Wow really surprised we might be looking at August for LEs

This is definitely going to push back their next release, which is normally after labor day. the LEs will basically barely be out this summer, then the premiums and more pros. Ghostbusters will need more time to sell through before they announce another game, they don't want to cut it off at the knees.

The next game won't hurt Ghostbusters much unless it's ridiculously well designed. The theme is going to be a major bring down.

If it has a color screen, that'll hurt other sales at least a bit regardless of the theme.

Aerosmith hurt GB sales? LOL No way.

I think Stern should send out some detailed information to give their distributor network. If you ask Stern directly, they tell you to ask your distributor for more information. They don't even notify their own distributors of the reason for delays. I think its a bit strange to let their customers sit here and speculate as to what the problem is at the factory, then to give some concrete info to their distributors that can then pass on to us.

They could easily say they have held back GB LE's for 'quality checking' or because of a parts shortage. It's very strange to see that the LE's are clearly about 3-4 weeks delayed, with no apparent reason or explanation as to why.

What information indicates this at all? We saw a bustling Stern factory with LE's on the line 3 weeks ago.

The were export machines, and those still haven't shipped.

Interesting. So there's a huge amount of built pins that Stern now has to decide on fixing or shipping. I just can't see Gary Stern redoing all of those machines over ghosted inserts. That's the only issue here, correct?

That's the assumption, but we don't really know.

What do you think Stern will do?

Even if Stern doesn't want to tell us the cause of the delay, I wish they would share when the EUs, the LEs, the Pros and the Premiums would each likely begin shipping.

If history has taught the anything, putting a date out there would only hurt them, not help them. If people were canceling orders, then maybe. But we all know that's not the case.

People always say this, but it's always wrong. They always have a portfolio of games in production at any given time. Every game has the possibility of being in production for 3 years. New titles don't "hurt" previous titles...previous titles don't hurt new titles. They're ALL for sale, they all have an audience.

Edit: Just looked on their website...they currently have TEN titles in production!!!! That's an amazing amount of choice for potential customers. There's something for everyone.

Also unlike every other company out there, Stern has multiple teams / designers / coders working on different titles simultaneously. If GB slips a month, it's not like Star Wars is going to slip too. Everyone else, Heighway, Dutch, JJP, Spooky have just one team focused on one game at a time.

Stern's line can run multiple titles, which allows them to do this.

If memory serves, that wasn't the case for Williams. They did one title at a time, trying to estimate sales. That's why they never wanted the next title to leak, which would hurt sales of the current. Someone with better knowledge of Williams should probably chime in here if my statement is all wrong

Anyway, that's why I agree with you that the next title won't hurt GB sales. It's a different market now with 10 titles in production. Truly amazing!

I wonder if stern is biting off more than they can chew....

Never thought I would receive my Hobbit before GBLE. With that said, would not mind waiting until August if the GBLE early concerns are ironed out. Would you rather have multiple threads griping about quality issues or wait 4 more weeks and have an awesome game out of the box?

I have other games I can play...it gets here when it gets here.

This made me chuckle. The wait for Hobbit was in years. The wait for GB LE is in months. By August, everyone will be flipping and loving their GB LE's.

I did a bit of reviewing to compare the wait for GBLE against some past Stern releases.

Since I've been fortunate to be the first LE to land for a couple of releases, here are the dates.

TWD. Game announced Sept 9, 2014. Pros start delivering a few weeks later. My LE was in my hands Nov 2.

GOT. Game announced Sept 4, 2015. My LE was in my hands Dec 2.

GB announced March 10, 2016. So we're already beyond the 3 months GOTLE took, and we're not even sure when the LEs might arrive.

Are you getting an GB LE? Anyone else feel Stern may have announced GB before they wanted to with all the leaks? Maybe not. One thing is for sure, with the movie in theater in 2 weeks, they definitely want to be shipping by then. Have to imagine Stern will want some nice LE's at the film events coming up.

I don't think Sony would want the machine at those events. I don't think they want everyone reminded about the vastly superior movies. Everything I have read about this new one, makes it appear to be a train wreck.

When I saw Ghostbusters (1984) in the theater 2 weeks ago, after the movie, they had a short preview for the new one. They actually showed the end scene where all 4 women cross the streams (the shot didn't have any visual effects in it). All I could think is "Really?? Really??? This is the best they can do is just ripoff the original at every turn?"

