Stern Pinball

"When you buy stirons at these inflated prices considering what their bomb is, you're making fat cat investors who nobody even knows who they are"

Stern overcharges customers while enriching unknown investors

"nobody on planet Earth, nobody wants Stern Pinball to make back to the future... they know if they make back to the future, it's going to be a stripped down Baron Playfield with hardly anything mechanical in it"

Nobody wants Stern to make Back to the Future - they would strip it down with barely any mechs

"what other industry did the company that survived and became the biggest in the world was actually making the most mediocre games it's weird it's like they they just they survive because everyone who was making the better products left"

Stern Pinball survived by outlasting competitors, not by making the best games - they're mediocre and overpriced

"But daddy eased stern. The worst pinball company from the 90s survived and kept it going into 2020. Oh my god, did I just say that?"

Stern Pinball called 'the worst pinball company from the 90s' that somehow survived

"they make games they release them before they're even finished and then it's like as a pinball person who wants to review stuff I don't know when I'm allowed to review a Stern product"

Stern releases games before they're finished and creates review timing confusion

"I think the Stern's shilling and this bullying that happens on Pinside is one of the worst things to happen in this hobby and I don't think it's going to get to better product."

Stern shilling and bullying on Pinside is one of the worst things for the hobby and prevents better products

"Do you really think that Stern is going to put the best possible hardware into the game? And that's the downside. That's the downside of where we are right now when you try to be innovative. When you try to be ambitious, do you really think Stern Pinball is the company that's going to invest the money in making sure something like this is done correctly."

Stern cheaped out on the projector hardware in Stranger Things

"I just get this feeling, I just a little bit of a feeling that that there's sort of answering assignments versus giving these designers the ability to make their dream themes come to life... I think these games are, I don't know, they're starting to feel a lot like the designers are answering an assignment versus bringing the thing that they love so much to life."

Brian Eddy not being a Stranger Things fan before designing shows Stern's assignment-based approach

"I'm gonna challenge Stern Pinball and Zach Sharpe to stream Stranger Things Premium or LE version of the game by next week... If they do it by next Thursday, Kaneda will cut an additional check for $100, $100 in Zach Sharpe's name to Project Pinball."

Challenging Stern to stream Stranger Things premium/LE or he'll donate $100 to Project Pinball

"I just can't help but feel that there's a level. I think the word is it just feels a little cheap. It just looks a little cheap and it looks a little bit like it should cost. You know, I'm going to just say these games just look like they're not worth what the asking prices for these games anymore."

Modern Stern games look cheap and not worth their asking price

"if there's one thing that Stern excels at and it's like taking the biggest themes that are out there and the games they make aren't the best games they make are never based around the biggest properties... Ghostbusters, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, right? Stranger Things, Five Juggernaut themes. And I would argue that those games were just big misses"

Stern's biggest licensed properties consistently underperform expectations

"It is quite obvious, right? That Stern is just the juggernaut, the mothership that hangs over this entire industry. They're the company that gets the most arrows in the back. They're the company that has people have the most opinions about, because if you love pinball, how can you not have so many opinions about the company that is sharing so many titles with the world every year?"

Stern is the undeniable juggernaut of the pinball industry

"Because if you want to buy an L.E. version of this game and the company won't show you how that feature works before you have to lock in your order for your L.E. Do you know stupid that is that you have to commit to something that the company themselves won't even show you before the order banks are closed."

Stern is selling LE versions without showing the key projector technology feature

"If Jersey Jack pinball released this game as it is, as their version of stranger things, what do you think the response would be? Do you think they would burn Jersey Jack to the ground? Put this next to dialed in, pired to the Caribbean, Willy Wonka."

If Jersey Jack Pinball released this exact game, they would be heavily criticized

"There is a level of arrogance at Stern when it comes to the community... They don't care to come on and talk to people in the community. They don't care to engage us as much. They ignore us. They just think we're suckers who buy everything and we kind of are like they kind of treat us like the babies and idiots. We are."

Stern Pinball blacklisted Kaneda because they don't need to work with podcasters - they treat the community like babies and idiots who will buy anything

"When you look at Stern Pinball Machines, when you look at them now... it's hard for me to look at these games and not see Gary walking around the machine being like, okay, you can have the screen... But you got to remove the Christmas lights. You got to remove the AGO Waffles... Nothing interesting over the sling plastic."

