Stern Pinball

"I am absolutely shocked that they revealed to everybody in the world that Stern Pinball decided not to license the Empire State Building. Why would they in a million years ever say that to the Pinball buying community"

Stern is foolish for not licensing Empire State Building and revealing it publicly

"I think Stern Pinball needs to wake up and look at what Jersey Jack just did. They made the top of the line version of the game look so radically different from the other versions of the game and that is what people want."

Stern needs to copy Jersey Jack's CE artwork approach immediately

"Stern's got to figure something out. They let too many of the competitors eat away at the market share. They've had too many mediocre themes in a row."

Stern has had too many mediocre themes and lost market share to competitors

"I do think Stern has gas lit a lot of this community they have. They've been gaslighting you now that you're spending $15,000 on a fully option Stern. It's more than that even like gas lit put it next to a Jersey Jack is not even close yet more fun."

Stern has been gaslighting customers into overpaying for inferior products

"I think there's like a level of respect there. Like if this was like a stern game, we would have leaked it instantly. There would have been no respect for Stern on this on this notion."

Content creators showing respect to Jersey Jack by not leaking Harry Potter images, unlike how they would treat Stern

"It's like once again, early Stern buyers are guinea pigs for issues with the game. And then you spend all this money and you got to wait six months for the code to be done. And by the time that happens, you've been the guinea pig and later builds are going to be built better than your day one L.E.'s."

Stern buyers are guinea pigs for incomplete games with quality issues

"There's a real pushback against Stern happening with the new inbox buyer community. And these people are now just they're just over it they're over getting burned... I think there's probably like a good. Three to 500 dudes that used to go in on everything that are now sitting on the sidelines"

Stern is experiencing a real pushback from buyers who are tired of getting burned on purchases

"And what the owners are being told is to put Mylar over the damage. That is Stern's official response to its customers. Look, you don't need me to tell you that that's not going to go over well."

Criticism of Stern's response to Dungeons & Dragons playfield issues

"You killed the golden goose, okay? Yeah, you killed it and the golden goose the golden egg was FOMO... What that jump as un is you've taken the golden goose that was FOMO and you've replaced it with Fuck you know we're fuck. Right went from fear of missing out to now having an entire buyer base that has a fear of commitment"

Stern has killed FOMO and replaced it with fear of commitment due to pricing

"The customer I have isn't the customer I want. What are you talking about George? You should never say this you should never feel this the people that support you should never hear this"

Stern should focus on existing customers instead of chasing young demographics

"what's done doesn't realize is the humongous damage to their brand stuff like two thousand dollar toppers has done the people stuff like LE is all losing three to four thousand... stuff like James Bond sixty of being greedily pressing. Being greedily priced at twenty grand stuff like walking away from back to the future all these things collectively add up to a company that has seemingly hit its peak and is significantly on the decline"

Stern has done huge damage to their brand and lost collectors due to overpricing and poor decisions

"if you're a Stern collector and you bought all these Stern Ali's over the last 3D 4 years 3 to 4 years if you bought them all you you got destroyed... if you collected spooky pinball machines at the beginning you lost money on everyone they're not desirable things have changed I think this is the new beginning of a shift of which companies collectors will look to to buy games from."

Stern collectors got destroyed buying LEs in recent years while Spooky collectors are now winning

"And no company is in bigger trouble than Stern Pinball because they can't create enough demand every single month to absorb the supply of games they have to make to keep its factory going."

Stern Pinball in biggest trouble due to factory overhead

"Stern and trouble guys the mighty Keith L. Win can't sell out of the model they need to sell out of not only that the mighty Keith L. and can't sell through these models."

Stern Pinball is in trouble and can't sell out Keith Elwin games

"When they started charging us $2,000 for flat plastic toppers, you gotta be kidding me. You're telling me this company is being fair to its customers."

Stern's $2,000 flat plastic toppers are greedy

"The Stern Army is coming at me, and the thing they're coming at me with is this whole notion that as a community and as people that love pinball, we're not allowed to question what these games cost."