I remember when Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake came out, Roger Ebert commented in 10 years people will only remember the original and the remake will be forgotten.

That was exactly true, and only the "new" Apes remake, which is a whole different spin on the story, has taken hold. The Burton one is completely forgettable.

Same will be true of this new GB. If they wanted to remake it, it should have been reimagined, not just retelling the same story with different actors.

Reminding people of the original in any way only weakens the remake, so I don't expect many pins at theaters.

"Diminishing returns"

While stern can swap production... They still want distributors taking inventory. Buyers still have to make a choice, overloading that can hurt. A crowded lineup takes away the spotlight of a new product launch and building up demand for the new title.

Stern still wants game launches to go out gangbusters... Not just with a silent whimper.

They still need to manage their game launches and shaping demand.

They also can't have design teams too far detached from production schedules else they are forced to jump around more between projects when a team has to stop what they are doing to go back to a project that finally hit production ramp up and testing, etc. Which is also inefficient.

Yes stern wants a portfolio... That doesn't mean stern doesn't want product launches to be a special marketing event

A comment on stern possibility being quite about what's going on. I follow them on Facebook. I have noticed the last couple week. No new pictures or videos of the factory floor. Older recorded stuff and Jodi has been recycling older attention posts. Like show us your game room with the same 10 pictures in it.
Just my two cents.
And yes I would rather wait for issues to get resolved. I just hope they don't put the already built playfeilds with possibile issues into my premium. Fix it. Junk he bad parts and move on. Or even sell the "bad" playfeilds online for the pinball project children's charity. As bad rejects. I would pay $50-100 for a nice wall hanger.

Love all the quality issue rumors even though there is no proof. For all we know there is a part shortage.

People reporting the issues in their games is not proof?

Not at all people have been reporting quality issues for years and has never slowed production .

That is actually the complete opposite of proof it is just speculation.

The games have been delayed way before the ghosting insert threads showed up.

Do you understand what proof is? Requires physical evidence not just a bunch of whining and rumors. I hope it is to fix quality issues but nobody knows for sure except stern and they arn't saying anything.

With Williams, I heard they ceased pinball production to focus on their Vegas slots which they derived much higher margins.

Now that is true and there is proof.

Maybe they are watching the LEs to see if the clear is separating from the inserts since it doesn't happen right away. A test that takes time needs time to happen. I think we should all relax and stop speculating.

Stern could easily stop the speculating with a little information sharing to their distributors...

Exactly. It is pretty stupid to see someone ask for information on Stern's Facebook page, then get a snarky response saying "Ask your distributor for the latest information". You then ask the distributor and get "Stern hasn't provided us with any information, but to guess, I assume 2 weeks"

Their communication is severely lacking not only with their customer base, but within their own distributor network.

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Maybe if everyone speculated widely and spread really crazy, negative rumors, they would have to address them and explain what the problem is.

I heard that Stern is having trouble finding enough goats to sacrifice for the LEs. Rumor has it that they put a goat up on the playfield and kill it, and use the blood to protect against ghosting. I guess their goat supplier can't keep up. I hear they might bring goat production in house.

Ah ha.
I think you are on to something.

For all we know a escaped circus bear got into the factory and is terrorizing the workers and then destroyed all the completed games. We should ban all circuses and have a mass killing of every bear that might help.

Judging by your avitar as a clue your onto something. But it was a gorilla.

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Bad news on the goat supply. I just checked Google and the gestation period for goats is 150 days! I hope they find an acceptable substitute.

GB I know.
Aero who?

Was just told July shipping..

"Stay Tuned"

What year?

For a Premium or an LE?

EDIT: It would help if I considered the title of the thread! Sorry.

LE

Till the next 48hrs...

Certain Stern could do more... but nothing would appease this community fully. Look at JJP.. he tried.. until the news was more negative then positive and he couldn't face the barrage of followup scrutiny.

Every update of detail would be followed by 10 fold more questions for more detail or followup.

Correct. However, Stern shouldn't punt the question to distributor's knowing they have told the distributors nothing. In the end, silence has worked well for Stern in the past and all things considered, why change now?