Jumping out of windows video mode.

I will honestly probably never listen to it, so thanks for letting me know. I'll ignore the "kinda" part.

And there's the reason why I'll probably never listen. I think Jared was a smart hire, and he's doing a great job. Jody and I talk sometimes, I think he's a sharp guy. But they're doing PR, it's what they do. And I just don't have much interest in listening to it.

I give Stern a ton of credit. No joke, they're the reason pinball is still alive, and they deserve accolades. I think there's also a lot to be rightly critical of, they're not perfect. What I see is that they're capable of listening, and even if they don't do things the way we'd always like, because at the end of the day they're ultimately answering to a spreadsheet, they've kept their business going through some rough times. It's easy to be an armchair critic. And they're genuinely passionate about pinball, every one of them.

I'm definitely more respectful of the challenges they face all the time now that I'm working on Alien and dealing with a license. My day job is working with huge brands all the time, but this is a unique thing, as I'm learning. I think I've fairly changed how I speak on things related to that now. It wouldn't be fair to ask them to adapt and listen and change if I couldn't do the same.

Still, a PR podcast sounds pretty dull, so all that said, pass.

Um is like "like". I hate it when people like use the word like in every sentence. It's like they forgot to like use the English language. And they like...always pause after saying...like.

Release date: 2019

I enjoyed it. I completely avoided the interview with barenaked ladies though. Not a fan of their music, nor do I have any interest in their relationship with pinball.

I swore I'd never buy a NIB game and wound up buying two new Sterns less than 6 months. They make great games and crank them out at an amazing pace. That shouldn't mean you can't talk about the problems.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought Williams updates were to fix bugs not add missing features or completely overhaul game rules. Did Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness or Twilight Zone actually ship with incomplete rules?

I totally agree. But stern has said that they are not going to ship games with complete code, so the whining about that all the time gets old to me. Just know that going in it will take 6 months to a year to have complete code, and make your decision. I don't thinks it's that difficult.

Yea, WWE was a hard pass for me, but I passed after going through what I went through with Xmen (which has great rules now, but took two years) and having two then incomplete games in my lineup (ST and TWD).

That interview with Ed Robertson was really good. IMHO, that may have been Nate's best episode to date on Coast 2 Coast Pinball.

I wish Nate would have asked them what they thought of Predator and Jpop. Put them on the spot rather than let them dance around with their egos and BS "facts". Would have been great to see what Jody had to say about his involvement with trying to take down these other botique pinball companies that supposedly mean nothing to his business model...

I'll listen to it this morning then. Don't want to miss out.

the said no one mentioned this title before as the next stern.

So what will it be?

MM 2
Harry potter

well we can call out 100+ names

Yeah, I'm not really a BNL fan either, but Ed's interest in the hobby sure does come through loud and clear in that interview.

Definitely. Only 15 mins in and he has only talked about his music career for like 30 seconds. Good start.

The point when he started talking about his pinball song and how he wrote his lyrics about how it is a love song with pinball references, I stopped listening haha. But all the pinball stories he had were cool. I also think it is cool that he has a group of buddies that just swap games all the time. that is a cool idea.

I'm not surprised at all that there will be at least 2 more titles. They have a huge factory now that needs more games to pay for. At Texas Trudeau said he has another game coming towards the end of the year. So it looks like Trudeau-WWE, WNBJM, MMr to keep things busy, KISS-Borg, GOT-Ritchie, and who the heck knows what title they stuck Trudeau with to finish out the year. Still could see a small vault run sprinkled in or they could do another MET premium instead. Definitely a busy year for stern. I feel pretty certain the unknown title is the one Trudeau is working on.

The unguessed pinball machine will be Ant-Man, which will be a re-theme of Shrek/Family Guy, where you get quadruple scoring in the mini-pinball machine because you are ant-sized. :p

Poor Trudeau been getting stuck with the dud titles since coming to Stern. He deserves a breakout title to boost his spirit and reputation at Stern.

Oh that was the Barenaked Ladies one too? Someone told me I got a shoutout on that too. He has my Metallica hammer I guess. I can now narrow down his account to 29 people!

Trudeau said that his next game will actually be a licensed title that he wants to make.

See this video at the 53:30 mark:

I'm waiting on the super yellow LE version of Minions.

Banana LE...come on..

Hunger games is coming from stern .

99.9% of games sold come from Stern? So every 100 games sold by anyone else means Stern has sold almost 10,000. Thats really impressive that they have been selling tables in that kind of numbers. Had no idea that production numbers were that high.

I think it's even more impressive than that:

.999x = 10,000 (x is total # of sales from all manufacturers, 10,000 is Stern's sales).

x = 10,010

So for every 10 games sold by competitors, Stern has sold 10,000.

That'd sell in my house.

I'm pretty sure that part was unsubstantiated hyperbole. ;P

I'm sure it was but it just shows the ego that flows at Stern. Frankly the pod just sounded like a Stern commercial, which I give them credit for, but I was hoping that the host and gave a little push back on some of the stuff they were saying.

