Stranger Things is an ok theme I guess. The first season was alright. Never needed more after the first season. (Originally the show was going to be an anthology where every season would have been a different 80s homage)

I still think the best license out there for Stern is something from Nintendo. Mario, Zelda, Pokemon...these are themes that are insanely popular across multiple generations. Nintendo licenses out their properties for a million different things. Operators would be salivating for these kinds of themes.

If they can't get Back to the Future locked down, then do the next best thing. Rick and Morty. I don't think this would sell exceptionally well, but would be a solid license.

Black Panther could be an interesting choice. It would help bring a little diversity pinball themes while staying in a comfortable comic book area. That might be a good choice in another year or two when the sequel eventually comes out

Let Steve Ritchie design a High Speed 3, but release it as a Fast and the Furious theme (and release a few SLE with a custom art package as High Speed 3)

I'm still surprised a modern BTTF Hollywood reboot hasn't been greenlit yet. I guess Bill and Ted 3 fills the quota for 80s time-travel romps

I mean I don't care about BTTF...

But Hollywood rebooting things is extremely common. Blockbusters are a huge gamble and most people are too chicken-shit to stick their necks out for original ideas. The video game industry is having the same sort of stagnation in the AAA space as well.

Meh. Money talks. It's not like it's untouchable. The musical version of BTTF premieres on the West End of London next winter.

Imagine if the smooth shooting, approachable rules, and achievable goals of The Munsters was Super Mario Brothers?

Make Spot a piranha plant, Herman is a goomba, dragula is a green pipe mold, and play the underground music in the lower playfield.

Even if the code is shallow that game would sell a magnitude more than Munsters did. It’d kill on location.

It's not a zero-sum game. The market is growing. It's fine that JJP is taking market share from Stern, because Stern is still seeing large growth overall as the industry leader.

Stern isn't going to overreact JJP getting some Wonka's out the door after watching them tread water for several years. (I'm sure they appreciate JJP for experimenting with how much you can jack up the price in the base/premium/LE model)

I really don't think Stern is worried about Spooky. 500 games a year is just not worth much thought. Stern can sell about that many LE's 4x a year.

I think Stern isn't concerned with JJP and Spooky because of the mixed opinion of operators and their build quality. Plus it's just hard to beat the price on a Stern Pro. (Sure Stern has their own build quality issues too, but the perception is different for most people).

I think Stern should be concerned with CGC though. They're cranking out classic games that people love for a decent price. If I see a lineup full of new pinballs, it's going to be mostly Stern and with some CGC.

American Pinball. I'm writing their name just to prove I didn't forget about them. Just not worth talking about.

Non-pinheads feel comforted that buying a brand new game will be more reliable than a comparable used one. Stern wants that market that doesn't want to spend the extra $2,000 for a NIB arcade pin.

Sounds like a reason for Stern to bump up prices again

I know it's not a real Stern, but do you have a link for that project? It looks interesting for a homebrew. I kinda like how it appears to be scaled for a kitchen counter.

Spider-Man Home Edition wouldn't have been so bad if the slings and pops didn't all fire at the same time. Something about that just screams cheap. If you're a casual player, there's more than enough to keep a family entertained for a while. Some extra code polish would really go a long way.

I wonder if ditching the coin door makes the license cheaper, because then they can argue it won't be setup in public or used to make the owner money.

Some non-pinheads that have bought games from me cared about a working coin door, but the majority did not care.

Whoever compared it to ping-pong and shuffleboard pricing is spot on. I've sold a couple games to families that just want to flesh out their gameroom, and they're ready to spend a couple grand for any pinball with a decent theme and/or art package. (Which is usually played for six months and never touched again)

I don't think anyone is seriously targeting the mass market with games like this. It's all about giving distributor showrooms a range of price points. Here are the used games for $3-6k, and here are the brand new games with a factory warranty for $4-9k. If people want to argue that Stern is seriously concerned with all of their competitors, then this is the cutthroat move to dominate the low to medium end of the NIB market.

It would be interesting if Stern could get a home game into a flat pack though. The cabinet and head could certainly be Ikea furniture. The playfield could be fully populated and just require a few single connectors. Like you said, the shipping and handling is a huge factor in the price. I wonder if you could fit two Ikea Sterns onto a pallet the same size as a normal NIB.

I hope they pay Jack Danger well to deal with the brunt of the criticism, even though he has little to do with these kinds of decisions. Lots of upset people blowing up his streaming hustle.

Also Stern is in a lose-lose. They issued a boilerplate PR announcement. What are they supposed to announce, "hey we have something exciting to show...well it's not that exciting for our core customers, but you should still come visit us!"

Speaking of disappointments....

Star Wars makes perfect sense as a theme for another go around at a home game product. It has multi-generational appeal and they just worked with Disney on a Star Wars game. They already sorta know how Spiderman Home and the general comic book theme sells. So if they did another home game and it was within the realm of things they recently licensed, what is the most appealing? In other words, just how livid would people have been if they showed off Ghostbusters Home Edition yesterday That'd be marriage of the GoT code update and Star Wars Home edition trolls into the ultimate shit show.

The people who want the game for thousands less wouldn’t buy a game that’s thousands less.

Stern is probably content to sell a couple hundred Star Wars Home Edition. This project got this particular layout on to Spike 2 and with a LCD screen. In a few years they’ll likely sell a commercial version of this game as a contracted game like Supreme (it’s the same game after all). Now Stern can offer multiple boutique pins with score wheels, dots, or a mini LCD. Slap a new art package on and go.