I feel like I'm in the year 2000 with Mac users writing M$ for Microsoft while arguing operating systems.

Have we really reached the point where people are trash talking Zach Sharpe? For ... doing his job?

Someone who's been deep in pinball his whole life and landed a dream job working for a pinball company is being crapped on because we're unhappy over a stupid licensed gimmick game.

It's time to dial back the emotional content, it's not a good look.

That sounds like such a wonderful thing for the owners of casinos… and such a terrible indictment of the greed of humans in general. You can’t just “get past that” in my book.

F*** Stern!! Good to see the Stern executive in a t-shirt, hat, half-shaven, with a coat he obviously borrowed from someone.. this is the guy telling me I need to pay $20K for a stripped, barren playfield game and if not, I'm not their customer and shouldn't be.

I agree that there's nothing but arrogance there. "This isn't for everyone" LMAO. I can remember Gary at one of the expos begging to get pinballs into homes and explicitly stating the opposite.. PINBALL IS FOR EVERYONE.

Stern is lost IMO. I'm happy to never buy another NIB Stern.

Flame ME if you want lol. But I'm not the one insulting YOU.

Or… one could stop playing ‘victim’ and open your eyes to how things work and have worked since, well, since people started selling things to each other?

I don't think he tried that hard honestly. He seemed to be struggling to find things to hype up the 60th, and with the LE sitting right next to it and the things he said about it...I mean. They know what they got there.

Ironic that you criticize him then insult white women.... lol. And of course, you are a stern defender here...

Watching these unhinged meltdowns is hilarious.

Some of you all need to find a new hobby. One that will be nicer to you.

No, just practical.

At the same time though, we don't owe them anything or a reason to be positive about this turn of events. We can survive without them, they can't without us. They are selling more games than ever and have a backlog, but they are changing marketing strategies now? Why? It isn't because they are poor and struggling.

Remember just a few short months ago, we had to buy everything or pinball will disappear!! FUD that was going around for a decade?

I am still excited for my James Bond 60th Anniversary edition pinball game. I, however, believe I will keep game play exclusive to my home and not stream it! ha ha! Zing!

It is… but how does that equate to “buying an expensive LE for your home is for everyone!”?

You really don’t see your disconnect there?

Who is "we", or "us"?

Few knuckleheads' on pinside?

If they can boost the margin on this little allotment - good for them.

The point is, this goes beyond this game. If anyone thinks this stops here and it's just a one off, unless it fails miserably, it is the wrong stance to take.

Are you suggesting they need a safe-space?! Wow. Just WOW!!

They owe the investors, now, and are not in a position to do anything for “us”.
And guess where those profits are coming from? OUR FUCKING POCKETS!

So yes, corporate shills, we know who butters whose bread. And I know one guy, whose been in this business long enough to learn how to milk us for all it’s worth, and he seems to be very successful. Without pushback those “profits” you speak of means only ONE thing to me-
LESS money in MY pocket. Have a nice day.

Grrrr.

That’s how buying things generally works: you choose to pay (or not pay) someone else for something, and then there is less money in your pocket and more in theirs.

Pushing back is the ‘not pay’ part… so don’t? Isn’t choice nice?

LMAO. How many of you local pinball locations/brewcades are blowing $20K on this piece of garbage? Let alone $10K for the lower tier crap offerings.

Give us games that look like designers and engineering made an effort, and THEN we'll talk about overpaying. Zack keeps bringing up the best games ever made in pinball if you notice (Medieval madness, Godzilla) while standing in front of those turds.

Like I said, it's not a meltdown.. it's an honest reaction. And let me tell you, from my last pinball get-together, EVERY single person I know feels the same way...

Isn’t that the service we are trying to give the new people in the hobby by telling them, so they don’t fall in too? Momma said, if you want to make sure you don’t fall into the outhouse, to strap a board across your ass before shitting. Sometimes the advice is worthwhile, sometimes it isn’t.

Locally to me, Tilt Pinball Bar is getting one… and Lloyd (yes, that Lloyd) has even discussed watching for one. So there’s that.

