(Topic ID: 230751)

Stern Pinball Sales Have Grown 80% in the Last 3 Years....

By BackFlipper

5 years ago


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  • 135 posts
  • 47 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by Bublehead
  • Topic is favorited by 7 Pinsiders

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    #26 5 years ago
    Quoted from Bublehead:

    Niche, yes, but more like a giant bear sticking a little toe in the water... or a great white shark smelling blood? No idea what their play is other than niche remakes, but if they pulled together an original title that sold well, would you not keep a watchful eye on them? They could be the sleeping bear is my only point.

    Hardly, they are tapping into a market that is currently profitable and getting what they can.

    You are quick to harp on stern but stern has the best designers buy a mile. I guess you forgot that they have Brian Eddie with his first game since MM coming soon. Stern is trying to position themselves to literally crush everyone.

    We have Borg Munsters coming, Nordwin Elvira 3, Keith Elwin's second title, original theme buy Steve Ritchie, and whatever Brian Eddie is doing is likely to be gold.

    #28 5 years ago
    Quoted from DBLM:

    Found this picture of Stern’s development team.
    [quoted image]

    Woo

    It might as well be those guys, they are chest slapping the competition silly. JJP cant get games made in less then a year, cgc remakes a game ever 2 years, AP has happy handed monkeys stopping their progress, and stern only has 5 killer titles lined up with several killer vault options to roll out whenever the so choose.

    #30 5 years ago
    Quoted from Bublehead:

    @jgentry, not quick to harp on Stern as much as quick to point out what I think were mistakes... havent said I dont like playing or owning Sterns, because I own one. I like a lot of recent titles, but my disappointment with DP made me look at what else was becoming available, and just so happens CGC bring out MBr while we are at Expo in the market for a new pin. We play both and we bought a CGC remake. I would have come home with a DP if it had met our expectations but it didn’t. CGC took my expectation of what a remake of MB could be and showed me what should be. I don't give anyone a pass if they screw something up, and thats what DP felt like to me, a miss on the franchise. On the other hand, if you want to talk about generating fun without a lot of innovating going on other than good old ramps and targets and diverters, IMDN knocked it out of the park, and I have loved playing the crap out of it. If DP had been the same everything except had the layout of IMDN, played like IMDN, and was as much fun as IMDN, had Ryan Reynolds Callouts (wife’s big sticking point) we might have a DP in the house. You might ask why not just buy an IMDN? My wife likes exactly 1 song by them, and so that was a nonstarter, even though she agreed it was a fun shooter.

    How could you have went to expo thinking Deadpool has Ryan Reynolds call outs? It was pretty much known for 6 months it was comic book based. Sure, you dont like deadpool like you keep stating. Guess what, wait 3 months and stern will have another option for you. CGC is doing a good job, I'm glad more of those games are available for those that want them. Personally they do not excite me, been there, done that. It's funny to me that you praise someone that is really not designing anything but keep bagging on the company that is actually making new games.

    People better pinch their pennies because that MBr is going to take a big hit when everyone drops them scrambling for Elvira 3 and Jaws money.

    #34 5 years ago
    Quoted from Da-Shaker:

    I love Deadpool and haven't had any problems with it, not sure what your problem is. You can also go spend an extra 2000 grand on JJP or CGC and have twice as many issues. Where are you seeing the quality differences?

    I'm guessing he hasn't owned a cgc game. They have had just as many issues as stern if not more. All of them have had their share of blunders.

    #51 5 years ago
    Quoted from JY64:

    Panzer do you really think JJP is crushing it really?

    Depends on how you look at it. They have made 4 pretty good games that to some are amazing. TH code took way too freaking long to get really good but overall they have consistently finished their games so far. With a game on average every 24 months they should be killing the code though. So game wise I think JJP has done really well other then the constant QC issues on early games from all 4 titles.

    Business wise is a completely different story. You have people bagging on stern about not hitting 3 cornerstone titles when JJP consistently needs 24 months+ to get a new game in production. They have had to be bailed out financially twice already and were weeks from going under with TH production. They apparently missed the profit projection on WOZ by 3K as the game went from $6500 to now $9500 without a direct print cabinet or wooden apron. They announce games with features then remove them because they don't work 6 months after they announce a game. They just can't get a new title out with any kind of consistency.

    So if you are just looking at it based on games JJP has been very successful. As a business it's been a borderline disaster.

    #62 5 years ago
    Quoted from Bendit:

    Sure. Stern has decades of experience. JJP is new. Pros and cons for both. Stern has proven (safe?) designs and quality, with an established brand. JJP has fresh/young blood gaining experience each year. Young designers with out-there designs. Sure, some ideas did not work. But JJP is also way more transparent. We know what failed design-wise because JJP opted to show us their design early.
    I like all companies and hope they all stay afloat. It offers us more choices.
    If I'm allowed to stir the pot a little though; JJP's design is risky and innovative. I mean, a rocking ship upper playfield? Name another innovation that bold in the last 5 years?

    Transparent? Were they transparent about shipping WOZ to new money people while slowly filling the preorders? Were they transparent when TH looked like it wasn't going to happen and they were about to tank? JJP also isn't showing us what they think is an early design. They are showing us that is supposed to be the final product, they just keep screwing it up and having to go back and remove things.

