Stern can still complete with focusing on tournament-style games. It doesn't have to be expensive or packed to be fun.

However, put any Stern next to POTC2 on location and charge the same and I'm betting POTC2 takes the Lions share of coin drop.

JJP just dropped The Matrix and now all other action movies look dated in comparison.

I second this. The good news is feedback shows there is interest in Stern's products. I own SM, IMVE, Shrek, POTC, XMLE, Tron, TSPP. I'm obviously interested in their products.

Hopefully they use this as an opportunity to see things from a different perspective.

I was interested in the Star Wars LE when I heard about it. It was a grail theme for me. I even had $1000 down payment BEFORE the announcement. When it was actually announced I could not have been more disappointed. I backed out of my purchase. I thought about premium or pro but eventually decided to not get it. It was a combination of lackluster art, bare play field, and poor theme integration. It is basically a racing theme game (The Getaway: High Speed III perhaps) with a Star Wars decal on it.

Let me emphasize, this was a grail theme.

Also, my friend had a Ghostbusters LE that was a grail purchase for him. He sold it due to questionable longterm reliability and lack of code support.

I have LEs but my faith that Stern will consistently deliver an excellent product is gone. Unless Stern takes measures to reassure the customer of quality, they will continue to lose potential sales to other manufacturers.

Admittedly, there is currently no other company that is a high-volume manufacturer that competes with Stern for sales volume right now. So, right now we are stuck with the TINA (there is no alternative) situation. Stern knows this which is why they can continue to practice the way they do. Hopefully there will be a company that will be able to be the high-volume manufacturer alternative in the future. This always drives up innovation and quality. Stern doesn't really feel threatened right now.

To be clear, I want Stern to be great. I want their games to last for years and have great code.

For me, however, my next purchase are:

Twilight Zone
Attack from Mars Remake LE
Dialed In

No current plans for Stern.

My friend has a SWLE and he loves it. I have played multiple games on it. It just didn't feel like a Star Wars game for me. It feels more like a racing game. That works fine for others, just not my thing.

I have a POTC that I still enjoy playing. It is currently my wife's favorite game. I also have a Black Rose. I don't need three pirate themed games in my collection right now. I am also not a huge Pirates of the Caribbean movie fan.

I'm curious to see what Pat Lawler does without cost-cutting hand cuffs.

I think Iron Maiden looks promising.

Stern has made some changes since Expo which is promising. It is still a work in progress. I though the code situation was horrible. They hired now programmers. I thought their LE versions became a joke. Iron Maiden LE sounds promising from the feature matrix. They hired Brian Eddy. They hired Keith Elwin. They hired Josh Sharpe.

I'm still in the wait and see category but this is the first game in a while that I've been excited to play.