Stern Pinball

"The only knob they can turn to slow demand on new games and still make all the games people are ordering every year is price. And that's what I think they're doing. They're raising the price of these games not to just follow suit with Jersey Jack, not to be greedy. I think they're also doing it to slow the demand down just a little bit"

Stern is raising prices not just for greed, but strategically to reduce demand and manage manufacturing backlog

"when I said Stern should fire their marketing department, I was joking. I don't really mean they should fire these people, but they definitely should be called into a room and figure out what is going on here."

Stern's marketing department should be called into a room over James Bond launch issues

"You know, what's to stop Stern in five years from doing an Elvira 45th anniversary edition. There is nothing in writing by them that this is it. And I think this is on us as buyers and as collectors."

Prediction: Stern might create an Elvira 45th anniversary edition in five years since there's nothing preventing them from making more limited versions.

"I think there is a tipping point in which there's only so many versions of the game you can make before every version of the game doesn't feel special."

Stern's strategy of creating multiple limited editions undermines the value of each version

"This was probably the most botched launch in the history of pinball. I mean this. I haven't seen anything sloppier than the James Bond reveal."

James Bond pinball reveal was the most botched launch in pinball history

"How do you now compete with Stern Pinball? How does anybody else compete with this?... So it's absolutely looking like Stern Pinball is about to clobber everybody."

Stern Pinball is about to dominate and clobber all competitors with superior resources and output

"But ultimately, the reason why this game leaked, it's all on Stern people. Stern is the company that unboxed it on a show floor."

The James Bond leak is entirely Stern's fault for poor security planning

"your marketing department continues to mess this up every single launch. And I think you need to get Mr. Sharp in a room and Jody in a room and really think about this. Because maybe hire an agency, get more professional."

Stern Pinball's marketing department continues to fail and they need professional help

"Now you could argue that we haven't seen the HD images, but that's not my fault. This is what Stern always does. And that's Jody's fault and it's Stern's fault."

"But are you telling me that as the world mourns the loss of the queen, that that overlaps somehow with the launch of a niche little Pinball machine? There is absolutely no overlap there."

Delaying James Bond reveal for Queen's death makes no sense - no overlap between mourning and niche pinball

"Now look, I bet Stern does go totally woke. They're going to go totally woke on us and remove all of that stuff... In today's modern world, everyone gets offended by everything."

Stern will go totally woke and remove inappropriate James Bond content

"Now Stern Pinball has all the momentum. They really do. Everyone else has fumbled the ball this year. And Stern Pinball, the giant, the biggest pinball company in the world, with the most resources, the best licenses, the best coders, the best artists, the best everything..."

Stern Pinball now has all the momentum while others fumbled

"As expensive as these stern machines are now, I can't look at anyone else that's doing it better than they are. And I think this game is going to come out. There's going to be no shenanigans. And every single person who orders an L.E. is going to have their L.E. by the end of October."

Despite high prices, can't look at anyone doing pinball better than Stern

"They seem to be firing on all cylinders recently. And there's so many talented people in Stern pinball. And when they get passionate about a project, and I mean this, when there's real passion behind a project over at Stern, they tend to deliver and they tend to bring out something pretty special"

Modern Stern is firing on all cylinders and delivers when passionate about projects

"Now just a few years later, they're 50% more than when games like Ghostbusters came out. 50% more for a stern LE... a pro is now going to be like 7,200 bucks like for a stern pro."

Stern price increases are getting crazy - 50% more than Ghostbusters era

"All this is doing is helping Stern Pinball convince all of us that a premium is worth $9,000."

Stern Pinball looks like the best value compared to boutique pricing

"See, Stern's pretty smart. They make the distributors the bad guys, right? They make the distributors be the ones who are like, well, they're the ones who are inflating the price. They almost give their distributors a chance to act like scalpers and flippers."

Stern deliberately makes distributors appear as the bad guys with super limited edition pricing by selling to them at lower prices and letting them set retail prices

"Stern Pinball is the most efficient and the most effective at getting a game on the line. I think Stern Pinball probably has at least two titles complete and ready to go at a moment's notice and I think they can shuffle the deck."

"there is no better bet in all of Pinball than buying a Stern machine. Not only will you get probably the best gameplay in all of Pinball, you're going to get the most code complete game in all of Pinball. And the other thing is this, the games will hold their value pretty much better than anyone else's machines."

Stern machines are the best bet in pinball - best gameplay, most complete code, and hold value better

"Here's my prediction. I think the next game from Stern Pinball, I think it's gonna be Venom. I think the next game from Stern Pinball takes game of the year."

Prediction: Stern's next game will be Venom and it will win game of the year.

"That's a five year cycle for one title that is simply a remake five years people. Stern pinball in five years will put out 20 plus games, new inbox, new code, new art, everything designed from the ground up."

Prediction: In five years, Stern will produce 20+ new games while CGC completes one remake title in the same timeframe.

"I don't understand what happened there. They went to Comic Con. They had Ozzy Osborn. They had Todd McFarlane, a huge draw at Comic Con, and they set up a bunch of Mandalorians and I think some rushes, and then there was absolutely no news in the pinball world."

Stern's Comic Con appearance was pointless marketing failure

"The biggest thing made up ever was this, that half stern games go overseas. That's not true. Half of Stern's machines never went overseas. That was just a story they would cook up to create FOMO"

Half of Stern games don't go overseas - it's manufactured FOMO

"this is the only efficient and legitimate large scale pinball company in the world. Everybody else is just a booty company trying to do what Stern does."

Stern is most efficient pinball company with best value

"The Stern catalog is stronger than every single pinball company combined in the history of pinball."

