No comment! Draw your own conclusions, friend!

My 2 cents - Podcasters being vague on culprits is an intentional misdirection to get some pots stirring... But hopefully they get an episode or 2 out of it!

I’m quite vocal about not liking the imitation podcast world... I’m of the mind that if you think you are so important You need to lead others with your hot take, and so influential that you actually have an affect on the market then you might have bigger issues.

With that said - remove your Anti-Stern bias for a moment and ponder this idea - when it comes to TMNT leaks, the art and license is owned & managed by Viacom/Nickelodeon. They were the ones set to announce & release it - they have pinball fans in their company AND way more pull in Facebook land than Stern - so I think it’s more plausible that maybe they might have a department and legal army to defend and protect their brand... Maybe?

I can assure you in my 5 years of working with Stern Pinball - No one at Stern sits around and shakes their fist at the internet or a podcast.... and Facebook ‘blocks‘ are coming from the social media manager - Not Gary or Zach...

But again I admittedly have a bias against Podcasts and a pro bias towards Stern thanks to my experiences working with them...The amount of work & effort that goes into making these games by every team member doesn’t allow for much outside of constant work...

So to answer the question of this thread I will ask another: “who benefits most from the premise?”

Popular opinion has given us some pretty shitty movies, books, and music. Most of the great stuff goes unnoticed by the masses. This site is also notorious for being wrong about almost every game, and the opinion out of the gate is usually much different than the opinion a couple years later. I've been guilty of it myself.

If you are trying to expand pinball beyond "this eclectic community" - what's the difference?
The casual non-hobbyist buyer in never going to see/read the stuff they are trying to shut down anyways

It's just stupid - STERN improve your product and address the quality/assembly complaints and most of the negativity will go away - the rest will just be ignored noise

And leaks happen, it's just the nature of the beast.
Look at all the Ford Bronco leaks

Looks like you proved me right.
Jared is the social media manager and the copyright owner is Viacom/Nickelodeon.

But thanks for the downvote...

JodyG had posted this. I am not on Facebook and could really care less.

So in the world of licensing, you try to keep licensors happy so you continue to have a good relationship... the premise presented is that Stern is mean and petty And that’s not the case here regardless of who brings the message... it’s not hard to comprehend this concept if you remove your bias against a company...

I am not trying to be a jerk just putting this all together after hearing about Kaneda and Cary. I get it. I like Stern games. Bought 6 so far in last few years. Quality has been concerning though. They gave me a new populated playfield on an AC/DC vault, but nowadays it appears all I would get is an unpopulated one. Man that would be a lot of work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

IMO, those mega-companies who own the rights to this recent release couldn't have given a rat's ass about the leaked photos.

This was a proactive move by the company in question. I'm getting the impression it was personal and most likely motivated by emotion.

IMO, this company should learn to chill out and let the Pinball Community do whatever it likes -- good or bad.

Publicity. Bullshit. Podcasters spewing their nonsense. It all makes this tiny Pinball World go round and keeps us interested. There are usually 6 or fewer "professional" releases a year, total, in the Pinball world...that sell in any kind of realistic numbers (and by numbers, we're talking a few thousand units TOPS and usually a few hundred).

This isn't the video game industry, where releases commonly sell in the millions.

Many of us need something - some noise - some sound and fury - to keep us interested.

As I stated in another post, no such thing as bad publicity.

People like validation- I get it. If you suspect something you try to find evidence to validate it. A dangerous game on a forum...

Not to distract the issue - but Kaneda leaked Tmnt pics and claimed he’d do it for any Game. Then A week later has pics of competing companies game and did not leak ‘out of respect’... Carey posts reaction that he hates TMNT and a week later changes his mind... just 2 recent examples of how trust worthy these people are to their ‘audience’ minute-by-minute...

...my point here is that to give the benefit of the doubt to podcast entertainers focused on ‘clicks/listens/subscribers/ego’ but to say that company X focused on ‘making products/selling products you claim to love/employing hundreds’ is somehow different is a bizarre game to play... in the end it’s about support.

I’ll step away and stay out of it moving forward. I’ll just reiterate that my experience and bias leads me to a different perspective that I gladly share.

Umm.....now days most people dont even get that. Ask me how i know.......

I don't think Cary ever said he hates TMNT. He said it looked amazing and fun and would wait to order one until he played it. Then he played it and bought one.

I'm not arguing against your point but just stating I think his overall reaction to TMNT has been very positive.

What’s your story? Let me guess not even an unpopulated playfield?

I love Stern games but this company needs a shakeup in management and a new vision. They need to focus their energy toward their shitty quality and customer relations instead of worrying about what a YouTuber or a podcaster says about them. Very childish to say the least.

Two bad playfields.......crickets.

Your unbiased perspective is so refreshing.

Right there you claimed Stern toppers are a scam and Stern rips off their customers. Sounds malicious to me. Obviously you have some pretty strong opinions on Stern that go beyond one topper.

