Stern Pinball

"People who have the old mechanism are not being sent the new mechanism. And I disagree with that. I think that is an issue. And I think it's wrong"

Stern should provide new slimer mechanism to all customers with old mechanism

"they were just like old dudes with Photoshop like dropping clip art around the playfield for like 10 years. It was really shit"

Stern's photoshop artwork era was terrible

"I think Stern once again has gone from reveal to shipping in what, two months. And people are now unboxing games. It's incredible where everyone else makes people wait two years."

Stern's rapid shipping timeline from reveal to delivery is superior to other manufacturers

"You always have to put yourself in the shoes of your customer if your customer is beyond frustrated You can't tease something out in a celebratory fashion Knowing that these guys have been in pain for so long they just wanted they don't care They don't want it delivered with a bow with fancy shiny wrapping paper they don't want to slowly know that it's going to be revealed they just wanted"

Stern's Kiss code marketing was poorly handled for frustrated customers

"I loved it Like I thought that Stern just knocked it out of the park it's so cool like I'm just glad that Stern is doing their thing right Because I think so much of the drama and so much of like leads people to do ugly things and say ugly things on the inside and other forms Is that people have been burned like for three years straight by like so many boutiques and miss miss release dates and pre-orders"

Praise for Stern Pinball's consistent release schedule and business model

"I am as a as a pinball fan concern that some of the best modding that goes on goes on from the community and should Stern go after and and send cease and to assist the people who are making these mods... I hope that the mod community and Stern can live in harmony"

Stern's approach to mod community licensing creates concerning restrictions but official partnerships show promise

"Stern has just been like upping their game and with this one it really feels like this is a quantum leap forward for them in terms of DMD aside... it feels like a new company to me I feel like this pin is a new version of Stern"

Stern has made a quantum leap forward with Ghostbusters

"Is there no one else? That is what Stern internally is probably thinking whenever they hear that they have this competition."

Stern Pinball has no real competition despite boutique manufacturers' claims

"If I want anyone to make Star Wars, I want it to be Stern. If I want anyone to make Jurassic World, I want it to be Stern. If I want anyone to make Toy Story, I want it to be Stern. You know why? Because I know that they'll make it. I know it'll ship."

Stern Pinball should make major licensed themes, not Jersey Jack

"But you can't compare the light show of those games to Game of Thrones or Star Trek or Wizvaz because they don't compare. They lack the colors."

Modern Stern games with color-changing LEDs can't be compared to 90s games

"I really feel like Stern has been mailing it in for a few years with what they're dropping into a game. But I think they really have heard the feedback. I think the competition has really forced them to raise their game"

Stern Pinball has been mailing it in for years but Ghostbusters shows they're raising their game due to competition

"those dots it's like like you've got to be kidding me those dots cargument coming they look like putting 14 inch rims on a modern sports car there's just like so embarrassing that Stern is getting away with this crap"

DMD displays look embarrassingly outdated on modern pins

"I'm seeing so many issues with people having to fix their pins like like physically work on them to get things right... for this amount of money there should be enough R&D going on to avoid this."

Stern quality control issues are unacceptable for the prices charged

"should Stern have done something for everybody who bought Avengers because they waited so long and is code enough?... it might have been nice to think about Stern offering them maybe an exclusive topper to go with their games."

Stern needs to provide compensation beyond just code updates for customers who waited three years

"I don't believe Stern was going to go back to a title this far away and update the code and put resources to updating the code... unless guys like flash instinct and owners of Avengers kept harping them."

Stern wouldn't have updated Avengers code without persistent community pressure from owners like flash and stank

"this is the one issue the only issue I believe that is keeping Stern from total you know world domination of pinball because whenever there's a new box Stern there's usually one and one complaint only you're going to get a game with incomplete code"

Incomplete code is the only thing preventing Stern from total pinball market domination

"Stern is being really inconsiderate is people have money on the line here they have thousands of dollars riding on resale values of games that are being considered and turds... They need to let people who buy these pins have a time frame of when code updates will arrive. Otherwise, it's completely unfair."

Stern's lack of code update schedules is unfair to customers who have thousands of dollars invested and need to make decisions about keeping games

"Three years is a ridiculous long time to wait for an update. In no other entertainment category would that ever be acceptable. It would never be acceptable in video games."

Stern's three-year delay for Avengers code update is ridiculously long and unacceptable compared to other entertainment industries

"Why aren't they hiring more coders to even like work around the clock to get these things into a better place? I mean, you could easily have coders working two shifts. One works the day shift and one, some coders work the night shift"

Stern should hire more coders and run coding shifts around the clock to solve the code delay problem

"There is no pressure on Stern to put in this level of innovation at all right now. Again, they're still the only ones shipping. They're still the only ones with these incredible themes. They have no real competition."

There's no pressure on Stern to innovate because they have no real competition

"the only two companies really... Spooky I will count them they did a license team and they didn't reveal it and didn't talk about it until they did everything locked up and stern who does it every time"

Only Stern and Spooky handle licensing properly by not revealing until everything is locked up

"But I think Stern is in a little bit of a pickle here and needs to really, really listen to this feedback because I think the last thing people are going to want is to have a brutal, brutal pinball machine when it comes to Ghostbusters."

Stern is in a pickle and needs to listen to feedback before shipping premiums and LEs

"we all know that stern taking godzilla away from spooky was a real jerk move no way around it"

Stern stealing Godzilla from Spooky was a real jerk move

"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

"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 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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"Starn is completely weak. Their model is very precarious... It's like building house of cards with an unsteady foundation"

Stern Pinball has a weak and precarious business model

"Gary should have started a second company inside of stern to make boutiques. Stern platinum. Stern ultra. Stern whatever. Instead he is watering down everything and making a mockery of collectors."

Stern should have created separate boutique division instead of watering down main line

"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 is thinking each big bang bar sold for 25 to 30 thousand dollars. They did not. They sold for what? $4,500. It is an illusion."

Big Bang Bar pricing illusion - they sold for $4,500, not $25-30k

"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

"But there's no way around the fact that Stern Pinball has some of the hottest themes in the world and the their ability to Manufacture these things at scale is just unprecedented"

Stern's manufacturing capability and ability to secure hot themes is unprecedented in pinball

"There are only two companies that have ever put out dates and hit those dates, Stern and Spooky, and unless a date or an expectation is set by either one of those companies, I just think it's a hogwash."

Only Stern Pinball and Spooky Pinball know how to properly market and release pinball machines

"I'm telling you right now, you can't even put those games in the same sentence as this pin."

Guns N' Roses makes Metallica, AC/DC and AAerosmith look inferior by comparison

"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

"You know those three things that Stern puts in the same place in every game? Why can't they put them somewhere else? Why do we always have to have three together?"

Stern always puts pop bumpers in the same boring configuration

"you immediately understand why stern pinball is so successful and why Jersey Jack pinball has struggled all these years"

Stern Pinball understands immediate satisfaction better than Jersey Jack