Stern Pinball

"In a two and a half year period of $4,000 increase in the price of a Stern LE. And they doubled the amount of the games... This is where I think we're going to look back years from now and wonder where the beginnings of the pinball market collapse begin."

Stern Pinball engaged in systematic price gouging over 4 years

"I think Stern is in jeopardy right now. And I mean this, of completely losing all of the new in-box market for its product."

Stern Pinball needs a hit game at CES or risks losing the NIB market

"A stern premium being $9,500 Is kind of just like ludicrous... $9,500 if you want the full featured Stern pinball machine... That's silly and stupid"

Stern's pricing strategy is driving away customers and hurting the hobby

"I think they need to stop thinking like they need to attract new audiences. And they need to double down on why we love pinball in the first place... Not try to attract these young kids who have no money into their hobby and stop wasting so much time with the Stern army and location play and all these badges."

Stern Pinball needs to focus on making amazing products for existing pinball fans rather than trying to attract new young audiences

"I think Stern pinball has screwed over all these guys. The old guard of pinball distributors, they're all getting screwed over because what Stern has done recently is they've invited so many new dealers into the fold."

Stern Pinball has screwed over distributors with their bundling practices and allocation to new dealers

"Anyone who unboxes a modern Stern LE that's not made by Keith Elwin is going to lose $3,000 or more. It's just that simple. Every single one. You can't name me one $13,000 Stern LE that is not a Keith Elwin game that has not lost $3,000 to $4,000 in just a year."

Modern Stern LEs not made by Keith Elwin lose $3000+ in value within a year

"if we remade Lord of the Rings and just did it right, you're talking 5,000 units easily if you remake Lord of the Rings. It's these new games to them that are really painful."

Stern should focus on remastering classic hits rather than new themes

"when you look at the second hand value of most of these new Stern machines, they're abysmal. They're absolutely abysmal."

Stern's secondhand values are abysmal and getting worse

"I think Stern's issues are all because, as an organization, they don't have a chief marketing officer doing his or her job. They just, they need to build a marketing department."

Stern Pinball lacks proper marketing leadership and strategy

"Stern is winning. They are winning, you know, on their terms. How long their win streak will last is my worry because I think their win streak is over. I think Stern has become a little bit of a one trick pony with Elwin, you know, Elwin represents 40% of their sales."

Stern is winning but becoming a one-trick pony with Keith Elwin representing 40% of sales

"They brought in a consultancy and they did focus groups on what games they should make to bring in the next generation of pinball enthusiasts. This is a true story. And when they put back to the future in front of them, it didn't hit because they, those kids, aren't in love with it."

Stern passed on Back to the Future due to focus group consultancy rather than designer input

"If you bought Foo Fighters, James Bond, Venom and John Wick, right? If you bought four Stern LEs, you lost $16,000 and maybe more than that, $16,000 if you bought four Stern LEs."

Stern lost $16,000 value for buyers who purchased four recent LEs

"They brought in a marketing consultancy. And they did focus groups with people that are young with a Gen Z audience. And they put themes in front of them because to Stern, they think the way to grow and the way to future proof their business is to focus group in age group that has no money to buy Pinball."

Stern used Gen Z focus groups to make theme decisions, which was a mistake

"How did Stern Pinball come to the conclusion that we should not make back to the future? Instead, we'll make Venom. Instead, we'll make John Wick. Instead, we'll make Foo Fighters. How did they come to this conclusion?"

Stern's decision not to make Back to the Future is indicative of everything wrong with the company

"The best thing to happen for spooky pinball was stern to release a $1,000 metallica topper that looks like mailed in crap. For just $300 more, you're going to get one of the coolest toppers ever"

Stern's Metallica topper makes Spooky's Evil Dead topper look like a great value

"When you see that $1,000 stern topper Metallica, they're ripping you off. When sternalees are 13,000, they're ripping you off. I'm just tired of being ripped off."

