you 13,000 for the LE... And then they would have charged you another for this topper. They would have charged you $2,000 for this topper. And so you would have been spending on pulp fiction if Stern pinball made it $15,000."

Stern would have charged $15,000 for Pulp Fiction vs CGC's $9,750

"it is probably one of the greatest innovations that has hit pinball in the last 1,000 years. Because it gives everybody something to strive for. It connects the community in a really great way."

Stern Insider Connected is one of the greatest innovations in pinball in the last 1,000 years

"I want to use this as an example of why I think Stern Pinball might be in big trouble. And the biggest threat to Stern Pinball is Stern Pinball itself."

Stern Pinball is in big trouble and their biggest threat is themselves

"How is it that this topper four years ago was $499? And just four years later, the same topper made in China with the same materials and the same parts... How did this topper go up in price? 200% over the last four years."

Black Knight topper price increase of 200% is insulting and shows Stern's greed

"Stern Pinball updating 22 freaking games at once. Holy holiday, Stern Pinball. What a move by this company. And some of these games got real significant code updates, which is awesome."

Stern updating 22 games at once is awesome and shows they're trying to make games as good as possible

"I really do think when we see stuff like this, I think it telegraphs that stern pinball has lost the narrative a little bit. It almost feels like they don't even understand the category they're in. You know what I'm saying? Like why even put this into the code? Like who is this going to entice to buy a new game?"

Stern's advertisement in code updates is silly and shows they've lost the narrative

"As much as I still feel we're getting ripped off by Stern Pinball, I really do. I still think a stern bomb is like 4,500 bucks. And we're literally spending $13,000 on something that costs them 3,500. But at least they go the distance with their games."

Still thinks Stern machines are overpriced despite their good software support

"I think Jersey Jack and Stern Pinball are the two companies that are inside a big Death Star that looks like two big pinballs, and they just fired their tractor beam at Alderaan and blew up everybody on Alderaan who was their LE collectors."

Stern and Jersey Jack are like the Death Star and have destroyed their own LE/collector markets through greed

"Stern Pinball never should have raised the prices of LE machines over the $10,500 mark that they had for Godzilla LE. It was the perfect price for the LE"

Stern should never have raised LE prices above $10,500 mark from Godzilla - current $13,000 pricing is unsustainable

"I actually think Stern Pinball is in a little bit of trouble people. I hear they have games piling up in their factory and Stern Pinball is overpriced and it's not going to work."

Stern Pinball is in trouble due to overpricing and games piling up in factory

"A Stern LE should be $10,000. It should not be any more than that."

Stern LE should be $10,000 maximum, not $13,000

"put Elton John next to a game like Rush, it's just something about the way they look. Like one looks like a Honda Civic and one looks like a Mercedes Benz."

Jersey Jack machines look much nicer than Stern machines

"I think Stern Pinball is about to do something that is absolutely moronic, and I think Stern Pinball is right now in a weird place. Like I think Seth Davis over there, I think he wants to really generate as much revenue as he can in a short term period of time."

Stern is planning to destroy limited edition value by making anniversary editions

"I also think Stern is burning its consumer base. I think people are watching Stern remake all these games. All that's going to do is make people hesitant to jump back in to Stern pinball."

Stern is burning its consumer base with remakes

"Stern Pinball, the world's number one pinball maker in the world will have sold more Elvira, Black and White editions without even attending the show."

Stern doesn't need to attend shows to sell games - they'll sell more Elvira without being at Expo than other companies with their presence

"stern is tanking the price on everybody's LE's now not just the old people but yours will also tank in value because there's just so many"

Stern is destroying the LE market and will collapse pinball values

"we now know that Stern will not respect what an LE is. So like, if you buy a new Stern LE, I think, you know, I just be prepared to be disappointed"

Stern Pinball's multiple LE versions are greedy and burn early buyers

"I mean that Godzilla LE does not look that special. The only thing I would be looking at from a collector standpoint is a Ghostbusters LE, a Tron LE, a Batman LE or SLE. Those are the games where there's not that many of them out there. Everything else, they're everywhere and they look exactly like every other game. I mean, look how lazy Stern has got. They don't even change the Translight artwork between the premium and the LE now. That is lazy."

Stern's Limited Editions are no longer special due to lazy design practices

"In the last few months, Stern Pinball has absolutely gone after its own secondhand market on two of the hottest titles during COVID. Jurassic Park and Stranger Things."

Stern is systematically targeting their own secondhand market by rereleasing hot COVID-era titles

"And this was the greatest Trojan horse marketing move in the history of Pinball. That Stern Pinball has created a legion of crazy people that have FOMO to get a premium unlimited machine."

Stern's Stranger Things rerun was the greatest Trojan horse marketing move in pinball history, creating FOMO for unlimited production machines

"I think it was probably one of Stern's greatest moves over the last few years creating a way to connect the community of Stern Pinball owners"

Stern Insider Connected is one of Stern's greatest moves, creating community and achievements system

"I was thinking to myself, can you imagine being a Guns N' Roses owner? And you've gone over seven hundred and fifteen days without a code update. And Stern's been updating the code to Foo Fighters since the game came out in March. It's absolutely embarrassing what it's like to own a Jersey Jack machine."

Stern Pinball has superior code support compared to Jersey Jack Pinball

"I'm so tired of all of these Stern machines looking the same with the overly bright colors. I get it. Why can't they sync up the artwork with the theme?"

Stern Pinball's rainbow bright color schemes don't match game themes

"There are only 80 Batman SLEs out in the world. If you can verify that you're an owner, why wouldn't Stern sell you a replacement decal if you needed it? Now, look, the key thing there is if you need it, you need to show that yours is damaged."

Stern should sell replacement parts for Batman SLE owners who can verify damage

"Did Stern Pinball go after the Golden Goose and kill it? Did they look at their buyer base that has kept them afloat with all of these super expensive games?"

Stern is burning the collector market by dramatically increasing prices without adding value

"Look at James Bond Premium and James Bond LE, look at those two games next to each other. They almost look exactly the same. Look at Venom LE next to Venom Premium. They almost look exactly the same."

Current Stern LEs lack differentiation from premiums despite higher prices

"We could argue about Stern's creativity per cause, but at least Stern Pinball like gets the details right. They have the most professional looking website. They have merchandise. They have the most professional communications. They have everything kind of down to their kind of science. And I won't really fault them for what they're doing because they clearly own like 85 to 90% of the pinball market and they own it for a reason."

Stern Pinball dominates because they execute professional details even if creativity varies

"I just don't see 30 to 40,000 people out there buying these games at these prices."

Stern's massive new factory capacity doesn't match realistic demand at current prices

"Stern doesn't lose anybody that they want to keep alright. Let me repeat that Nobody leaves stern that stern wants to keep and think about it like this leaving stern has never been a good move for anybody"

Nobody leaves Stern that Stern wants to keep

"Stern needs a hit. Everybody knows that Stern needs a hit. They are going to need hit games if they are gonna keep the line moving. Stern is not gonna be able to go back and remake all of these older games at these modern prices. It's not gonna work."

Stern needs hit games to justify current pricing and can't keep remaking older games at modern prices

"Stern are still the most reliable. They really are. The reason why Stern are so reliable are you sitting down is because there's not much in it. There's really not much to go wrong with the Stern machine."

Stern machines are most reliable because they don't put much in them

"The only thing they're changing on that assembly line are the side decals, which are just big stickers that they stick on the game. And then they put different armor on the game, a different translite and a different apron into the game... And all they're doing at most is maybe adding a couple hundred bucks in changes to the game."

Stern has turned premiums into LEs by charging $4000 more for minimal cosmetic changes