Stern Pinball

"And this is my prediction. I really do think Stern is not going to have a trouble like not going to have trouble selling this game."

Prediction: Stern will not have trouble selling this game despite negative feedback.

"This reeks really bad of arrogance from Stern Pinball. Like total arrogance in the way they market this stuff... You become the shit when people keep telling you you're the shit"

Stern's arrogance in marketing comes from pinball buyers enabling them

"We all know that Stern knows that we are suckers. We have to admit that reality that we will buy a $9,000 pinball machine that has different stickers and it's basically the same game as like a $5,500 machine"

Stern knows customers are suckers and takes advantage

"When's the last time you heard anyone say anything about AAerosmith? When was the last time you heard anyone say Peep about Kiss? When was the last time you heard anyone even say anything about Guardians of the Galaxy?"

Recent Stern games are quickly forgotten after initial hype

"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."

Stern prioritizes volume over quality due to private equity ownership, chasing profits over legacy

"does Stern have no more surprises for us? Are they just so big that everybody knows what's going on? What was the last time Stern really shocked us with a title?"

Stern is too predictable and no longer surprises the community with their releases

"I think universally everybody's just struggling with Stern's new price point. It just hasn't really worked out for anyone who's gone in early on any of these Stern games."

Stern Pinball's new $13,000 pricing strategy has failed - all recent LEs are selling for around $10,000, causing massive losses for early buyers

"Stern keeps burning its own customers. They did it again on Jaws. We're seeing people with LE's swap in the 50th anniversary playfield because they love the theme so much. Stern needs to just really reevaluate this strategy."

Stern keeps burning customers by releasing better versions after people buy LEs

"Once again, Stern is gonna screw over everybody who supported this company years ago. It's a failing strategy. These remasters, we're gonna talk about it."

Stern's remaster strategy is failing and screwing over original supporters

"I'm hearing like Seth has been calling meetings and he's like yelling at people about what's going on, where the sales for the walking dead, how come this is not selling so well. And so it's a company that's got its back against the ropes."

Stern Pinball is in financial trouble and cultural crisis

"what has happened to 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 over creativity

"I have a little bit of a personal chip on my shoulder because I marched into that company, not as Kaneda as Chris, a dude with 25 years of marketing experience... I spent so long making an entire deck and an observation and an analysis of their company. They didn't even ask for it... And they ignored every single thing I said."

Kaneda's personal frustration with Stern ignoring his marketing analysis and recommendations

"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"

Stern blew their chance at making collectible games and treated collectors poorly

"I just, how could it take so long? How could it take two years to code one game? Think about that, you go into work and let's say Lyman's doing a 10 hour day How can you do 10 hours every day for 365 days and not finish a game?"

Kaneda criticizes Stern's extremely long development times, questioning how Batman 66 can take two years to code

"Jersey Jack was cranking games out if Pirates of the Caribbean was cranking out since March if toy story was revealed if Wonka was there if these games were real if they had Guns N' Roses if they had real games coming out with real cadence I guarantee you it would make Stern have to up the Annie it would but they don't need to because they can just sit back and watch Jersey Jack once again flop when it comes to bringing a game to market completely fuck up how you bring a game to market"

Prediction: If Jersey Jack had consistent game releases, it would force Stern to improve their offerings, but since Jersey Jack will flop at bringing games to market, Stern doesn't need to step up.

"Do we think Stern is capable of making games as good as BLE Williams? Well the answer is I don't think so. They've never made a game that has been as good as a BLE Williams game."

Stern cannot make games as good as BLE Williams due to volume constraints

"They didn't win the pinball war. They just survived it. BLE Williams was by far running circles around anything daddy east or Stern was putting into market."

