Stern Pinball

"The fact that we now have to hack up these expensive Stern games to do the work that they should have done at the factory, I don't know why that excites anybody. I really don't. And I think Stern's starting to rely on the mod community, which is why they've stopped sending out season to CIS letters and stuff. They'd rather you do the work because they'll make money off of your work."

Aftermarket mods let Stern off the hook for incomplete designs

"Part of me feels like Stern is doing this on purpose. I think they want to control the supply of LE's and trickle them out to maintain their value a little bit better. I don't think they want them all to hit it once."

Stern deliberately controlling LE supply to maintain value

"All of these Stern machines are expensive and they weigh a hundred pounds less than Jersey Jack machines. They need to just put some dumbbells inside those games to make them feel as solid"

Stern Pinball games are overpriced and feel less solid than Jersey Jack games

"How ridiculous is it that Stern Pinball cannot release a topper for a brand new game within a single year? Like it takes them 365 days after the game is developed to get a topper out into the world?"

Stern Pinball's topper development process is unacceptably slow and overpriced

"you look at the stern machines next to an Elton John and I mean this when I say it, they look like tinker toys. They look like cheap, cheap tinker toys next to Elton John."

Elton John makes Stern machines look cheap

"pros are not for hoes. Pros are for smart people... LE, LE now stands for the loser edition, because you're losing the most money out of everybody"

Stern pros are now the smartest financial buy while LEs have become 'loser editions'

"Stern makes the best Honda Civics on the planet. And every once in a while, they make a great version of a Honda Civic. But there's no way they can charge these prices consistently... You just stand over them and you feel them and you flip them. And even though the shots are there, they just feel cheap."

Stern machines are overpriced Honda Civics not worth $13,000

"the company that still executes the best and executes the most efficiently and actually makes new pinball machines every few months is no other than Stern Pinball. Everybody else is really chasing after Stern."

Stern Pinball executes better than all other manufacturers

"A Stern LE is twice the price of a Stern Pro. Twice the price. And what's different in the game? In upper playfield, it has the same exact software, the same lighting system. What are you really spending twice as much money on?"

Stern LEs are twice the price of Pros for minimal actual differences

"Has Stern pinball and Jersey Jack absolutely destroyed the collectability of pinball? Yes. Buying an LE is no longer a smart decision."

Stern Pinball and Jersey Jack have destroyed pinball collectability

"If I'm buying into a pinball brand and a pinball company, I feel way better about supporting Stern and buying a Stern because I know they're not gonna leave me with an unfinished product."

Stern Pinball is more reliable than Jersey Jack because they finish their games and don't abandon products

"The fact that he deleted those comments makes me believe Stern is about to pull some fast ones. And they don't want to be on the record for any such statement."

George Gomez deleting LE policy comments means Stern will screw collectors

"And now I'm worried Stern's going to mail out those cheap paper 3D glasses when you just dropped over $10,000 on a pinball machine. Come on, Stern. You always find a way to do the cheap way out."

Stern cheapens products by providing low-quality 3D glasses instead of premium branded ones for expensive Limited Edition games

"I agree with this new approach. I think this is the right way to go. I didn't like what they did with Jurassic Park 30th and screwing over the original LE owners"

Stern's new LE policy clarification is the right decision and addresses community complaints

"when I look at this game, I do feel like Stern's mechanical engineering department isn't really doing anything magical in this game. Like nothing is something we really haven't seen before"

Stern's mechanical engineering department isn't doing anything magical in Jaws - nothing we haven't seen before

"We've seen every single Stern LE that's been 13 K slide down to 10 K within a year. So that's a $3,000 loss in one year"

Recent Stern LEs are consistently losing $3000 in value within a year

"Stern lighting is in the stone age. Like they're lighting in their game is in bear on all their games. Like it's embarrassing"

Stern's lighting is embarrassingly bad compared to other manufacturers

"What inside of Jaws pinball by Stern is state of the art technology? I would really love for them to explain to us where the state of the art technology is."

Stern's claims about 'state-of-the-art technology' in Jaws are questionable

"So even though I would love to celebrate this news, I still don't trust Stern Pinball is not going to pull a fast one on us. They've had such a history of pulling a fast one on the Pinball community."

Decision to no longer remake limited editions may still have loopholes

"For this much money, this is not working for me. It's not working for a lot of you. We all know it. For this much money, this is not the effort in these games"

Stern Pinball is charging too much money while cutting corners on mechanical features and assets

"The destruction of the LE buyer base and the destruction of that loyalty is really the biggest issue I see in Pinball because that's where all the FOMO is"

Stern has destroyed trust with LE buyers by releasing better versions later

"it looks like a Stern, it looks like Stern where they just kind of go far enough on everything but nothing really blows you away and that's my thing"

Stern consistently goes 'far enough' on everything but nothing blows you away

"After watching it, I was kind of worried about Stern. I'm like, oh my gosh, at these prices, how is Stern Pinball going to fill that factory every single week?"

Stern is vulnerable due to massive new factory and high prices

"I think Stern's year is going to be killer. And I think the year is going to be defined by Keith Elwin Jaws at the beginning of the year and Dutch pinballs back to the future at the end of the year"

Stern Pinball will have a killer year starting with Keith Elwin's Jaws

"Stern Pinball dropped Jurassic Park 30th and now Vyra Blood Kiss Editions back to back, basically destroying the collector goodwill that they've built up after all these years... now they've set a precedence where they are willing to cannibalize their own cornerstone games."