Stern is ripping customers off with pricing

"it takes most boutique companies about a year to do what Stern does in one week, and that is very impressive"

Stern manufacturing speed is impressive compared to boutiques

"Is X-Men LE twice as much fun as X-Men Pro? Does it give you twice as much in anything? No. I think everyone's waking up to that."

Stern Limited Editions are overpriced and don't provide value proportional to their cost premium

"A Stern LE should be no more than $10,500. A Stern premium should be no more than $8,500. And a Stern pro should be $6,500. And that's it. That's a fair price to me."

Fair pricing should be: Stern Pro $6,500, Premium $8,500, LE $10,500

"So that leaves Stern Pinball. And look, I think Stern Pinball is the right choice to make this game. Not only could they make the volume that the demand would require, but I also just think they've got the best talent in pinball right now."

Stern should partner with Dutch Pinball on Back to the Future instead of Jersey Jack

"even though I think that's a good thing, even though I think Stern needs to get FOMO back into pinball"

Stern creating FOMO with 500 unit Metallica LE is good for pinball

"should Stern have made a thousand of these and would that have been the right move? And I'm just going to tell you, no, I like what they did. I like that this is it. We're making 500. We're making Stern LEs a moment again. We're making them truly limited again."

Stern's move to limit Metallica remastered LE to 500 units was the right decision to make LEs special again

"How is this not remaking an LE of a game that already had an LE? This feels like a flat out lie if we were to take them at their word, that they were never going to make more LEs of a game that already had an LE. There's no loopholes. There's no context by which this now makes sense."

Stern Pinball went against their word by making more LEs of a game that already had an LE

"maybe that's the problem is everybody's tired of spending $13,000 on a stern, only to wake up in like six months, and you're seeing them for sale for $9,800"

Stern LE pricing fatigue - people tired of $13,000 LEs that drop to $9,800 in six months

"I'm gonna call it here first. I think Spike 3 is gonna be Keith Elwin's King Kong."

Spike 3 platform will debut with Keith Elwin's King Kong game

"This company passed on back to the future. Could be the biggest regret of George Gomez's life. How do you pass on back to the future?"

Stern Pinball passing on Back to the Future could be George Gomez's biggest regret

"How do you pass on back to the future and make Venom. How do you pass on back to the future and make freaking John Wick... If I had a design team and I walked into the room and I said who wants to make back to the future and nobody raised their hands I'd be like you're all fired you're all fired"

Stern Pinball passing on Back to the Future makes no sense and was a huge mistake

"Stern Pinball doesn't really do that. They don't really take this feedback into account and the reason why Stern Pinball normally doesn't make any of these changes because you've already given them your money"

Stern doesn't take feedback into account because customers already gave them money

"I think Stern Pinball Is Stalling On X-Men. We Have Seen The Game, It Looks Cool, It's Beautiful, But Where Is The Stream? Where Is The Actual Gameplay Of The Uncanny X-Men By Stern Pinball?"

Stern Pinball is stalling on X-Men by not showing gameplay while taking orders

"I think the only two designers Stern needs right now are Keith Elwin and Jack Danger. And I think John Borg has his work cut out for him. I think Brian Eddy has his work cut out for him."

Only Keith Elwin and Jack Danger are needed at Stern right now

"When people knock them for quality, I think it's unfounded. They sell thousands of games. Of course, every once in a while there's going to be some issues, but everyone else is just selling a few hundred games."

Stern quality criticism is unfounded given their manufacturing scale

"I think people would be happy if Stern Pinball was just Jack Danger and Keith Elwin releasing two awesome games a year, one from each of them. And that's all we would need. We don't need more."