    I'm also not sure what you mean by young fresh blood. If you mean Eric, sure that's true. But stern has Elwin and a whole host of new programmers. Otherwise who are JJP's young fresh blood movement?

    JJP has made some really good games, I've owned all of them but POTC. I'm far from a JJP hater, but I am a realist about how things have played out over the years.

    #69 5 years ago
    Quoted from Bendit:

    I mean about their designs. It would be safer for them not to show videos of the work-in-progress. That's all I mean.

    Yes.

    Yes. But how long as Stern (and its previous companies) have been operating? I'm just comparing.

    Not sure what you are talking about. They do not show video's of anything until the final product is unveiled. Their goal is 100% to show you the game, take a small deposit, ship you the game ASAP. They just have had some mechanical or BOM issues that forced them to remove things. One designer does not equal much new blood to me. Eric did an awesome job with POTC. The game is really good considering he got stuck with a flat license that didn't even offer them the main characters voice. I think he out performed what most designers could do.

    #72 5 years ago
    Quoted from Bendit:

    Meh. I've played it. It's "ok". But it's not a pure pinball machine. I am talking about something in the real-world that must comply with the current laws of physics. Know what I mean? Not software, where anything can happen. So I'm talking about mechs that really exist.
    Other examples:
    Houdini has a ball that's shot across the whole playfield.
    The Hobbit has 2 coils per drop target, allowing automatic up and downs on each single target.
    That kind of stuff...

    Literally at TPF when Houdini was revealed Stern had its new AS that was launching balls across the playfield. TH is also not the first game with controlled drops like that. Jack just claimed it was for some reason. The ship on POTC is really freaking cool. I think the cannon is pretty underwhelming for such a big build up. But the ship overall with the cannon is a great feature, no denying that. Have you not played a GB premium? No credit for magna slings or a ramp that goes underneath the playfield?

    P3 is crazy filled with innovation. I have no clue how Gerry managed to do some of that stuff. I played one about a month ago and it has really come a long way. A few years ago it was pretty meh to me. Now it's pretty darn fun.

    #86 5 years ago
    Quoted from gstellenberg:

    Feel free to ask me anything. I read pinside but don't post too much unless it's in a feature announcement or product support thread. If something's confidential I can't share it, but otherwise I'm pretty much an open book. We currently have a very small team, very small MFG capacity, and laughably low budget, but so far sales have outpaced manufacturing, and we're working to increase our MFG capacity in the very near future. Most of our sales so far are to consumers who appreciate the one-machine many games paradigm, allowing them to take up a single spot in their house and build a game library (like the video game console model but for physical pinball). As we get out more and more game content (games and playfield modules), you'll probably see more and more talk about it here. What we've seen so far is that the more vocal pinheads on pinside generally seem to value theme and world-under-glass a little more than mechanical functionality and gameplay, and we started out with a focus on mechanical functionality, modularity, and gameplay variety (to interest the whole family). Our worlds will continue merging though. Stay tuned!
    Anyway, I know this isn't a P3 thread; so I'll bow out. Hit me up in a PM or separate thread for more info.
    - Gerry
    https://www.multimorphic.com

    I played the one that Larry at Flipnoutpinball has and it was a ton of fun. I think you are getting real close to having a fairly marketable game there. It really can do a lot of crazy things that I never would have thought possible.

    Quoted from PanzerFreak:

    There's also the Stern fanboys knocking JJP regullary, going into JJP owners threads to bash their games, and acting like they are on the brink of going out of business every day. It's old.

    Absolutely, and both sides sound equally dumb when they do it.

    #91 5 years ago
    Quoted from wdennie:

    Just from the posts that I've read:
    Star Wars
    Star trek
    Ghostbusters
    Dead Pool
    Kiss

    Cool, so you read some posts about pinsiders whining and you just assumed it was true. GOTG, BM66, and XMEN were the games that shipped with really poor code. Oddly none of those are on your list most of what you listed shipped in pretty good to very good shape code wise.

    Quoted from wdennie:

    Wow what bs here. As some one who would be only a home use only buyer, what would I buy?
    A game that splits at the seams, coil stops that wear out after 50 games, balls that have to be replaced before I can play it,has only half the game code when released, and a PF that get beaten up in not time?
    but gee they made 12,000 games this year. good for them.
    But I want something that has a build quality that will last 20 years, not a throwaway game.
    Nothing against Stern, but how many new games have people bought and then sold because the game code was incomplete?

    Why would you buy a HUO pin with any of those issues from any company unless you just wanted it cheap? You do realize that any quick search can show you a game from all of the companies that was NIB and had a ton of issues, or have you just been brainwashed to thinking this is a stern problem? Did you click on any of the routed game threads showing how sterns hold up after 30,000 plays when properly cared for?

    #100 5 years ago
    Quoted from wdennie:

    Not a Stern hater, but I won't be buy a new stern, because I just Don't find them very exciting.
    Not talking about how they shipped.
    Or are there just a bunch whiners here?

    Have you played those games that you mentioned. Most have an absolute ton of code in them and most are still getting updates and polishes from stern.

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