Stern Pinball has stronger catalog than all pinball companies in history combined

"When Stern Pinball returns, they are going to return and be at the gates of boutique pinball like Hannibal's at the gates. And they are going to show everybody how it's done."

Stern Pinball will dominate when they return with new releases

"the reason why Stern Pinball machines keep going up in value is they have the largest collector base. And I also think people believe in Stern's quality the best. I think Stern games are sought after more because they're less problematic."

Stern games are best investment because of quality and collector base

"it is Stern Pinball that keeps this hobby exciting. Because without Stern, and we're feeling it right now, without Stern Pinball releasing a new game every four months, this is pinball, people. Everyone else is absolutely fumbling the ball on the goal line."

Stern Pinball is the backbone of the hobby and other manufacturers are failing

"for $11,500. Everything that these modders are doing should have been done at Stern... I think these games should come loaded with stuff and not require us to buy additional mods."

Stern games should include more features for the price instead of relying on mod community

"Stern Pinball doesn't want to help you, Stern Pinball doesn't want to support your efforts, Stern Pinball does not want to have competition, Stern Pinball wants to bury the competition"

Stern Pinball actively tries to bury competition and steal licenses from boutique companies

"the only company that can really have multiple designers because it makes sense is Stern Pinball, right? John Borg, Keith Elwin, Brian Eddy. So those three guys, if they have three cornerstone games a year, each one of them will have a new game out each year. And Stern has consistently hit on that note"

Only Stern Pinball can justify having multiple designers because they actually manufacture consistently

"Stern games work out of the box for the most part, right? I mean, they wouldn't be where they're at if Stern games were out of the box problematic."

Stern games work reliably out of the box

"We don't need four new games a year. We absolutely do not, two is fine."

Stern should stop at four games per year - two is plenty

"when Stern takes your money and Stern reveals a game, the game is on the line"

Stern Pinball operates more reliably than boutique companies

"And I think Stern Pinball is a bunch of morons for walking away from Christopher Franchi. I really do because I don't want Johnny Crap on stuff. And I don't know who's their go-to guy after Zombie Yeti."

Stern Pinball are morons for walking away from Christopher Franchi

"They're the only global pinball company. They're the only company that has brought pinball back. They're the only company that has expanded pinball."

Stern Pinball is the only company that truly brought pinball back and deserves credit

"I am almost 1,000% positive that Stern puts out fake rumors... I would totally orchestrate a campaign of fake news if I were Stern Pinball"

Stern Pinball deliberately spreads fake rumors to confuse the community

"buying a pro or premium over sticker price is the dumbest thing you could ever do because Stern Pinball was always going to make more"

Buying pro or premium Stern machines over sticker price is extremely foolish because Stern will always make more

"When I see people spending $18,000, $19,000 on like a stranger things, I really do wish everyone would just slow down. It's not going to be like this forever"

Stern Pinball price increases are getting ridiculous and people should slow down buying

"Stern pinball is pinball. There is nobody else on this planet that actually, efficiently, effectively does what Stern does. Every three to four months, this company puts some of the best themes on planet Earth into pinball form"

Stern Pinball is the most reliable and efficient pinball manufacturer, consistently delivering quality games every 3-4 months

"They could never make a new game again and still make tens of millions of dollars a year, because all of us would be clawing over each other to get the new super limited version of Iron Maiden or Jurassic Park or Tron or Lord of the Rings or Simpsons Pinball Party."

Stern could stop making new games and make tens of millions vaulting old titles

"This is another example of how Stern Pinball doesn't really test these games very much before they send them out to customers. How do they not test this? How do they not spend a few months with the scoops on rush, making sure that either the playfields didn't wear or they needed scoop protectors?"

Stern Pinball doesn't test games enough before release - Rush scoop protector is defective

"when I see a big company like Stern hasn't really, really, really engineered stuff as cool as that rug or the upper playfield or the bowling alley. It just reminds me and it should remind all of you. You're getting what you pay for with Stern machines. They're not putting the engineering complexity into their games."

Stern doesn't put complex mechanical engineering into games compared to smaller companies

"Personaally, again, this is me personaally, I don't know how you unbox a $25,000 Stern Elvira. You watch the playfield dimple to all hell because those Elvira playfields are horrible... You spent like $20,000 more just for $500 in decals and painted armor."

Stern Elvira 40th Anniversary is overpriced for what you get

"Do not, and I'm just doing this to save you money, do not pay over sticker for a pro or premium of a machine... you're going to lose so much money because Stern is going to remake all of these pros and premiums."

Don't pay over MSRP for Stern pro/premium models

"The world's number one pinball company that has more volume than all these other companies combined, that releases four games a year, that has the most mouths to feed, that has the most at stake, that has the highest rent and overhead, the world's number one pinball company, Stern Pinball, doesn't do this crap."

Stern Pinball doesn't need non-refundable deposits unlike smaller companies

"Now think about nowadays, who is Stern competing with? Nobody. They have no competition. There is not a single Pinball company out there that even makes Stern think twice about the games it's making."

Stern Pinball has no real competition, which is why their games lack innovation and magic

"Stern Pinball realizes we are not going to show you the game until it's on the line, why is that so hard for everybody else to do, it's so easy to do it that way, just don't ask for people's money until your game is being built"

Stern Pinball's reveal-and-ship strategy is superior to other manufacturers who show games months/years before delivery

"that interesting battle between him and Stern all of those years where Stern just wanted to rush games out. But Lyman needed more than a year to make a game great"

Stern rushed games out while Lyman needed time to make games great

"Stern loves it when they release an $11,000 game and seeing itself for $15,000 right away. They love it. They don't want to stop scalping because what scalping is doing, it's showing them that they have not come close to the ceiling yet"

Stern loves scalping because it shows pricing ceiling potential