Stern Pinball

"Imagine if they're only made like 50 versions of jaws and charge 50 grand each. I mean they could do it they could do it"

Stern could easily charge $50,000+ for ultra-limited editions based on Magic Girl pricing precedent

"Stern fucking carried this industry on their back on their back when it was ready to die"

Stern Pinball deserves respect and has carried the entire pinball industry

"I don't know how anyone could look at a situation like this and not call bullshit and like two wrongs don't make a right."

Stern's decision to increase Monsters LE production from 500 to 600 units is unethical and undermines collector value

"And I think Stern has really fumbled this entire Batman launch. I just don't feel excited about it. It's hard to get excited because I just think coming out of the Ghostbusters issues and all the quality control issues, for Stern to come out and just like shove their hands in the people's wallets and grab all this money for a Stern is just, I don't know."

Stern has fumbled the entire Batman launch and is making marketing mistakes that make them look greedy

"stern pinball has so masterfully got all of you out there that are the stern apologists... they have so incredibly well got so many people to lower their expectations... because 750 people already bought the Elise, you want to see it being great. You are looking at it to justify your purchase"

Stern Pinball has masterfully lowered customer expectations and created FOMO culture that prevents objective game evaluation

"And once again, we got what I consider to be one of the sloppiest and one of the most confusing ways to show people a game... It's so confusing. We have no context about what the game is about yet... it's amateur hour and it's very sloppy"

Stern Pinball game reveals are sloppy and unprofessional, Dwight Sullivan's presentation style is confusing and amateur

"The problem is, is real simple. They are designing these games for tournament players who could care less about any of that stuff. They don't like the randomness... Tournament players hate it. They skip it. They don't want it because it might throw the ball down the middle."

Stern is designing games for tournament players at the expense of casual collectors

"if you were to say which pinball company is efficient has the best quality has the best code Has the best games the best themes it is unequivocally stern pinball That is why they are number one the market has spoken"

Stern Pinball dominates the market across all metrics - efficiency, quality, code, games, and themes

"the greatest bargain in the pinball world right now is a Stern LE machine... the LE's played better than the premiums. Don't fool yourself in LE machine absolutely plays better than the premium"

Stern LE machines are the greatest bargain in pinball and play better than premiums

"And it was kind of like that interesting battle between him and Stern all of those years where Stern just wanted to rush games out, but Lyman needed more than a year to make a game great."

Stern Pinball rushed games out while Lyman needed time to make games great

"But we could argue about Stern's creativity per cause, but at least Stern Pinball like gets the details right. They have the most professional looking website. They have merchandise. They have the most professional communications... And if you want to be successful in pinball, it's staring you right in the face. Just get as close to Stern as you can or improve upon what Stern is doing."

Stern Pinball dominates because they execute professional standards consistently

"But I can't wait for this to roll out. I think all of you complaining about it... This is good for pinball."

Stern's internet connectivity is good for pinball and will enhance the experience

"This is such a Trojan horse for Stern pinball to make thousands of dollars more per machine. I mean that. They're going to make thousands of dollars more."

Stern will use connectivity as a Trojan horse for price increases and microtransactions

"Stern has earned the fucking right to make whatever you want to do. Whatever the fuck they want to go in any fucking direction they want and to create different types of variety because they fucking earn that right because they are the only ones that give you like four to five pinball machines a year"

Stern Pinball deserves praise for variety and consistent releases, not constant criticism

"one might say they are flooding the market with games because they know that this won't last very long that the pinball economy is going to collapse and they are going to make as much bank as they can in the next few years"

Stern is flooding the market with games because they know the pinball economy will collapse

"One game is not consistently awesome. For every sell out there is another dog that people lose money on their L's. Avengers. WWE, X-Men, Avatar, Transformers and Kiss."

Stern's inconsistent game quality makes pricing strategy risky

"Stern is the future of pinball. Stern is shepherding the competition with them. As long as there's a Stern, there will be a Jersey Jack. As long as there's a Stern, there will be a spooky."

Kaneda strongly supports Stern Pinball despite acknowledging their flaws

"when you don't ban someone who's problematic, now you need to engage with that person. You need to respond to them. You know, you need to spend some time and energy. And like we, like we said, we established that there wasn't the resources for that."

Stern's social media banning practices were justified due to resource constraints

"The ability for this company to always be on to the next blows me away... I think it's really marvelous to watch them just not stop. They just keep going while every other company is either stalled or failing or trying to like figure it out."

Stern's ability to constantly move to next game while others stall is marvelous

"this is bold but I apologize I don't see how anybody can buy a stern LE going forward without limited limited edition features a topper is a must a shaker is a must armor is a must that damn glass that they just created is a fricking must"

"Stern is trying to sell their mid level product at three highest price brackets. They are shoving their mid level product into a flagship cabinet."