Modern Stern games always feel cheap with flat plastics and missed opportunities for sculpted features

"If you want to build relationships like that and you want a blacklist me and you want to never do anything for me, then why should I do anything for you?... I don't play ball with Stern because they don't play ball with me at all."

Kaneda deliberately leaked Stern's Stranger Things video because Stern blacklisted him and won't work with him

"stern doesn't even care I'm gonna say this we're not their primary target they know that losers like us that listen to podcasts every week that are on pinside for hours they know we're gonna buy their games they don't need to engage with us"

Stern doesn't need to engage with enthusiasts because they know we'll buy anyway

"I think it's going to make so many stern games when it comes to humor feel like like like G rated movies for kiddies. Like how pathetic is it that Rick and Morty is going to give you that adult humor you want? And stern release Deadpool, who is the Marvel universe's irreverent like adult theme character. And they don't even have any curse words in Deadpool, right? Deadpool's for kiddies."

Rick and Morty will make Stern games feel like G-rated movies for kids with its adult humor

"Why isn't Lyman Sheats working on every Keith Elwin game? Why isn't Lyman Sheats working on the best designers games that Stern makes?"

Lyman Sheats coding obscure Elvira instead of major titles is waste of talent

"I'd rather them see that than do what Stern is doing, which is instead of letting people flip games that are in high demand... They've increased the price and so Stern is making money on the potential flip and not even giving any room to flip a damn game... We're paying the flip price from Stern. Those are the real blood sucker additions"

Stern is charging flip prices directly instead of letting market determine value

"The reason why Stern had its best year ever because it is not because of the games that came out in 2019 because unlike everybody else, Stern Pinball doesn't just sell you brand new games from one year production lines. They sell you games from multiple years of production lines."

Stern had best year ever in 2019 not because of 2019 games but because they sell multiple years of production

"these games now are so expensive toppers are $750,000, LVira with a piece of couches $15,000 and I'm here to say it like these games comparatively next to like a Star Trek the next generation or World Cup soccer they're like embarrassingly barren and empty and without hardly anything interesting on the playfield"

Modern Stern games are barren compared to 90s Williams games like Star Trek TNG

"our game at Houston in the shape it was was likely had more value in it than a $15,000, you know, Elvira signature edition and maybe with some touch ups, a collector's edition, wonka."

Criticism of Stern's Elvira Signature Edition having no value despite high price

"then they should at least have decals in them and I shouldn't have to go and buy them for a really expensive game like Jurassic Park and then I buy a decal of T-Rex footprints"

"he then calls up Stern Pinball and says I just put your new code in and it broke two of my node boards they won't send him new node boards for free they want him to pay money for those node boards now I that is garbage response"

Criticism of Stern Pinball's warranty handling for code update failures

"if you do clear ramps and things like this then they should at least have decals in them and I shouldn't have to go and buy them for a really expensive game like Jurassic Park"

"I don't think Stern's trying to beat BLE Williams under the glass I think Stern's trying to beat us or beat them with better you know new themes or big themes great artwork and great coding but I don't think that Stern Pinball is mechanically pushing the envelope at all in fact I think it's the opposite"

Stern Pinball is not pushing mechanical innovation - they're removing features for cost savings

"stern distributors are their greatest asset they are a stern distributor will call you up and make you feel like that you're special... they create that fear of missing out"

Stern distributors manipulate customers with fear-of-missing-out sales tactics

"It's will stern spend the money to get the necessary assets that I think you would need to do stranger things justice. So for example, you can't do stranger things without the iconic music from the show... I mean, they didn't even get the license for a Jeep Cherokee."

Stern won't spend the money needed to properly license the iconic 80s music that would make Stranger Things pinball great

"I think stern has enough blockbuster titles that I bet Godzilla is like on the sealist somewhere for them of like maybe we'll get around to making it one day but in the meantime they like completely robbed it"

Stern Pinball should rescind their Godzilla license and give it back to Spooky Pinball who are true fans of the franchise

"the big story that Christopher Franchi was talking about was basically how the designers at Stern are under so much pressure to deliver games at a certain price point that they have to pull stuff out. That's really innovative and creative and I love the story of John Borg just going crazy when he had to remove stuff from the monster's game"

Christopher Franchi interview revealed that Stern designers are under too much pressure to deliver games at certain price points, forcing them to remove innovative and creative elements

"You are not going to see anything new from Stern pinball. There will be a bunch of Elvira's and Star Wars games there. They're going to sell that."