Sounds like you have a bit of an echo-chamber going on there in EVERY single person you know…

How are they taking $ out of your pocket? Without pushback....what does that even mean?

The market will decide on what the right level of pushback is.

I get the "Not every product is for everyone" comment. That's true, very high end products are often not affordable. However, those items are typically backed up with features, options, and above and beyond build quality that help to offer perceived value as well as make them standout against cheaper products. There's no reason, other then wanting bigger profits, for Bond 60th not to be decked out with a ton of features. Foil decals, a high quality powder coat (or bronze plated armor), a true exclusive interactive topper, autograph card from one of the remaining Bond actors, factory art blades. Things like that needed to be in this game.

For $20k Bond 60th should have been Batman 66 SLE 2.0 in terms of high end features but instead it looks similar to Jurassic Park home edition.

This game is a price ceiling check for Stern for sure.

So make sure to vote with your dollars.

People with money will buy the game regardless to feel "special".

My favorite smoke and mirror part of this-

Question- this Elwin game (60th) seems kind of basic compared to his others?

Answer- "I mean, when you really look under the hood and on the playfield, IT HAS AN IN-PLAYFIELD LCD!!!.. I couldn't even tell you the last game that had Four (4) SPINNERS!!! I mean, you look at a game and it's got 2 spinners, maybe 3!! THERE'S 4 SPINNERS!! (on top of that), it's got a LOOP TO LOOP that "goes around"!! You got in-line drop targets!!"

Man I spit my coffee out and started laughing. This of course was in the context of how this machine is $20K and "not for everyone". You could say that again.

8CBA4255-1042-46CC-B252-A53946EF1B73 (resized).jpeg

I think he asked "how many are putting these high end machines out", not that nobody is. This kind of lineup is relatively rare from my experiences.

And in the space of 15 minutes, 2 pinsiders responded with examples of it… YMMV.

I own a $tern. Paid $3650 brand new. It does 10 times what this machine does. Today, same machine on secondary market $5000-$6000.

I’m telling the young ones, “this is not the pinball machines you are looking for” and that if you want Bond, getting him on a wand is a way better spend of your money, for both fun and profit, because if I was a dealer/distributor, I would buy one just to have on my showroom floor to sell,
just so customers would feel good about their purchase of any other pinball machine I am selling that has been made since 1990.

And for those who can not understand the “writing on the wall” concepts being embraced in this offering are just blind to real world economics of “less for more” because that has always worked out in the consumers interest, right? I’m a consumer. I buy $terns. I get to bitch.

So 2 is a lot in the continental USA? Is that success in putting the machines on location? Whatever...

I tried croquet for a few months, even opened up a croqueside account, but I missed the face slaps and middle fingers of pinball.

“Let the hate flow through you!”

Man I was really hoping to see 4K footage of those 4 spinners in action.

Ok, that is the normal look of a collector who is subsiding his pinball habit by keeping them in his bar and writing it off from the books. Was looking into doing the same thing until cancer struck. This is not the “normal” look of on site pinball, but it is starting to gain traction, pins sell beer and food just like live music and wet tshirt contests, so why not buy every machine that comes out and put it on play? Seems smart if it makes money, and hey you can even afford a JB60SLE too!

Looks like AYCE Gogi? I love Shane for being crazy and buying everything so we So Cal folks can try things. I have no doubt he'll add a 60th Bond.

damn sorry man are you doing ok now?

Take a breath. Touch some grass. The game isn't for you. The end.

From the video. It's not for everyone. It's a unicorn.

Do unicorns have photo shopped movie posters on their sides? Lol.

This thread has turned to gold, or platinum.

But will it hit diamond?

For now, yes, but there is no liver cancer cure. At least I’m in (some) good company-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Deaths_from_liver_cancer

David Bowie, Jackie Gleason, from rocker to shocker and almost all the heavy drinkers who didn’t die from cirrhosis, well they joined the club.

How often does the pinside mob mis the mark?

I got pinsided out of getting this game and am leaning towards getting one again thinking maybe this could be a awesome game in my line up.

Never.