Stern's pricing strategy is fundamentally flawed - selling mid-level at flagship prices

"the time period between revealing Jurassic Park and putting pros and boxes and sending them to consumers is insanely fast. And within just a few weeks, I think a couple of weeks, games are already out to consumers."

Stern's speed from announcement to shipping

"I think Stern is releasing these games quickly. And I think they're doing it to bury the competition. I really do."

Stern is deliberately releasing games quickly to bury the competition

"I think we all at this stage, no for sure, that yes, Stern doesn't test these games long enough before they go into market. They are not playing them, they're not putting these machines on location to go through its paces before asking you for your dollars"

Stern doesn't adequately test games before shipping

"I know I give them crap for you know selling us cheap toppers and putting pieces of couch and games and look they do crappy stuff like that"

Stern does make quality compromises with cheap accessories and components

"bullshit there is no way stern is going to miss may 4th"

Stern is lying about delaying Star Wars pinball - they won't miss May 4th

"stern needs to learn to do this you just can't have expert pinball players beta testing your machines guys who are constantly nudging and moving and slapping machines you need to bring in a casual pinball player"

Stern needs casual players testing machines, not just experts

"Just not even about this game ladies and gentlemen, this game at this price is a Trojan horse. To make the rest of us feel like these $13,000 or LEs are a good value. To make the rest of us feel like these $10,000 premiums are a good value."

James Bond 60th is a Trojan horse to make other expensive machines seem like good value

"I'd rather join the fang club than the stupid stern insider bowl shit I mean what is bowl shit like I'm gonna pay money to get a fucking Nate shivers podcast like behind a fire wall"

Stern Insider Connected program offers poor value

"Stone on the other hand had a rousing success with Ghostbusters. They followed it up with a sold out Batman 66. Gary is fucking killing it right now."

Stern Pinball is dominating the market while JJP struggles

"Not all the stops because Stern is cheap as fuck. But it will just be another Stern. Crapi-vinyl decals and play feel printing."

Stern is cheap and produces low-quality components

"Stern is the center of gravity for all of pinball. Stern is pinball. I think that's the fairest way to say it. Stern pinball is pinball. Everybody else is kind of like a boutique company trying to do what Stern does."

"we're back once again to the marvel superhero realm. It's like how many of these pins do we need? Then can we get some more variety from Stern pinball?"

Stern needs more variety beyond Marvel superhero themes

"I think they're out of a world of the world, they're out of the original ideas, they're out of it... I think a lot of these guys at Stern, that have just been designing over and over and over again, I mean I think they're like completely out of original creative ideas"

Stern designers are out of original ideas and repeating themselves

"It's like when stern says there are lifestyle brand. Whenever I read a stern press release and like stern is a lifestyle brand, no, you're not a lifestyle brand. You're a fucking pinball company. You're not a lifestyle. It doesn't make any fucking sense"

Stern calling themselves a 'lifestyle brand' is ridiculous

"the Stern Shills right now on Pinside, you know who they are, who are just like it's going to be epic. Don't listen to K-Man"

Attacking Stern distributors and pinside shills for defending Stranger Things

"What a blunder by Stern's marketing department. I have to say this. You know that this video is going to go up and you are going to make people critique the artwork for the first time ever. This hand drawn artwork, you are going to make them see it and critique it with low res images that are screen grabbed from this like 8 minute Star Wars video where the game appears in like 15 to 30 seconds."

Stern Pinball's marketing department made a major blunder by revealing Star Wars artwork through low-resolution screen grabs from a video instead of proper assets

"everyone knows deep down they just kept this feeling that like on an individual level do you really think that the higher ups and the investors at Stern pinball really give a damn if they lose you as a customer"

Stern Pinball doesn't care about individual enthusiast customers

"The pro games are always more fun than the LE's and the premiums anyway. They flow better. Everybody knows that. It's like a little kept secret."

Pro versions of Stern games play better than Premium/LE versions

"If I'm Stern and John Trudeau is found guilty of child pornography possession. Would I release a pinball machine designed by him. Absolutely not. We all know that he's working on a game with his on be right now and that game's pretty far along. I would absolutely start over."

If John Trudeau is found guilty of child pornography charges, Stern should not release his current game in development

"stern pinball Monday morning needs to make a statement and stern pinball needs to get ahead of this crisis... what they need to do effective immediately is put John Trudeau on an unpaid suspension it's the same way a football team would suspend a player who has accusations of domestic violence"

Stern Pinball needs to immediately suspend John Trudeau without pay pending legal proceedings