Stern survived the pinball wars but wasn't the best - they just outlasted superior Williams

"The real question to ask is not how much of the market does Stern have. It's who actually makes a profit in the pinball business... in terms of profitability, they make probably 98% of the real pinball profit in the world"

Stern Pinball makes 98% of pinball profits, not market share

"at the end of the day stern pinball has shown everybody had a launch a pinball machine And it's not difficult. Hey, here's what you do guys You reveal it you pull the curtain off it and you say it's shipping in two weeks order now And what happens you make a successful pinball company when you do it that way"

Stern Pinball's business model of reveal-and-ship-quickly is superior to competitors

"there really isn't a toy in the game that interacts with the ball that feels like completely like original and magical. You know, I don't even think there's any magnets in this game. So there's like definitely a lack of mech design going on at Stern lately"

Stern lacks mechanical toys and bash figures in recent games

"I think that Stern is, they found a groove. They found a groove. They found a groove by getting some of the best artists in the world to join their ranks"

Stern is on a roll and found their groove - no longer hit and miss

"You know who makes the pinball community the most happy? Let's just all stop like pretending it's not them. It's stern pinball. I mean who has done the most for the pinball community? It's the company that continually delivers the most popular themes in pinball gives everyone four to six games a year to choose from"

Stern Pinball grows the pinball community more than boutique manufacturers - they deliver the most popular themes and games

"And I also think there's an excitement and a hype and an enthusiasm that only comes when you reveal and release Pinball machines the right way"

Stern delivers excitement and hype correctly by showing teasers, then revealing quickly with immediate availability

"So I am here to tell you that my bet is that that Bobblehead is 100% fake. That there's no way that's going into the game. That Stern is totally taking the piss out of all of the jokes around the tie fighter on a spring"

The Deadpool bobblehead teaser is 100% fake - Stern is trolling the community about 'tie fighter on a spring' jokes

"Who do you think would make the better game? Do you think it would be spooky or Stern? Right, who do you think and I think undoubtedly? It would be Stern"

Stern would make a better Godzilla game than Spooky

"I like stern games is they come out I like stern games because every year I get to decide between three to four titles... The reason I like stern games is there not widebody The reason I like stern games is they now have the best artist the reason I like stern games is because they've got the best coders in the industry"

Prefers Stern games for multiple practical reasons

"I do not think Stern is an evil company. In fact if it wasn't for Stern pinball there would be no other pinball companies around... They are the only reason why there are new and box pinball machines nobody else carried the industry on their back"

Stern Pinball is not evil and saved the entire pinball industry

"When I see people just paying $9,000 for Star Wars and paying all this money, $9,000 for Guardians of the Galaxy L.E.'s, and we just have to accept what we get from the big boy in the hobby stern."

People paying $9000 for Stern games and accepting what they get from 'the big boy'

"it doesn't matter because Stern has 95% of the pinball market. So it doesn't matter what they do. They don't really have to market their games. All they have to do is make good pinball machines"

Stern Pinball doesn't need to focus on marketing because they dominate the market

"When ever something happens with the Stern game where they are liable to cover or stand behind the product within the warranty period here's what they always do they always take care of the person."

Stern always takes care of customers within warranty period despite quality issues

"I also think 90 days for a warranty period on a pinball machine is really short. Like, can we talk about that 90 days? That's not a lot of time to warranty the stuff that's in a game and especially because these games now are somewhat costing the price of a cheap car."

Stern's 90-day warranty period is too short for machines costing as much as a cheap car

"I want to rescind that statement. And what I mean by that is the threat is off. There is no threat. I am not going to reveal anything that Stern would not like me to reveal... doing that would do nothing other than hurt the hard working people that work on these games"

Rescinding threat to Stern Pinball, apologizing for threatening to reveal confidential information

"stern pinball for all of their faults for all of the things that you know we complain about with dimples and ghosted inserts and all that jazz stern pinball has spent 30 years 30 years figuring out how to make pinball machines"

Stern Pinball deserves credit for figuring out profitable pinball manufacturing over 30 years

"If a pinball game leaks or images of a pinball game leak, it doesn't matter. Here's why it doesn't matter. There is no competition out there for Stern. There's none. There's a zilch. If a competitor of Stern learns what Stern is doing, there is nothing they could even do to mobilize and take advantage of that information."