Stern will not show anything new at Pinball Expo 2019, only selling existing Elvira and Star Wars games

"if it doesn't have muscles, motor, you know, sports cars, superheroes or, you know, somebody with a big gun, then they're not interested, you know, it's got to be all this macho stuff."

Stern only wants 'macho' themes - muscles, motorcycles, sports cars, superheroes, or guns

"Stern had an issue with, you know, their artists working for other companies. So if you work for Stern, you didn't work for anybody else. And if you work for someone else, then you didn't work for Stern."

Christopher Franchi believes working exclusively for Stern was limiting his career opportunities

"the monster's got, got stripped down. I remember a day dealing with a poor Mr. Borg where he was really frustrated about having to take something out. And he was basically kind of going through the game and just pulling everything out like screw it"

Franchi believes designers want to put maximum effort into games but get stripped down by management

"So here's what I think is going to happen. You are not going to see anything new from Stern pinball. There will be a bunch of Elvira's and Star Wars games there. They're going to sell that."

Prediction: Stern will not show anything new at Pinball Expo 2019, only existing Elvira and Star Wars games.

"what happened all of you ran and bought it like suckers...They're opening up their game. They spent so much money on their game and the code's not finished"

Stern customers are suckers who buy unfinished games with cost-cutting measures

"Stern Pinball as a company has blacklisted me. They've given me nothing. They don't let anyone talk to me... I've extended the olive branch for over a year now to just try and get Stern to participate or give me something on this show"

Stern Pinball has blacklisted Kaneda and won't provide any information or access

"If Stern Pinball said for 500 bucks a year and I told this to Zach Sharpe, I emailed him. I said, Zach, you guys should definitely do something with Stern Insider Club where you could pay more."

Stern should create a VIP Insider program for early access to limited editions

"They have they have a tsunami coming of titles and things that are just going to blow you away."

Stern has a tsunami of dream themes coming that will blow people away

"They deserve it. They just they just deserve it because they get you games quickly. I mean, I mean, it's just it's just that simple. Every other pinball manufacturer makes you wait months and months and months to get the game."

Stern deserves their high profit margins despite only putting $3,000 into games because they deliver quickly

"we all know charging $15,000 for these games was Kaneda's idea. I can go back and find the podcast in which I said it and they executed it to the perfect degree."

Charging $15,000 for games was Kaneda's idea that Stern executed

"stern deserves every single penny they get with this new approach of you know certain times having limited versions of games without much added to them they deserve to sell off 50 those L virus because for years stern has been the only company that is consistently manufactured games on a timely basis"

Stern deserves success with limited editions because they consistently deliver on time

"Stern is like the Titanic. Everyone else is just a lifeboat on side you know on side inside the Titanic. If that thing goes down everyone's collapsing with it"

Stern Pinball is essential to the pinball industry's survival

"they announce a game they get you the game they and and you get it within a month or two they don't allow you enough time to back out they don't allow you enough time to even play the game they don't allow you enough time to see the finished code they've already got you"

Stern Pinball uses smart marketing tactics to get customers to buy before seeing games, delivering less for more money

"People are buying a $15,000 pinball machine before they've even seen it played once. They don't even know if the game is any good. There's no reviews about it. There's no nothing. They're already fully committed."

Stern's marketing strategy is genius - they create FOMO and sell games before anyone sees them played

"Stern is doing something right now that I think everyone needs to wake up and realize. They're just clobbering. Clobbering. The competition with cadence."

Stern is clobbering the competition with aggressive release cadence

"I think they're creating manufactured scarcity with these like signature, serious edition. So, beer is like broad, it's signed and we threw it in the coin box and that's another five grand and here's a piece of the couch. I mean, come on, like what is this crap?"

Stern's high-end editions are cash grabs with manufactured scarcity

"Just having a glass translite is not good enough just having a shaker motor is not good enough just powder coating the armor is not good enough... The playfield's not different the experience is not different the code is not different there's nothing special about it... And a year from now everybody knows that Jurassic parks that are LE versions will be selling for like $7,000"

Stern Pinball limited editions are overpriced with minimal differences, market is softening on LE values