Pinball pricing backlash - community pressure to accept high prices

"To me that moment for Stern is when they had an opportunity to make back to the future and they said no. I still can't understand it. I still can't comprehend it and it it's still telegraphs to me. Oh my gosh how out of touch they are with who buys their product"

Stern missed their seminal moment by passing on Back to the Future

"I think they need to shut him down. And I think we're going to see a new period where Stern Pinball is going to have to be extra litigious protecting its IP"

Stern needs to protect its IP from aftermarket translite makers

"It takes Jersey Jack two and a half weeks to put together a Harry Potter teaser image and then nothing for two and a half weeks. It takes Dutch Pinball two and a half heck 12 years to get people their big Lebowski games. It takes DPX how many months to get people their Alice's adventures in Wonderland in two and a half weeks. 932 shiny King Kong LE's will be in the world."

Stern Pinball delivers games efficiently while other manufacturers take too long

"A Mazda Miata is often times a lot more fun than cars that cost 2-3 times its price and that's what Stern is. They're like the Mazda Miata. They're the cheap option. That's a lot of fun. The tragedy is that the community has now allowed Stern pinball to charge us like they're making a Porsche 911"

Stern is like a Mazda Miata charging Porsche 911 prices

"Stern Pinball has found a way to separate grown men from $13,000 simply by adding at most, at most those decals on the side of the game that are glossy. How much do you think those cost? 50 bucks? A hundred at most. They're just stickers."

Stern LE upgrades are minimal - just cheap stickers and speakers

"The great Keith Elwin can't even move units now for this company. I think we're headed for a whole new period in pinball people."

King Kong LE not selling out means Keith Elwin can't move units and signals a new era in pinball

"They definitely feel, and I've been covering this hobby for a long time, this company feels more vulnerable than ever before. And I think a lot of the mistakes they've made have been self-inflicted."

Stern Pinball feels more vulnerable than ever and has made self-inflicted mistakes

"I think overall what we're witnessing everybody is really the death of the Stern LE. I mean it, and I'm not holding back. I think owning an LE now means nothing. I think anybody who's bought a new in-box LE over the last three years regrets it."

The Stern LE model is dead and means nothing anymore

"I just think like that's the problem I see with the stern three-tier model now, which was always predicated on the LE being a take my money now, gain that everybody wanted to get their hands on. And those days are over"

Stern's three-tier model is broken because LEs no longer mean anything

"But man, for half the price, a stern pro is not a bad buy. You're going to get most of the game. And also historically speaking, stern pros are the only things that hold value these days. Like it holds better value than the LE."

Stern Pro models hold value better than LEs and offer most of the game experience at half the price

"It's like instead of looking at King Kong, instead of looking at its world and what is iconic in its world, they're putting it into the Stern Blender. And that's what it's all starting to feel like. You put everything in the Blender of Stern, and you get this."

Stern Pinball puts everything through the same design blender regardless of theme

"It's like the only reason why there should only be an LE and a pro then... I mean that like the only LE is hold any value now is if there was no premium but like it's just. I mean if I it's just stupid to have this three tier model now"

Stern's three-tier pricing model is broken and unsustainable

"They've ruined the brand of Stern LE. They really have and I don't think collectors run to these things like they used to and I just don't think Kong LE is going to be like, I have to have it... They've ruined what a Stern LE is"

Stern has ruined the collectability and brand value of their Limited Editions

"Stern's lighting is the worst. Like it's the worst... have you ever seen a stern game in a track mode, even look as good as like big Lebowski's a track mode from 12 years ago?"

Stern's lighting is the worst in modern pinball

"I think that means that Spike 3 is a price increase move. Yes, they're going to give us more, but they're going to charge more"

Spike 3 system is primarily a price increase move, not innovation

"When you go on Stern's website, do you see gentlemen like you and me represented as their lifestyle brand? Nope. You see the complete opposite of what the pinball buying demographic looks like."

Stern Pinball has become a lifestyle brand that ignores its core demographic

"In a lot of ways, Stern carries all of it. They are the gigantosaurus of the pinball world and everybody else hitches a ride on its back... If Stern pinball collapses, you will see a mass exodus of people in this hobby and it will be a new dark age of pinball."