Stern should focus on just two designers releasing quality games instead of multiple mediocre ones

"I heard they are building all 811 uncanny X-Men LE games and they're gonna be finished with each and every one of them by the time this game is revealed this week, this is gonna be the first time ever, Stern makes the LE games first and they're gonna be available on day one"

Stern will dominate against Jersey Jack by building all 811 X-Men LEs before reveal and shipping day one

"have you seen this guy's Godzilla playfield, it is like ribbed beyond belief, I mean you look at it from an angle and it's like as wavy as an ocean... if you get sent something like that it should have been caught by their quality control people and the guy should just get a new game"

Customer shouldn't accept ribbed Godzilla playfield - Stern should replace defective games

"I don't think there was any mechanical magic in Jaws, I don't care what anybody says, when I look at the Mechs in Jaws, it's a total joke, I mean think about the shark fin in that game, it is so embarrassing that that's what they engineered as the shark fin for Jaws and don't even get me started, they couldn't get a shark to eat the ball"

Jaws mechs are embarrassing joke - shark fin is pathetic compared to X-Men Sentinel

"Stern is making a move in the right direction. And when someone makes a move in the right direction, we need to give them credit. I think it is awesome that Stern is making 811 and not 1000."

Stern Pinball is moving in the right direction by reducing LE count and adding meaningful mechanisms

"Stern's been doing it with overpriced games and themes we don't really want"

Stern has been releasing overpriced games with unwanted themes

"Stern's strategy right now should be to double down on its core audience. How do we reignite and re-excite the core pinball buyer?"

Stern should focus on re-engaging core pinball buyers instead of chasing growth in new markets

"Do you think anyone who's looking for entertainment devices that has an itch that pinball can scratch is going to wake up one day as a grown adult and just discover this hobby and then lay out thousands of dollars for pinball? It just doesn't work that way."

Stern's Costco partnership and office rental strategy are misguided moves targeting the wrong audience

"If a Stern distro buys a Stern LE for around $10,000 and sells it for $13,000... So that means they'll make another $6,000 on top of that three. So let's do the math. Stern gets six grand in its pocket. The distro gets three. That's $9,000. That means the bomb or the cost to make the damn game is $4,000 on an LE."

Stern's profit margins are excessive - they make $6000 profit per LE while distributors make $3000

"There is no such thing anymore as a stern OE that you will ever, ever, ever have to pay more than $13,000 for. It will never happen. There's too many of them. Stern does not make a game that's worth anywhere near $13,000."

No Stern premium will ever be worth more than $13,000

"It's like Stern Pinball has like the greatest software teams going now, maybe ever in the history of Pinball."

Stern has the greatest software teams ever in pinball history

"If you buy a new in-box Stern machine at these current prices, you have a 90% chance of losing thousands of dollars within the first six months."

Buying new Stern machines results in massive financial losses

"I'm just kind of tired of the way Stern launches these games. It's always the same cookie cutter formula. It's like Friday teaser, then the Tuesday dealer call, then we get the cell phone photos and then they try to like roll out this like week long of like revealing the game slowly. And it's so stupid because it's just show us everything on day one."

Stern's marketing approach is outdated and ineffective

"You put a stern machine next to a Jersey Jack. It looks really dated. It doesn't seem like it should be even close to the same price point."

Stern games look dated compared to Jersey Jack

"Stern Pinball is a ginormous, mass-produced product. They do not have the quality of the Japanese. There clearly isn't someone going over each of these games, making sure they're made exactly to the standard and the quality. That Stern expects of its products. It feels like things are being rushed out the door."

Stern Pinball lacks proper quality control and is rushing games out the door with defects that should be caught at the factory

"Consumers are no longer chomping at the bit to buy these overpriced games, that's the vibe I'm reading"

Stern Pinball's pricing strategy is killing consumer enthusiasm and the hobby

"I think Stern needs to change its strategy. It's like they still keep their major distributors in the dark about what's about to come out"

Stern's marketing strategy is outdated and ineffective

"Have you seen the quality of the cabinets that people are getting? Bubbling up, right? The decals are falling apart where the bolts go into the cabinet like it's bubbling around there"

Stern's quality control is failing at premium prices

"Stern has already made this game. So if you are wondering what it's gonna be, it's not gonna be some Marvel theme we have not seen before"

Stern's upcoming Marvel game will be based on a theme they've already made