You should have them on your show Taylor. Do some of that pushing back.

I don't know if I'm insider enough.

Not my job to critique interviewing styles, but FWIW, I started listening about a week and a half ago, been going through the old ones and working my way up... couldn't wait to listen to Ed and the Stern ones, so I queued them up back to back yesterday after listening to about 4 old episodes... I find the podcast very listenable, even in these interview formats. Let's be honest here, these guys are doing him and us a favor by being interviewed. They're not OJ Simpson and this isn't investigative reporting, it's just a chat. It's not really his place or his job to go all bulldog on people, and doing so would likely harm the chance of people like Jody returning in the future.

I listened to it because I know Jared...unfortunately, I heard a lot more of Jody, which is okay, but then you get the whole "company line" thing.

Oh well, it's one show out of what...160+....I'm sure there's plenty more interesting to listen to and those that don't want to hear it can skip it or listen to an old one.

I enjoyed this episode. Wasn't really expecting any breaking news.

Listening to Jody reel Jared in when he started going down potentially uncomfortable paths was highly entertaining. I thought it was a fun dynamic.

Looking forward to more interviews with Stern employees.

Yes it was!

I liked the interview and appreciated it.

I am a podcast junkie, and Nate consistently delivers one of the most solid pods of all that I listen to. He isn't the hard hitting question guy. He's Nate. Ball busting isn't his style (except for the deserved raking of Kevin and Pop over the coals).

Those would be in my gameroom as soon as I could afford it.

Since they said no one guessed the next pin. I think it's spongebob and there'll probably be a pink "patrick edition" LE.

C2C is one of my favorite podcasts period. Nate does an incredible job.

I think the interview with Ed might have been my favorite show of all the episodes. Ed is hilarious, down to earth, and a huge pinball fan. I haven't listened to BNL in a while, but I got their new album and I think it's a killer record. I thought it was really cool to hear them talk pinball and music, which are two of my biggest passions as well.

I really liked the Stern interviews. Of course they have to be guarded in what they can and can't say, but having them on is still insightful and interesting. If Nate grilled everybody it would be hard to get people to come on and we would miss out on some cool stuff. It's only pinball.

The vibe you give off on this forum is pretty poor. You invited Nate to a tournament and he's attending it / advertising it and you are criticizing him in this open forum for something so petty. If you think you can do a better job go ahead and email Jody your questions and post the replies on this forum. Better yet, go ahead and start your own podcast and put in the work/time nate has to gain trust with insiders to get them on your show and ask them whatever you want. I'm sure they'd come running back to be interviewed by you again. I'd love to meet you in person and hope one day so my view of your would change. On this forum, you use bad tact and horrible form.

I thought is was a really good podcast. Excited to see what stern does next.

A Minions pin would be a no brainer for my family. Even more so than Muppets, my son loves the minions!!!!

I would never expect Nate to ask those questions nor do I think he would. Maybe you lack in reading comprehension or just completely missed the opening to what you quoted... "I WISH". In other words I think it would have been hilarious to see Jared and Jody squirm a little. Granted, that is not what Nate does and his podcast is great and fun listening. I do not think I have ever heard him take the hardline or grill anyone which is what makes his podcast so much fun! I still would have enjoyed hearing the reaction, but it would have been fluff and they would have side stepped the question. I was not criticizing Nate at all. I was criticizing the fluff talking points of those being interviewed.

Stern would have also shut down any future podcasts in short order if there were any tough questions. My desire to even have them put on the spot was due to some of the cringe worthy BS talking points that Jody was spewing and his condescending tone about all other manufacturers. We all know the reality that at this point both JJP and Spooky have taken dollars out of Sterns pocket and the better and more honest talking point that Jody should learn to tout is that they are thankful for the new competition in the industry and are happy to step up their game with more games per year, better and quicker code updates, more communication with the collectors, etc... Instead of talking about the positive he always takes the low road and wants to slap everyone else in the face. At the same time many of us know that he in particular is very concerned with other manufacturers and likes to take actions against them whenever possible.

From what Jared has told me and others, they were both involved with the actions to make things difficult for a few other pinball manufacturers in the past year. As a Stern employee he surely is not going to talk about that anymore but many here can confirm the claims.

pretty much my sentiments.

What "actions" are you talking about?

It is apperntly ban worthy if I talk in detail publicly about them. Feel free to PM if you want to discuss.

Leaning on suppliers to kneecap competitors is pretty much standard business practice these days.

I think I'm the only person on this forum that isn't a shit sucking lawer (which I say with peace and love, lol), but wouldn't that be a violation of antitrust laws? I'd expect Stern could get in major trouble if that allegation was true and could be proven.

I'm sure any supplier that Stern uses is free to sell to whomever they choose, they just might not want to count on a lot of return business from Stern in the future. Nothing illegal about them taking their business elsewhere after any current contracts expire.

One of the funnier lines I've read on Pinside in a while.

Change "suppliers" to "distributors". B/W did this to Capcom and Alvin G. back in the day.