Stern Pinball

"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

"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.

"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.

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"I think Stern's whole LE strategy is starting to backfire big time and I don't think 600 guardians of the galaxy LE's are going to move"

Stern's LE strategy is backfiring and 600 Guardians LEs won't move

"It's the greatest coffee table book I've ever seen"

Stern coffee table book is the greatest ever

"it never ceases to amaze me how quickly people believe whatever they are told whenever the Pinball manufacturer speaks. And yet Stern, a company that at least ships machines every quarter is constantly chastised... And yet all these other companies that are the real criminals are constantly given a past time and time again"

Stern gets unfairly criticized while actual criminals get free passes

"I think this out of all of them left me so underwhelmed and simply because it's quite clear that the code is not far enough along to allow media to play the game because there were absolutely no callouts in the game whatsoever"

Guardians of the Galaxy dead flip stream was utterly underwhelming due to missing callouts

"I think Stern is really at a point now where they need to stop with this whole we're going to send consumers something that's not quite ready yet. I mean, are we really going to absorb the role as a beta tester for Stern where code's not done"

Stern is making consumers into beta testers by releasing unfinished games

"for the longest time, we had terrible, terrible, terrible art packages coming from stern Pinball and they know it and they hired three great artists, Zambi Yeti, Dirty Donny and Christopher Franchi who are just killing it"

Stern's art has dramatically improved with new artists

"The overall sentiment and I hear this from many people is that the Stern LCD Integration it just lacks consistency and I hear that word consistency over and over again"

Stern's LCD integration lacks consistency compared to Jersey Jack Pinball

"stern somehow at the end of the day sort of makes hypocrites of us all because what if you know what if all of what I say is true what if all my complaints are accurate what if all my comments about them removing elements from the game taking things out cutting corners what if all that's true and yet their games are just more fun right"

Stern games are ultimately more fun despite valid criticisms about cost-cutting

"I think Stern should make 250 maximum of all LEDs at all time. I think 600 is dumb. They're going to sit. They're not going to sell all of them. It's just, it's unfortunate because I think the LEDs as I said before should feel limited."

Stern should only make 250 LEDs maximum, not 600 - Guardians LEDs aren't selling because 600 is too many and defeats the purpose of limited editions

"So say what you will about Stern and I have my criticisms and I'm going to talk about some of those criticisms on this podcast but Stern has never robbed anybody of their money. There are a lot of companies that fall into that category skip B, J-Pop, Dutch Pinball, Heighway Pinball."

Stern Pinball has never robbed anyone of their money, unlike many other pinball companies

"So you have all these companies that have made broken promises that didn't deliver and you know so Stern Pinball who constantly delivers but delivers games that are never really fully complete"

Stern makes games that are never really fully complete upon release

"The main issue I'm seeing right now is Stern is they just can never make up their mind what they want to go into each game"

Stern can never make up their mind what they want to include in each game

"My ultimate point about Stern doesn't know how to handle limited edition machines they really don't"

Stern doesn't know how to handle limited edition machines properly

"And I give Stern credit for that. I give them credit. They must listen to this podcast and hate my guts. But I'm doing this for you guys so you guys get the best possible games that come out."

Kaneda gives Stern credit for listening to criticism and improving their games

"I really wish Stern would have put lineman on guardians of the galaxy because lineman did Metallica. Metallica has a similar layout. How easy would it have been for him to bring the same sort of greatness to this title pretty quickly because he's familiar with the shots and the combos and everything this layout provides. Instead, he's been wasting away for a year on Batman 66."

Stern should have assigned Lyman DeLong to code Guardians instead of Batman 66

"I've talked to a lot of my friends who just feel burned by Batman. They feel burned by Star Wars. They don't want to go on the forum and say it But there's just this over arching feeling that Stern has let us down"

Stern has let people down with Batman and Star Wars, people feel burned by these games

"It's I look if it's their best selling game then I'm then I'm an idiot and they keep doing what they're doing. First of all, I think it's that's got to be BS because there hasn't even been enough time"

"every time Stern talks now they just look tone deaf and they look like You know has been they look like a has been"

Attacking Stern's competence and calling them tone-deaf has-beens

"I think Stern pinball has failed to capture the imagination with Star Wars I think AAerosmith was their best game of the year but it's also like not the theme everybody wants and I think that Batman 66 and the lack of code updates has just hung over everybody"

Stern Pinball has had a bad year and failed to deliver quality games

"they've absolutely ruined the what the badging of limited edition right they've ruined what it stands for they ruined what you can expect from it now limited edition means nothing"

Stern has ruined what Limited Edition means - no longer special or worth the premium

"Stern does not give you games that are worth north of $6,500. Okay, to me, that is the most I would ever want to spend on the Stern machine."

Stern Pinball does not give you games worth north of $6,500

"So what is my prediction for Stern Pinball over the next year or so? So Stern will continue to dominate in terms of volume. No denying that Stern will make the most amount of games."

Prediction: Stern will continue to dominate in terms of volume, making the most games and getting the most attention over the next year.

"Stern has done a great job creating a marketing landscape where the best pinball machine ever is always the next pinball machine. It's never the one that we're selling you today"

Stern creates marketing hype where the next game is always the best game

"I think every day that goes by that stern remains silent on the topic is a little bit concerning to me because I work in PR. And whenever a company has a crisis like this, it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter if the CEO is on vacation in Australia. It doesn't matter if people are scattered. This is the kind of crisis that people need to huddle together, come up with a response, and make that response immediately or as fast as possible."

Stern Pinball needs to respond immediately to the John Trudeau crisis - silence is concerning from a PR perspective

"they are the mass market they are the Honda Civic of Pinball they are not they are not aiming for premium for details for high quality they are aiming for production and profit"

Stern has become the Honda Civic of pinball - mass market focused on production and profit rather than premium quality