Stern Pinball

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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 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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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 just have to say that's bullshit. It is total bullshit. There is no reason why Stern can at least show up and even if the game is not playable... I think it's absolute bullshit that Stern is not going to reveal the game at this show."

Chicago Gaming Company and Stern Pinball not showing new games at Texas Pinball Festival is bullshit and a slap in the face to pinball fans

"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

"people are not fully satisfied with Stern machines and they never will be because I think Stern machines are all over price I don't think anything you get in a Stern machine is worth like eight nine thousand dollars... I think Stern machines still feel like the five to six thousand dollar machines they are"

Stern machines are overpriced for what you get

"I think what happens in pinball is that this tiny circle of people the Pinside users mainly they think that pinball is bigger than it is... supreme when it comes to younger people when it comes to mainstream and like pop culture supreme is a much bigger brand than stern pinball"

Stern's Supreme collaboration is brilliant marketing that expands pinball exposure

"If you want to expand pinball to a new market or just show people that pinball is still very relevant in 2018, then a partnership with Supreme is freaking genius. And I think it's really smart that Stern is doing this."

Strong support for Stern's Supreme collaboration as smart marketing

"look a stern pinball machine if you look at it now it is criminal that people are spending $9,000 on an LE that... they've almost doubled the price and they've cut the quality in half on a lot of again"

Kaneda claims it's criminal that people spend $9000 on Stern LEs when quality has been cut in half while prices nearly doubled

"The one thing that Stern pinball has that these guys do not have is a distribution model. They own the distribution of pinball."

Stern Pinball's distribution model is the key to their success and cannot be replicated by competitors like deeproot

"If I could have my wish my dream would be instead of like four to five new Stern titles a year I would rather them take the time to really make the juggernaut licenses amazing"

Stern should focus on fewer, higher quality games with major licenses instead of quantity

"I do think that Stern's sales probably, probably have not been stellar lately and that's why we're seeing Luci thrown into the mix. It's just like, you know, whatever we can do to get some short term sales because I doubt Guardian is flying out the door"

Stern's recent sales have been poor, driving desperate moves like AC/DC Luci Edition

"my speculation is that guardians the galaxy's not selling very well. And stern is doing this to inject some new revenue or makeup for revenue that hasn't been actualized because people are not going crazy for guardians of the galaxy"

AC/DC Luci remake is because Guardians of the Galaxy isn't selling well

"Ted, here's my prediction. Here's my prediction. I think Stern is going to have one of its weakest years in history. And I'll explain why."

Prediction: Stern is going to have one of its weakest years in history.

"I think here's my prediction. I think Stern really got Star Wars wrong. I thought they thought Star Wars would sell well into 2018 and demand would be much higher than it was. I still think that game is a mess. I think Stern is going to have a lukewarm year."

Prediction: Stern misjudged Star Wars demand and will have a lukewarm year because their upcoming titles lack the appeal of previous releases like Ghostbusters, Batman and Star Wars.

"You should not buy a brand new pinball machine play it in a home use only environment less than a couple hundred times And it breaks That there's just no excuse for that how did it's bad engineering of these boards and there's just no excuse"

Stern node boards are prone to failing and it's bad engineering with no excuse for brand new machines breaking after minimal use

"I think that the negotiations to get these songs into the machine occurred after the reveal. I do not think Stern was planning from the very beginning"

Guardians of the Galaxy songs were negotiated after reveal due to poor sales, not planned originally

"the new Stern rail system is effing terrible. Like the playfield, I should not hold right off the rail. And the game fell into the cabinet"

Stern's rail system is terrible and causes playfields to fall

"we all have reached the point now where we're just absolutely fed up with getting games that aren't complete or even near complete"

Stern needs to stop launching incomplete games - customers are fed up

"I would hate to be competing with Stern. That's all I'm going to say. I would hate it."

Stern's upcoming lineup will crush the competition