Seriously? Seems to be generating nothing but positive hype here on Pinside. I'd bet it will sell well.

kinda silly to say that. regardless which game ends up being better, deadpool even as a flop is bound to sell more than ACNC based on the sheer numbers Stern sells versus Spooky. A lot of people dont think ghostbusters is a good game but its undoubtedly sold more units than every spooky game combined.

you could have justifiably chosen blake carrington,
as stern continues to build a ...

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ACNC will sell every unit Spooky produces. It will be a hit.

Deadpool is going to sell a minimum of 2,000 units in 2018 alone. It will be a hit.

Neither ACNC or Deadpool are going to take many sells away from the other - just my personal opinion.

Here's my take... Either Stern holds onto the license and lets it expire (wasting money), or they do something with the license but it's not implemented well (or as well as charlie would do).. Once they're done making that title, the license becomes available again. Stern made a pirates pinball, so did JJP (and made it better). There's nothing saying Spooky can't just wait it out and still make one.

Jody has shown his true colors, as he always does. Ask just about any pinball collector in chicago that regularly goes to Stern pinball events (release parties, expo, etc.). I bet every single one of them has at least one negative story about Jody being an ass. It's a small niche hobby, and he's burning bridges.

You never presented that time machine on your youtube show!

Totally agree on this and in the meantime there are plenty of awesome themes Spooky can use.

Firestone Financial just announced today that they are no longer lending to the Amusement entertainment industry....

This thread has aged pretty well.

Imagine a world where Godzilla “owners” are dumping their pre-order spots at a $1500 loss.

Wow this aged like milk.

As many gems in this thread as the infamous “a Dark Night for Stern” opus.

Say, did Spooky ever manage to get over having their trailblazing idea for releasing a pinball sound track cruelly stolen and improved?

Did Gary Stern ever develop a heart?

Is Deadpool still “DOA?”

Did stern continue to “sit” on the license just to screw spooky, and never produce a Godzilla pinball machine?

LMAO

God I miss this man’s posts

No this thread is a perfect example of why it’s ridiculous to even post this kind of thing. The original post was some similar variation of “Business S should stop acting like a business by being nice and generous with all their competitors and by building their model around what a bunch of amateur MBA/Marketing/C level strategy wannabes on Pinside say.”

Stern figured out how to keep and grow their company after all the rest of the industry folded. They did it using a lower cost model geared towards moving units - despite the fact Pinside whined about lower BOM - with zero concept of how difficult it is in what was a low demand dying industry to secure necessary capital and material cashflow needed for higher BOM. They leaned on well know licensing to help secure some of the initial capital for each title and to help drive that cheaper product out the door - despite the fact that Pinside whined about wanting original themes. Stern slowly increased the visible and playfield level BOM in line with the business financial position - despite Pinside whining about the things that were kept lower cost like service pegs instead of rails.

Eventually the pinball market started to grow and other competitors entered the marketplace. Stern stuck with their repeatable and profitable DMD design in the face of improving technology from competitors - despite Pinside whining they were cheap and refusing to innovate.

Stern moved to the Pro/Premium/LE model to make sure they could maintain an affordable product for new customers and operators while still being able to offer everything (and a higher BOM) the collector market wanted - despite Pinside whining that all machines should have the same parts and features. Stern went with the pre order LE first model to help generate a huge amount of capital early in the sales cycle for each machine, despite Pinside whining about why Premiums come so late. Stern upgraded their technology and became the preferred licensing partner for anyone who wants their license on the maximum number of pins - despite Pinside whining about the licenses they chose and that they weren’t using the LCD Screen effectively.

And then the combination of slowly increased demand, combined with the huge growth of barcades (many of which were stocked and built using those “inferior” Pro models) allowed Stern to find themselves in a small but booming pinball market that is great for them and also for all of us people who love pinball. Oh, and they paid for the Godzilla license that some Pinsiders whined they should have left for a competitor because they are small (such a ridiculous statement) and they turned that Godzilla license into what is currently regarded by the most number of pinball fans in history as the best pinball machine ever made.

I think it’s time everyone realizes that no only is Stern not going to do what you think they are supposed to but they shouldn’t either. They have grown into a successful company that sells out all the inventory they can possibly manufacture. If they had listened to Pinside they would have failed by now.

It’s quite amazing how so many people can’t see that and instead are so blinded by their own little emotional ideas.

That makes one of us.

No doubt Stern shouldn't blindly listen to Pinside, however most successful businesses try and listen to their loyal customers (and Stern has made changes over recent years that I'm certain were helped by Pinside chatter).

One of the biggest/smartest decisions Stern made is hiring new design talent. Without Keith Elwins contributions, Stern wouldn't be in the same place!

Wow there was a lot of bad takes in this thread! Good thing that'll never happen again! Right?

I only made 1 post 3 years ago and what I feared did pan out. With Pat & Chas gone and Stern's decision to force us to go through distributors for support/parts, support has suffered. When I hear about Rush boards frying and people having to wait weeks/months, it's a bummer. Sure, I guess part of the problem may be COVID hangover, but it still sucks that you can't get Stern support to deal with us on warranty issues directly. Fortunately, my games have been on good behavior lately

100% agree. Those of us who buy games secondhand (uh, every single one of us) are almost totally shut out unless you already have a good relationship with a distro. I’ve got a board on my EHOH which has an LED out; and that game I actually did buy from a distro. No luck in 3 years getting it replaced.

To me, Elwin has proven that the other long term designers have just been phoning in designs with safe "looks kind of like this title" layouts for at least a decade. All the while, they could have been really been creatively looking at new layouts. Godzilla has especially shown me that if a designer really looks at flow takes time to be really creative (and this must take time), amazing things can happen in pinball. But this is another subject for another thread lol.

I really wonder aboot that, but it's a great point.
We always heard aboot how Gary needs 3 standard pops etc but this all could have changed due to sales? I sort of see Elwin's designs getting more far out as they go along and maybe he's just given more freedom becasue he's the best in the game?
Probably a bit of multiple things.