Pinball machine leaks don't matter because Stern has no real competition

"I was told that no, not it's not going to happen that Stern people are not going to come on the show. It's not the right time for it. And it was sort of like a blanket no that I saw that I guess that means that Zombie Yeti is not going to be allowed to come on the show."

Stern rejected interview requests after positive past interviews

"Stern actually puts machines and boxes and gives people the opportunity to buy what they'd like multiple times a year. And for that reason and that reason alone, I think Stern is the only major pinball player in town. And that's why I own Stern pinball machines."

Stern is the only major pinball player in town and should interview more employees/designers

"your marketing is not as good as the marketing I do on my tiny little finger. And you have such an awesome product to market. It's about time you woke up to the major leagues of marketing and stop fucking up every single marketing launch of your games."

Stern Pinball's marketing is terrible despite great products

"they act like the internet doesn't exist they're living under a bubble they think they can control communications"

Stern's marketing and image control incompetence

"where jack wins on innovation Stern wins on fun factor... I think Stern just is the best at making the most fun pinball experiences... They give you the most fun themes They make the games the most approachable"

Stern beats Jersey Jack on fun factor despite JJP's innovation advantage

"with Stern having so much of the market share, with Stern having such a large distribution channel... it is no wonder that Stern Pinball had their best year ever last year... they own about 90 plus percent of the market"

Stern Pinball dominates with 90+ percent market share and best year ever

"Stern has just like displayed their dominance in one photo... F all you other guys who keep thinking your big players in the pinball industry. This is what it looks like."

Stern Pinball demonstrates complete market dominance with incredible production speed

"We forget how big Stern is. We forget how massive their factory really is. We forget how efficient they are at making pinball machines as other companies struggle to ship 10 games here, 50 games there. It's like Stern's got hundreds and hundreds of games going out every week and it's a monster operation there... the reason why pinball is alive and well is really only because of this company."

Stern Pinball deserves applause for massive, efficient manufacturing operation

"I think once again, Stern is proving that for the money, for the money, you cannot get more value than what you get with a Stern pro"

Stern Pro models offer unbeatable value for money compared to other manufacturers

"The answer is absolutely not. You guys are like, I can't believe how fooled and easily fooled people are... Does Stern ever reveal a pinball machine on a Saturday? Do they ever do that? Why that's stupid. It's it's Saturdays a dead media day"

Stern will not reveal Iron Maiden today despite fan speculation - it's a Saturday and media outlets don't publish on weekends

"I just don't think it should take longer than a year ever. Like this would be inexcusable in the video game world. It's just inexcusable to buy a product that's a toy that's a game where you would have to wait more than a year for the final thing to be complete."

Stern's code completion delays are inexcusable

"what you get is a game you can actually trust versus what we see coming out from Stern, which is a mass-fine facture copy and paste blueprint."

Stern makes mass-produced copy-paste games without heart

"They want to make games that have shorter ball times for operators... They don't want to make games that give people too much time on the machine"

Stern makes games with shorter ball times and no kickbacks intentionally for operators

"if it weren't for Stern pinball there would be no Texas pinball festival there would be no Kaneda's Pinball Podcast there would be no pinball there would be no modern pinball that we're all playing and enjoying"

Stern Pinball deserves massive respect for keeping the pinball industry alive

"I personally was very disappointed that they're not going to have a new game. And I'm also feeling like it's kind of a mistake. You know, you've mentioned on your show a few times recently that there are a lot of the players providing games nowadays. There are a lot of options for buyers."

Stern's absence from TPF with Iron Maiden is disappointing and a mistake due to increased competition

"I think you guys out there should, you know, if you love Pinball, if you love Pinball, you should go buy something else from another manufacturer that actually cares about these shows and actually shows up with their new product."

People should buy from other manufacturers that actually care about shows instead of Stern