Stern Pinball

"I think another sleazy move by Stern marketing... They introduced the full color premium completely destroying any sense of specialness to the LE game itself... they go out of their way to screw over the people that have made this company so successful"

Stern's sleazy marketing moves with Monsters owners

"I do think there seems like people don't give stern, um, as much slack as something like spooky because I don't know."

People are softer on smaller pinball companies than on Stern

"as much as they're increasing revenue, I think they're losing, I think they're losing people's good will. And I think they're turning people off"

Stern is losing customer goodwill with their pricing practices

"I think it's scummy. And I think people feel that way... I've just never seen any feature where you had to pay extra to unlock it like this since I've been covering this hobby"

Stern's UV kit controversy shows scummy business practices

"It is like going to see a movie that has 3D in it and then the movie theater after you buy your ticket the movie theater wants you to spend additional money on the glasses. And to me that is what is happening here."

Stern's $280 Stranger Things UV kit is like a movie theater charging extra for 3D glasses after you buy the ticket

"I don't think Jody and Gary give two SHITS about any of you. I don't. I really don't. I think the designers care about you. I think the coders care about you. I think the people actually making these games care about you. But I think the people at the top, the investors and the fat cats, they don't give two SHITS about you."

Stern leadership doesn't care about customers, only the designers and workers do

"These are the worst these were the worst games in the 80s and 90s and now all of a sudden they have 85% of the market... Stern pinball has fooled all of you in so many ways they have but the saddest thing is this and you all know it you're spending so much money on a company that is making games and they're not the best pinball company."

Stern was the worst pinball company in the 80s/90s and only dominates now because better companies left

"It is I think the biggest joke cash grab I've seen since I've been covering this hobby. They intended to do it all along... You spent $9100 on an LE that's unfinished and not only is it unfinished code wise it's unfinished because they left a feature out that they already put into the game."

Stern's UV kit is the biggest cash grab joke in pinball - they intentionally left out features to sell later

"why is it that I can option out my machine and get immediate emails back from someone helping me customize my machine exactly how I would like it when I buy a spooky pinball machine for $78,000 but when I buy a $15,000 from Stern pinball they won't let me choose any options they don't let me paint the coin door they don't let me add this or add that absolutely nothing"

Stern doesn't allow customization options like Spooky does despite charging $15,000

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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"

"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"

"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

"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.

"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

"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

"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

"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 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