They do all the time, unfortunately. There are numerous patches adding content and fixing problems. The star wars knights of the old republic 2 was sold unfinished. The community is currently finishing it now.

Stern in comparison to B/W sure seems like weak sauce...

I was giving Stern a chance to attempt to make a decent game but this is the same as all the rest of them.

This seems sort of silly to me. "Stern" doesn't make the games. The designers and programmers working for Stern do. Read who those people are. Over the last 10 years, we've had Pat Lawlor, Steve Ritchie, George Gomez, Dennis Nordman designing games for Stern. Where do you think they came from? Those guys all worked on the Bally/Williams games you Stern haters love. Software guys that make these rules some of you complain suck? Same guys that worked for Williams (Lyman Sheats, Doug Watson, etc).

On AC/DC and Transformers, Stern actually told the designers "make the game you want to make without concern for cost". Steve Ritchie in his interview stated that even at Williams he never had such freedom. The LE/Premium is the game the designer made. The Pro is the cost cut version Stern's cost cutting team modified. You cant go play the pro then judge the game as a turd.

Of my collection which includes titles like AFM, MM, STTNG, IJ, TOTAN, the games I play most are Ironman, Tron, Spiderman, and Transformers. I'm not even ordering WoZ. There's no well known designer working on that game. Nordman joined JJP after the design was done so his first game will be the next one, whatever that is. You cant just toss a bunch of cool toys on a playfield, intricately decorate them, use parts from a company gone 10 years ago everyone loved, and call it fun. At this point, we have no idea if WoZ will be fun. It might be, but who knows.

Jpop, now at least he has some real credibility behind him making games like TOTAN, CV, ToM. (I did preorder Zombie Attack).

Finally, for those of you constantly complaining about the costs of these new games, they're really no more expensive than those same WMS titles were new. If you take the $2500-$3000 new games cost in 1995 and apply inflation, you get a lot more than the $6500-7000 we are paying now for the premium games. Gas in 1995 was average $1.20 a gallon. Now it's around $4.00. Even if you average it over the last year it's still 3x what it was in 1995. And it's not just gas. Electricity, costs of living, etc all went up. Why do you think new pinballs should stay flat? Owning pinballs isn't something for the average person or the poor.

I find it ultra hard to believe that Transformers and ACDC were the best that Ritchie could have done without the there being cost involved.

It's not hard to believe. Steve Ritchie stated it outright himself in his last interview. Go listen to it, it's recorded all over on the internet and easy to find.

How different is STTNG and HS2 from the crap that has been released by Stern in the last 10 years.

I think Spiderman is better than HS2. I even like 24 better. (And I love HS2). I agree STTNG is better than Spiderman, but not because it's wide body. Mostly because the theme is so well implemented. Definitely not "crap".

Don't you think they would have made wide body game by now if they had the option?

Who knows? Williams made 43 DMD games. 6 were wide body. Clearly you don't need wide body to make a good game. Steve Ritchie made a crapload of games. Only 1 widebody. George Gomez made zero wide bodies. I don't think this is a decent criteria for deciding anything.

AC/DC LE had a larger but still not unrestricted budget. (No metal ramps, cheezy TNT box and cannon, etc.) TF was definitely on a budget! Why do you think there's not a single TRANSFORMING toy in any version of the game?

Again, go listen to Steve Ritchie's interview. You cannot dispute what the designer says outright through logic. These were his words, not mine.

Joe Balcer is a proven designer, and Nordman was there pretty early (January 2011), well before "the design was done" and had a lot of input.

Unfortunately, Joe has not produced one A-list title. I hate simpsons, arguably his best work. Even so, I am still tempted to pull the trigger on WoZ considering that I could probably sell it off for not much loss if I hate it. I am not much of a fan of the theme, however.

Edit: Ok I just preordered a WoZ LE. I doubt there'll be much loss on the game if it's not the greatest.

Because theme doesn't make the game. Theme is one if the lowest priorities on the list that makes a game fun or not. I own an Elvis, probably the worst theme in pinball. I mean who actually likes Elvis that's under 60 years old? Still, the game is fun.

I don't care about this. It's extremely easy to update the game software. And it's way better that they take feedback from the players and make updates than decide entirely on their own what's good and move on.

And really? Ironman and acdc are the same playfield? Wtf? I guess they do both have flippers... I'd say monster bash and attack from mars are more similar than im and acdc.

Let's apply your statements to afm vs monster bash:

Jets in the same spot - yes
Multiball slightly to the left of center - yes
Orbits flow - yes
Similar ramps - yes

I guess it's not just stern.

For the record, I do not think AFM and MB are the same basic game. My point was that the logic given is not applicable to stern only. And further, IM is awesome. If ACDC is anywhere near that fun then I CAN'T WAIT to get mine.

As for the othe thread on stern build quality, there are some of the most ridiculous statements in that thread also.

RGR, if you're ever in this area you gotta stop by for some pinball and discussion. Would be fun