Stern destroyed collector goodwill by dropping anniversary editions back-to-back, cannibalizing their own games

"I think you're going to see downloadable content happening in Pinball. I think that's Stern's ultimate plan. Get everybody signed up, get everybody connected, and now you're going to start buying a game. You're not even going to get the full game when you spend $13,000 on it."

Stern will implement downloadable content with Spike 3 system

"The stuff coming off the line in the new factory is not as good as the stuff that was coming out of the old factory. So it just begs the question, like is Stern's quality control, is it where it needs to be? Are they rushing these games out? At these prices, they can't rush these games out."

Stern's quality control has declined since new factory

"You have to understand what Stern does. They operate like the mafia. They control the price of their products. Even after you buy it, they control the product."

Stern Pinball operates like the mafia, controlling prices even after customers buy games through MAP pricing

"So you're telling me Stern pinball goes on a witch hunt and then put stuff in writing that they never should have put in writing because they want to stop a guy who bought a game who's not even a dealer for less than he paid for it."

Stern going after someone for selling a game $200 below MAP shows they're terrified of true market values

"Where are the themes like Back to the Future? Where's Ghostbusters? Where's Die Hard? Where are the themes that are more Take My Money Now?"

Stern should focus on bigger nostalgic themes instead of current lineup

"Stern and Jersey Jack are fighting a war in which they're both going to lose this battle"

Stern and Jersey Jack are fighting a destructive pricing war

"I was also told that the pro cabinet actually looks the best. This is something Stern's been doing recently. They've sort of been putting really nice artwork on the pro packages because they wanna sell as many of those as possible."

Stern puts nicer artwork on pro packages to sell more of them

"If you listen, Stern marketing team, these prices are already too high. If you try to get more blood from this stone, people are going to stop buying your games for good."

Stern should not raise prices on Jaws despite the game's features - market can't handle it

"I think Stern does a much better job with their coding than Jersey Jack pinball. They don't get credit for it. And I think some Jersey Jack fanboys don't give Stern credit for this, but I much prefer a Stern code over a Jersey Jack code."

Stern has better coding than Jersey Jack and doesn't get enough credit

"if Stern and made pulp fiction, they would have charged you 13,000 for the LE... And then they would have charged you another for this topper. They would have charged you $2,000 for this topper. And so you would have been spending on pulp fiction if Stern pinball made it $15,000."

Stern would have charged $15,000 for Pulp Fiction vs CGC's $9,750

"it is probably one of the greatest innovations that has hit pinball in the last 1,000 years. Because it gives everybody something to strive for. It connects the community in a really great way."

Stern Insider Connected is one of the greatest innovations in pinball in the last 1,000 years

"I want to use this as an example of why I think Stern Pinball might be in big trouble. And the biggest threat to Stern Pinball is Stern Pinball itself."

Stern Pinball is in big trouble and their biggest threat is themselves

"How is it that this topper four years ago was $499? And just four years later, the same topper made in China with the same materials and the same parts... How did this topper go up in price? 200% over the last four years."

Black Knight topper price increase of 200% is insulting and shows Stern's greed

"As much as I still feel we're getting ripped off by Stern Pinball, I really do. I still think a stern bomb is like 4,500 bucks. And we're literally spending $13,000 on something that costs them 3,500. But at least they go the distance with their games."

Still thinks Stern machines are overpriced despite their good software support

"I really do think when we see stuff like this, I think it telegraphs that stern pinball has lost the narrative a little bit. It almost feels like they don't even understand the category they're in. You know what I'm saying? Like why even put this into the code? Like who is this going to entice to buy a new game?"

Stern's advertisement in code updates is silly and shows they've lost the narrative

"Stern Pinball updating 22 freaking games at once. Holy holiday, Stern Pinball. What a move by this company. And some of these games got real significant code updates, which is awesome."

Stern updating 22 games at once is awesome and shows they're trying to make games as good as possible

"I think Jersey Jack and Stern Pinball are the two companies that are inside a big Death Star that looks like two big pinballs, and they just fired their tractor beam at Alderaan and blew up everybody on Alderaan who was their LE collectors."

Stern and Jersey Jack are like the Death Star and have destroyed their own LE/collector markets through greed

"Stern Pinball never should have raised the prices of LE machines over the $10,500 mark that they had for Godzilla LE. It was the perfect price for the LE"

Stern should never have raised LE prices above $10,500 mark from Godzilla - current $13,000 pricing is unsustainable

"I actually think Stern Pinball is in a little bit of trouble people. I hear they have games piling up in their factory and Stern Pinball is overpriced and it's not going to work."

Stern Pinball is in trouble due to overpricing and games piling up in factory

"put Elton John next to a game like Rush, it's just something about the way they look. Like one looks like a Honda Civic and one looks like a Mercedes Benz."

Jersey Jack machines look much nicer than Stern machines

"A Stern LE should be $10,000. It should not be any more than that."

Stern LE should be $10,000 maximum, not $13,000

"I think Stern Pinball is about to do something that is absolutely moronic, and I think Stern Pinball is right now in a weird place. Like I think Seth Davis over there, I think he wants to really generate as much revenue as he can in a short term period of time."

Stern is planning to destroy limited edition value by making anniversary editions

"I also think Stern is burning its consumer base. I think people are watching Stern remake all these games. All that's going to do is make people hesitant to jump back in to Stern pinball."

Stern is burning its consumer base with remakes

"Stern Pinball, the world's number one pinball maker in the world will have sold more Elvira, Black and White editions without even attending the show."

Stern doesn't need to attend shows to sell games - they'll sell more Elvira without being at Expo than other companies with their presence

"stern is tanking the price on everybody's LE's now not just the old people but yours will also tank in value because there's just so many"

Stern is destroying the LE market and will collapse pinball values