Leaks can be extremely damaging. It doesn't matter what you think is stupid or not. Let's say someone leaks Sterns next game early. The game is still in development and fans get upset at what they see. The game changes during development but doesn't matter, many have already written the game off and bought a competitor's game. Competitors can also use leak information for their advantage. If JJP knew exactly when Stern was going to announce their next game, they could announce their game before to steal thunder.

Or release a teaser video with no actual tease in it!

Just to clarify. My first thoughts of the game were from the leaked images. Which weren't in hatred form, but a little let down. I state and hoped it was due to poor quality pictures. THE NEXT DAY the game is fully revealed with HD images and video - it looks great and I posted a video THAT DAY with even the thumbnail stating "I WAS WRONG". I even apologized for doubting your art. My thoughts as of right now are still mostly positive for TMNT.

If someone can take anything away from leaked images - it would be to wait for HD ones to get a better idea on what the game looks like.

You shouldn't have to explain yourself Cary...especially to the most biased person in this thread. Don't filter your thoughts and opinions for anyone. Keep doing what you're doing.

Advanced apologies if this has already been addressed.

Why can't Stern simply watermark the reveal videos that they send to distributors? That way, they'll immediately know who is leaking the footage.

Love Stranger things!!!! Its such a fun pin.

Can we also suggest they ditch the "lifestyle brand" bullshit while they're at it?

100 percent agree

When a movie comes out it is finished. For example I love DP now but when it came out I hated it because the rules were awful.

But this is literally this issue we are talking about. Stern doesn't want leaks of poor quality images because it could hurt their launch. And here we have the guy in question saying he posted a reaction to these poor quality images and he was disappointed. Now, that shouldn't matter because someone paying thousands of dollars shouldn't give a shit what someone on the internet thinks of a leaked image. But apparently some people actually do. That's the clear implication here, there are people in this community who think these immediate responses and constant discussion are very important. But if it is responses and discussion on things that aren't complete and quality, it is likely to bring negative reactions just based on that quality. And apparently there are sheep among us who care too much about that stuff.

So, this is exactly why Stern would want to shut down leaks. One of the first reaction videos to their new launch is negative, even though they haven't actually launched yet. Why in the world would you guys think this is good for anybody?

Uh, why are people at this company trying to thwart the discussion of leaks, when they should be trying to thwart the leaks themselves? Seems kinda simple. Get your house in order. Rather than blaming others for noticing it is in disarray.

What about it?

That’s a bullshit rumor you made up and are spreading. Just start a podcast or YouTube pinball hot take channel. You are good at it, I can tell.

I was going to write my own response but this sums up my thoughts rather nicely.

I don't know anything- Mad season.

You mean when Stern finally releases proper code years after the game is released? It is one reason I'm not enthused about buying a new Stern pin, they are notorious for shipping with half-assed code.

It seems like a lot of the comments here are based on the idea that all Stern is doing is attacking the people posting the leaked images. As if they are totally ignoring where the leaks are coming from. Do you really think they haven't thought of that and aren't working to stop it?

I don't know what their process is so I can't speak to how the leaks are happening. I have to assume most of the randos on these forums also don't actually know. But there is pretty much no chance Stern thinks that just trying to stop people from posting is going to stop the issues. That said, taking actions to punish those who do post leaks is a valid part of a greater plan. All this talk is doing one thing, it is making all of us aware that if you post leaked images of Stern's stuff, you might get banned from Facebook.

No truer words have been spoken. All I heard is how much of a turd Wonka was and when I finally got to play it at Pincinnati last year I friggin loved it. I played an easy 15-20 games and would have played more but the wait kept getting longer so I moved on.

LOL there are a whole 88 Pinsiders participating in this thread many taking Sterns side they must be shaking in there boots

who_designed-tech_support_3_laughing_man (resized).jpg

Nobody cares we are discussing things amongst ourselves in the great community. They don’t read these threads anyway.

No.

GB leaked pics were of the early whitewood as well as mockups of ZY cab art package.
Both MONTHS before release.

What we have now is leaked stuff 2 days before official launch, when stuff has to be spread through retailers & others.

I don't think it should take 5 years, but apparently it is. Again, I don't know what their process is for providing info to the distributors. I don't know what steps they have taken in the past. I don't know what steps they are taking now. I don't know when they decided they needed to make more aggressive moves. I am not privy to any of that information. All I am saying is there is a lot of attacking Stern for what people perceive they are doing, without much indication that people really know what is happening.

Ultimately it comes down to this: Yes, Stern needs to get control of the leaks both internally and from distributors. But that doesn't change that fact that people are sharing leaked images Stern doesn't want shared. There is no need to share these images. It only hurts Stern's business. And so Stern (allegedly, we don't know for sure) is taking steps to stop people from doing that. And I have no problem with them doing that. Just don't share leaked images.

If they wanted to stop distributor leaks, they could have the meeting with them and then immediately afterward do their public reveal. Distributors will have fresh info and can start taking orders right away. Why do the distributors need days of advanced notice on what the title is and what it looks like?