Stern Pinball

"Stern going out of business would actually be the number one thing that would help preserve the value of Stern games. Stern staying in business is the number one way their games continue to lose value."

"there will never be in the history of everything I've covered in pinball a greater bone-headed move than stern pinball in 2025. Maybe early 2026, increasing the price of their product as demand for their product continues to decline"

Stern Pinball will raise prices despite declining demand

"The boutiques are the companies that should be selling games for $15,000 not the mass produced company... Stern wants to be mass and high price... They want to be volume and command the most amount of money"

Stern should be mass market with lower prices, not trying to be both high volume and high price

"But for some reason, the soul of Stern Pinball seems to be missing. The swagger is missing. The confidence is missing."

Stern Pinball is missing soul, swagger, and confidence despite their technical capabilities

"If you buy a Stern new inbox right away, you kind of are telegraphing to people that you don't have common sense. Because there's no point in buying any of these things new inbox right now. The code's not done."

Buying Stern games NIB shows you don't have common sense because code isn't finished

"they don't look at any of us like the customer to them the person who spent a quarter million dollars or more are the distributors"

Stern's core problem is they see distributors as customers instead of home buyers and collectors

"you've got jack danger in a sling walking up to a guy to give the first ever testimonial of the first ever gameplay at the first ever reveal of the global biggest ip in the history of stern pinball and the guy can only utter i kind of like the death star shot it's tight it's kind of hard to hit"

Stern Pinball's Star Wars marketing featuring Jack Danger with one arm in a sling giving a weak testimonial represents everything wrong with the company

"there is going to be a small window by which some of these people over at stern pinball should be looking for their next gig"

Talented Stern employees like Jack Danger and Keith Elwin should look for jobs elsewhere

"the last stern LE that was really a wow was ghostbusters i mean it was freaking ghostbusters godzilla LE wasn't a wow james bond wasn't a wow venom wasn't a wow dnd wasn't a wow"

The last truly exciting Stern LE was Ghostbusters, with recent releases being disappointing

"this company needs a hard reset i shouldn't have to tell them this at five in the morning i'm about to go to the gym you guys need a hard reset"

"when i went over there a year ago and i met with seth and i met with george and i met with gary and my speech to them was very from the heart"

Direct confrontation with Stern executives Gary, Seth, and George about company strategy

"21 years later all of their knowledge everything they have all the resources all the money all the facilities all the talent 21 years later they make this crappy star wars"

Stern Pinball has declined dramatically from their peak 21 years ago with Lord of the Rings

"there's this misconception too that is out there in the pinball world that we're rooting for Stern to fail. Nobody wants Stern Pinball to fail. But nobody has done this to Stern other than themselves"

Nobody wants Stern to fail but they need a hard reset - misconception that community is rooting against them

"Now I'm starting to get nervous for Stern Pinball. I don't think they've had three strikes in a row like this in a really long time"

Stern Pinball is in big trouble after three misses in a row - D&D, King Kong, Star Wars

"Why is Stern not remaking Ghostbusters right now? Look down at that game. Look at everything that's in it. It's so much more creative than Star Wars. It's so much cooler than Star Wars"

Stern should remake Ghostbusters instead of making new mediocre games

"And this is Stern's big problem now is Dune, Evil Dead and Harry Potter. All three of those games look significantly nicer than what Stern is bringing to market."

Stern and JJP games look significantly better than current Stern offerings

"Stern pinball is in big trouble. I've heard from sources in the industry that they've cut production of four days a week. That's not good. And the tragic part is the next move by them is they need to raise prices."

Stern is in big trouble - cut to 4 days production and facing waning demand with need to raise prices

"There is nobody now who looks like they have any common sense if they're buying these new unboxed games now from Stern."

Nobody should buy new unboxed Stern games right now - the entire hobby is on the same page about this

"What Stern needs to do is they need to lower the price of the LE to $11,000. We all know the bomb on an LE Stern. We all know it's four grand gang."

Stern should lower LE prices to $11,000 because their BOM is only around $4,000

"they still continue to avoid having the conversation with us with you and me guys and gals on Kaneda's pinball podcast community they don't want to talk to us the enthusiast pinhead is not who they are focused on they are afraid of us"

Stern avoids engaging with enthusiast community and home collectors

"Stern Pinball has now gone 0 for 3. I mean, seriously, they have three cornerstone games a year. And we now have what is turning out to be three cornerstone kind of misses in a row."

Stern Pinball has gone 0 for 3 with their cornerstone releases and Star Wars is embarrassingly bad

"I think most of us would rather Stern Pinball instead of bringing out D&D, King Kong, and this new Star Wars, would have much rather have seen Lord of the Rings brought back, Tron brought back, and Ghostbusters brought back."

Stern should have remade Lord of the Rings, Tron, and Ghostbusters instead of new titles

"I still think the biggest problem at stern pinball right now is that the price tag and the product don't sync up. The L.E.s are kind of dead and they need to really reevaluate all of this."

Stern's pricing and product quality don't match up, LEs are dead

"I don't think anybody wants stern to have their dream theme now I don't I really don't I used to think They were the way to go I just think they've now become to me A company that is cutting corners and not pushing the creative envelope enough"

Opinion reversal on Stern as a pinball manufacturer: was "They were the way to go for pinball licenses and manufacturing", now "They've become a company that cuts corners and doesn't push creative envelope..."

"So they literally have destroyed their three tier model. The significance of it. The significance of the LE"

Stern Pinball has destroyed the significance of their three-tier model and is not improving while other manufacturers are getting better

"I used to think they were the way to go. I just think they've now become to me a company that is cutting corners and not pushing the creative envelope enough."

