Stern Pinball

"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 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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"I think Stern is I do I think they're a little bit more profit driven than passion driven"

Stern is more profit-driven than passion-driven compared to other manufacturers

"They have some figures within their marketing department that have some anger management issues at times. You don't curse out your customers on Twitch streams. You don't do that. You don't ban people on social media"

Stern's marketing department has anger management issues and treats customers poorly

"I think you nailed it when you said that Stern makes great $6,000 machines"

Stern makes great $6,000 machines but not premium products

"stern pinball Again, I'll keep saying this there they make the best $6,000 machines and they make the worst $9,000 machines"

Stern makes best $6000 machines, worst $9000 machines

"The big issue I have with the machine. I just don't think Stern really understands. How to use the LCD... It always feels like. There's just so much going on. And movie clips are flying. Into the screen flying out of the screen... I just think that is really wonky"

Stern doesn't understand how to properly use LCD screens

"$1 million dollars that pinball collectors are going to hand to Stern Pinball for absolutely nothing... Nothing nothing you... it's like if there was something if it was like well you can open up the coin door and there was a hundred dollar bill inside each machine or at least then you got something"

Star Wars LE buyers are giving Stern $1 million for absolutely nothing

"I have done a complete 180 on Stern Pinball... I do think Stern is cutting corners. I think Stern is putting things in place that really make me feel like they don't have our backs anymore"

Complete 180 on Stern Pinball - they're cutting corners and not standing behind products at current price points

"There is some issues with Stern Star Wars, some quality issues that we were last talking about, Stern Quality. It looks like the TIE fighter that is on a spring has some issues and some of them are breaking. So we'll see if that becomes a problem with the games moving forward. But there's new Star Wars code, so that's good news for people."

Stern Star Wars has quality issues with TIE fighter breaking and needs lower scores

"You know eventually I've grown tired of what I feel like is the stern cookie cutter approach. I've grown tired of all these games being $8,000, $9,000 and there's not much innovation in them. Just something different, something original, something fun."

Stern's cookie cutter approach is getting tiresome, need more variety in pinball

"Stern Pinball games, if they keep going the way they're going, are going to look like Sega games. Ironic, that Sega turn into Stern. I don't think Stern is up the game very much. I don't think people are going to want these Stern games so many years from now."

Stern Pinball games will age poorly like Sega games did

"I don't understand why this scoring though on these new Stern's goes into hundreds of billions of points I think it's stupid I think it's a bad decision for one reason and one reason only I think it looks terrible on the LCD screen"

Pinball scoring in hundreds of billions is stupid and looks terrible

"I've sort of just been annoyed by the rollout of the game. And this constant sort of delay and inability just to show us anything to excite us to wet our appetite on the game. Annoyed me."

Stern's rollout of Star Wars has been poorly handled with delays and lack of communication

"I almost feel like Stern released Star Wars and then didn't let anyone play it as an F you to Pinside. I really do. I can't see any other reason why they just can't let people play it"

Stern released Star Wars and won't let anyone play it as an F-you to Pinside

"I know I'm saying this without seeing the gameplay, but is that my fault? That I haven't seen the gameplay? Was it three weeks now since we've seen the reveal of Star Wars and we're still waiting"

"Stern makes games to stay in business, Stern doesn't make games just to create a game regardless of profitability"

Stern makes cheap games to stay profitable while other manufacturers fail by not understanding costs

"All right, that's my out in my prediction. But I think Stern would be out of their mind to make Slayer Pinball. Who? What? Like, no. It's most likely going to be Iron Maiden, which I don't care if it's Slayer or Iron Maiden."

Prediction: Stern's next game will be Iron Maiden, not Slayer, as Slayer would be a poor business decision.

"They're charging a premium price. But the premium quality just isn't there yet. It just is not there yet. Stuff like the splitting cabinet stuff like the playfield issues. Stuff like using $5 toys in a $15,000 game."

Stern has quality issues despite premium pricing

"if you call me a Stern fanboy, I don't know how you can love pinball and how you can get excited about new pinball and not really root for Stern because they're going to do it over and over again. They're going to give you pinball at a frequency that no one else can do. And they're going to give you themes that no one else can secure."

Stern is the only real player and pinball fans should root for them because of their consistent delivery and licensing power

"Stern would do a much better job if they would allow these individuals more of an opportunity to tell the story behind the making of these games for better or for worse. I think a lot of the pinball critics would be silenced if they just heard from the people who are passionate behind these projects"

Stern would benefit from allowing designers to tell their stories publicly to reduce criticism and speculation

"You can tell that Stern's method is great at creating sold out products. But it's also really bad at catching quality control issues."

Stern's secretive release strategy creates hype but hurts quality

"Personally, I think Stern could have done a lot more with the area. I really do. They look like waffle irons like these two big black rectangles. They're very unimaginative. They're very uncreative"

Stern's LCD speaker panel design looks cheap and unimaginative

"I love that Stern does it the way they do it It's like it frustrates me, but it also it's exciting because it's like they make it like Christmas morning"

Stern creates the best hype by holding back information

"the thing that just always it's it's it's on my mind every time I'm over a new Stern it's just the feel of the machine to me just feels a little cheaper than I wanted to feel and it's hard to describe it's hard to describe but whenever I'm playing a Stern it just doesn't have that solid nature to it that I get when I play like dialed in or hobbit or was or a ballet Williams game"

Stern games feel cheaper and less solid than competitors

"that's why Stern wins that's why Stern wins time and time again because as much as people want to complain about code and the decals or this or that or splitting cabinets for every headache that Stern has given people they've also delivered games and they've delivered happiness to far more people than they've delivered headaches"

Stern wins because they deliver games despite flaws

"All I know is that from when I look at it, these are not as well-made cabinets. And it's just my opinion, from my experience, that these cabinets are not as well constructed. As the ones that were starting from all the way back into the 1960s."

Stern cabinet quality has declined with concerning construction changes