Quoted from Roostking:
What motivation does Stern have? Until people stop buying the latest and greatest, expect more of the same.
First let me start that I agree with you 100%. If it was possible to agree with you even more than I would.
Now, here is the however...
However, lets be honest if its a hot theme if you do not buy right away you run the risk of not getting the pin that you want. I almost had to scramble to get an LE from a different distributor because I called him a week before the initial announcement to get my spot. Yeah... Almost didn't get one and it wasn't officially announced yet. I called after the images leaked, because I figured that was a safe time to act. Now, I could have gotten one no doubt from a different distro, but I want to buy from the people locally and only 60 miles away from me. I feel you get better service.
With my monster bash le. I waited the Monday after the expo it debuted in to try to get my LE. Man, that was a pain in the butt to find one. So, some pins get gobbled up fast and you cannot wait.
I also don't know how liquid Stern is. If a pin of theirs doesn't sell. They do stand the chance at going under. A lot of businesses like this are actually more hand to mouth than you might think. Lou Schiemer who ran Filmation, was always one project away from shuttering the doors. And they were one of the most successful animation studios in America for three decades(This isn't about quality of animation its about projects and money).
If we all stopped by from Stern. Then I think it would hurt their bottom line and I don't think we would get our updates. I think if anything it would lead to greater cost cutting measures, and LESS CODE!!!
Yes, they could always say... You know what... Games don't have to be deep. We'll ship them, and just make shallow games with one wizard mode. Not saying they would. But, I think we are a bit spoiled when some people complain about games like Addams Family and Monster Bash being shallow... Sure, they are... But, they're so much fun to shoot. You don't need an insanely deep game to be fun, and I actually don't like insanely deep games. I like a moderate amount of depth, to me Star Wars is too deep. I just shut my mind off and flip. That's the only way I can enjoy that game.
And to code a game deeply you need a team. Not just one person, but his crew of people who code it. It needs animations, and sounds and that all takes time and money.
So while I do think a game should ship as close to 1.0 code as possible... I think its a joke that Elvira was .83 and that was really bad .84 is sooo much better(but, really could have shipped with a bit more polish than even .84). I think if we stopped buying it would in fact have an adverse reaction on stern.
And lastly...
Most video games don't even ship with complete code. Most have day 1 patches. And most then are tweaked for the next few months.
Pinball has more in common with video games today, then the old em's of yesteryear.
So I sadly don't think you can put the toothpaste back into the tube.
Sadly I think this is just the new normal. But, lets think of it this way. Our support and continued support will lead to the machines getting better. Yes, it was stupid how long Ghostbusters took to get updated. But, it happened and people love the new update. Doesn't mean we shouldn't get on Stern and tell them we want updates, and I think that does get some attention. But, they could always scale back their ideals of what should be coded into a machine and say every game has ruleset like space shuttle(which I like the rules to... just not of for a modern game).