Opinion reversal on Stern as a pinball manufacturer: was "They were the way to go for pinball", now "They're cutting corners and not pushing the creative envelope enough"

"I don't think anybody wants stern to have their dream theme now"

Nobody wants Stern to have their dream theme anymore because they would probably make it a disaster

"I think stern pinball needs a hard reset. Everything about what this game is to me is like telegraphing. That stern pinball has sort of lost the narrative."

Stern Pinball needs a hard reset and has lost creativity

"I have not felt the desire to really want a Stern LE in about five years. They have absolutely destroyed it."

The LE pricing model is broken and worthless

"They invited all the shills. I was looking at all the people at the media day. You won't recognize any of them. They are not pinball media."

Stern invited shills instead of real pinball media to the reveal

"If Stern Pinball makes fallout with Keith Elwin, that game is going to be dead on arrival. There is not the nostalgia for fallout within this community. They don't get who buys their product."

If Stern makes Fallout with Keith Elwin, that game will be dead on arrival - they don't understand their customer base

"if we look at the most recent Stern people, we're not seeing a lot of mechanical wow, we're not seeing a lot of innovation in the mechanical area, so I think they're going to play it safe"

Recent Stern games lack mechanical innovation and wow factor

"From what I've heard, like, Stern doesn't even have like a full artwork game rolling around the joint there. Like they're keeping it very under wraps. But I continue to hear more and more information on the game from people that have played it... just feels like the same old story. Stuff was yanked out of the game. And the game is just, I'm hearing, it's not gonna blow us away."

Stern Star Wars is mediocre and Stern knows it

"They still see themselves as a company whose target audience are the distributors, not the customers, not the collectors. And this has been Stern's real problem over the last five years... They continue to not understand who is the actual target for their marketing, for their themes, everything"

Stern's marketing focuses on distributors instead of consumers

"LE has been absolutely completely turned into a meaningless over price like token for insecure men to buy now because the problem is, is not only did they over make the LE's, they overcharge and then the anniversary additions have, you know, in more recent times been the nicer, even game."

Limited Editions have become meaningless overpriced tokens for insecure men

"I think spooky pinball pricing veto juice at $9,999 is going to be a killer. A killer problem for Dune. It's going to be a real problem for Stern trying to sell 13,000-dollar LEDs."

Spooky Pinball's $9,999 pricing will hurt Stern's $13,000 LED games

"I think they went out too early with the teaser. And, you know, I'm really, I'm really, I'm really nervous for them. I think they, they're operating in a little bit of a vacuum. And I think it's going to bite them. I still think they're going to sell a ton though because it's star wars."

Stern's Star Wars marketing launch has been botched but will still sell well

"Stern Pinball has a formula and no matter what the theme is, no matter what the climate is in the pinball community, no matter anything, no other factors change what they do. They just always drop everything into the world the same exact way."

Stern Pinball has become formulaic and incapable of adapting despite their success

"I think we can say this with confidence, they got greedy. They did get greedy and they got cheap. They got really cheap. Once you started selling people $2,000 toppers, it was a middle finger to the community."

Stern got greedy and cheap, especially with $2000 toppers

"Stern has made the biggest mistake on its LEs recently. The last four to five years, they have not made their LEs truly stand out. I mean, go look at Foo Fighter. It's the same damn art package. They just changed like the red to the green."

Stern Pinball's recent Limited Editions lack distinctiveness and don't justify premium pricing

"I don't understand modern pinball marketing. We still don't know the exact date and time by which this game will be revealed. Why? You've been working on it for over a year or two. You've got the licensing deal in place. And so your marketing team hasn't even set the release date or the reveal time."

Stern Pinball has poor modern pinball marketing and should have revealed Star Wars during Labor Day week

"Because Stern wants to use up existing cabinets. They simply want to use up existing cabinets... I bet we're just getting leftover cabinets"

Stern should have used Spike 3 platform for Star Wars instead of leftover cabinets

"Any guesses I guarantee this is why Because Stern wants to use up existing cabinets. They simply want to use up existing cabinets They have because they didn't use those cabinets Probably for X-Men games and and dnd like the orders were not there"

Prediction: Stern wants to use up existing cabinets instead of using new Spike 3 cabinets because they have excess inventory from lower X-Men and D&D orders.

"My worry was Stern at least, they don't know how to make a good LE anymore. Have you noticed this? Stern doesn't know how to make a great LE anymore."

Stern doesn't know how to make a great LE anymore

"stern makes the world's greatest $7000 pinball machines. They do. They make the world's greatest $7000 pinball machines. I think their bomb is somewhere around $3 to $4000 and they should make $3000 on top of that. They make the world's best $7000 pinball machines. They make the world's worst $13000 pinball machines"

Stern makes great $7000 pinball machines but terrible $13000 machines - they're overpriced for what you get

"So it does show me that they're learning a lesson"

Stern has learned from past mistakes by reducing LE quantities to 770 units

"The other part I'm hearing is that distros are a little bit upset that Stern dropped this early like this and there is no reveal. There is no ability for distros to take money on this game yet... They have unsold inventory and a move like this, all it does is it makes everybody pump the brakes."

Distributors are upset about the early teaser release without ability to take orders

"Stern is stuck right now because you know they're making volume but they've destroyed all of the collectability... This is it. This is the biggest property in this age demographic and they really need to nail it... They need a statement game."

Stern has destroyed collectability by making too many games and needs a statement game

"I'm excited about what JJP has going forward because I do think Stern's in big trouble. If they think they can charge with their charging and Jersey Jack just makes Stern's look like tinker toys."

Stern in big trouble if they don't improve quality while charging high prices

"I think it's bad marketing, I think it's a terrible mistake by Stern Pinball to only go halfway with the new Star Wars game"

Stern's Spike 3 rollout strategy is terrible marketing - should have put everything into Star Wars at once