Stern Pinball is essential to the hobby - if they fail, it would cause a new dark age of pinball

"I don't think his marketing department has ever been focused on the collectors and the high end buyers of his product. I don't. They've been focused on tournament players. I don't think the marketing people that Stern have been focusing at all on the long term customers of their games."

Stern Pinball's marketing has never focused on collectors and high-end buyers

"George Gomez told me there have been no layoffs at Stern. In fact, we have open positions and we are hiring at Stern pinball... The rumor that I was hearing from people, which I did not report because I knew it was a lie, was that Stern pinball laid off 30% of its staff, 30%. One out of every three people at Stern pinball was fired. Talk about a reckless rumor."

Stern Pinball layoff rumors are completely false and reckless

"And they clearly scaled up and built a massive massive manufacturing organization during the COVID demand craze. And so now they've built a company to satiate a demand that's no longer there."

Stern Pinball built too large of a manufacturing operation for current demand

"That is not what a pinball company is. And the moment they declared themselves that, they went down a road where they forgot. They forgot what this is all about, like what these games need to cost, what people expect from you."

Stern lost their way when they declared themselves a lifestyle brand

"The number I am now hearing, and I can't confirm or deny this, but the number I am hearing is that Stern has somewhere around 10,000 NIB Stern games are sitting in inventory unsold."

Stern Pinball is in serious trouble with massive unsold inventory

"Toy Story 4 should have been killed. They should have killed the Godfather. These games should have been killed. John Wick, Venom, these games never should have been made"

Stern should have killed several recent games in development

"Stern Pinball, out of all the companies out there, your accessory timeline is one of the biggest disappointments in all of Pinball... you can't develop this stuff in parallel so that it's released the same time the game comes out."

Stern Pinball's accessory timeline is disappointing and poorly executed

"that's what Stern pinball has done to its collector base over the last three years. They've screwed over everybody and they're going to do it again this year when they do a remake of another game that they said they were never making more LE's on. It's most likely I'm probably going to be wrong. It's most likely going to be the Walking Dead"

Stern screws over collectors and will remake Walking Dead despite promises

"That thing probably costs Stern Pinball to make that in China less than $5. And they're selling it for $200."

John Wick shooter knob is overpriced plastic that costs $5 to make but sells for $200

"I think we all need to come to terms with the fact that Stern is gonna remake all of those hit DMD games eventually. I mean it. Eventually they will do it"

Stern will eventually remake all hit DMD games as remasters

"King Kong is gonna be $3,000 more than freaking Godzilla was. Do you think it's gonna have 3,000 more in it when it comes to mechs, bomb and toys and everything? I don't know."

King Kong LE pricing criticism - $3000 more than Godzilla without justification

"When you look at Stern Pinball launches, they have hits and they have misses. Every game is not consistently good. Every game has different levels of code. Every game brings you different levels of theme popularity, different levels of mechanical magic."

Stern Pinball has inconsistent quality across releases with hits and misses

"Stern Pinball, every three to four months, puts out a new game and they have everything from music to comics to movies to D&D. Like they've got something for everybody."

Stern Pinball has the best variety and most consistent output in pinball

"I am shocked that Stern Pinball has not invited like 20 X-Men owners into Stern Pinball, fly them over and say, hey, look, we've been reading your feedback on Pinside, you have a lot of really interesting ideas on how to make this game better, we're committed to making this game better"

Stern Pinball shows arrogance by not engaging with X-Men buyers who are concerned about the game's future

"Stern Pinball wasn't able to test the final version of that cable and the node board in the game and has passed that on to customers without proper testing."

Stern's quality control is inadequate - they're shipping untested final production versions

"It's a problem for Stern Pinball. They really messed this whole thing up. The LE's never used to lose value. It used to be the place where the collectors got handed something that was ascending in value. And now it's like, gosh, it's so painful to see this that the Pro is now the smartest and wisest place to financially put your Stern money"

Stern LE strategy is broken - Pros now hold value better

"you abused your position as a pinball company releasing that basic game for twenty thousand dollars it was a slap in the face to everyone who collects pinball"

Stern's James Bond 60 pricing was abusive to collectors