(Topic ID: 190334)
Linked Games
Star Wars (LE)
Stern, 2017-
Star Wars (Premium)
Stern, 2017
-
Star Wars (Pro)
Stern, 2017
Topic Gallery
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider jfh.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
The LE is underwhelming and overpriced. 
The Pro leaves off the most exciting (only?) feature of the Premium and may only be viable for casual touristy locations.
It looks like it will play fast like other SR designs, but this game seems to be much more wait-and-see than buy-one-now.
Quoted from scarybeard:Everyone take a moment to align these two concepts in their head before further arguing about this table:
Profitability - This table will be insanely profitable. Stern obviously kept their production budget very low, to make a feature light game that relies heavily on the IP to attract 'the general public' on location to spend their money.
Value - The value of this table is a major disappointment. This table appears to have fewer features than most their games over the past 2 years, and a higher price tag. The IP visuals are just photoshopped (or 'hand drawn' on a computer....) photo collages of 40 year old promo pics of characters. The lack of 'force' magnets is the very definition of 'phoning it in' design work. None of us have played it yet, so it very well may be a very 'Fun' game on its own, but the gameplay is only one part of the overall VALUE of a game.
So did your kids or 'normal' friends get excited about this table? of course they did. is this table going to make a TON on of money on location? Of course it will. Is this table going to go UP in value over time for collectors? Hell no. This is not going to be a 'Monster Bash' or 'Scared stiff' table that is a sought-after title going for 10K years from now. It doesn't have the value. By all comparisons, this machine will be selling used for $4,000 or less 5 years from now. Which is a shame, because they really could have knocked this out of the park and made a new classic. Instead they are just going to make a lot of money. No denying that.
Yup. Everyone thought Batman was the cash grab. (It was to some degree, but the resulting cash grab from Star Wars will make that pale in comparison).
Quoted from PanzerFreak:So prices have really gone up $200 more for each model compared to AS? This is after the $100 price hike from January? Crazy.
And yet people keep buying. As long as the price hikes don't seem to impact demand, Stern will keep doing them.
For those getting an LE over a premium - why?
Do you like the art better?
Just like the idea of owning a "Limited Edition"?
Does the price difference not really matter (or is insignificant to you)?
SWLE seems to offer the least differentiation and greatest price gap of LEs to date (not counting Batman SLE). I bought a STLE because I though the overall package made it a no brainer, but I just don't see the appeal to SWLE.
Quoted from PinMonk:I was with you on Trudeau, but Gomez did Batman'66. Little magic there. Lyman is the only hope to save it, and even he may not be able to.
Is it your goal to trash Stern and Batman 66 in as many threads as possible? We understand you didn't do your homework and feel that Stern is responsible, but give it a rest already.
Quoted from paulywalnuts23:No Videos. Gary said no!!
It seems that it's Disney that said no, not Gary. Disney apparently doesn't want videos until games are in customers' hands. If true, then you can't blame this one on Stern's inept marketing.
Quoted from DJNOEL30:I already put my name on an LE, I know I'm over spending but I want it.. I'm selling my Kiss Pro to make room for it.. I got tired of hearing about Kiss code coming so I'm making the army walk the plank...
How are you "making the army walk the plank?"
You're selling a Stern game to buy another Stern game. How does selling a game with unfinished code to buy another with unknown code stick it to the Stern army in any way?
Quoted from cscmtp:Does anyone think this will be too similar to Star Trek in a small home collection?
Probably not, except for style of game play. SW looks like it will play very fast like just about every other SR game (except GOT).
Besides, if you have both maybe you can answer the biggest question of the last generation - "Which is better? Star Trek or Star Wars?"
Quoted from Kiwipinhead:Ahh.. my favourite game.
Be careful where you put your quarters ...
1 week later
Quoted from TomGWI:I think we are going to see video from a collector before we see anything from Stern.
Absolutely true if the Disney rumors are correct. Word is that Disney wants the release to be organic and that Stern cannot release any game play video before a customer does. Why they would want to do this is beyond me.
So:
1) The game isn't playable enough to have a video yet
2) We are incompetent
3) Disney says no.
Take your pick.
Quoted from pinchamp:It could actually be a copyright issue. They have the right to put the clips and sound on the game but not able to reproduce or retransmit that footage any other way (including online video, etc)
Disney said no - it's that simple.
They want an organic release - no actual gameplay footage unless released by a customer.
Why? Don't know, but pretty sure Stern has not forbidden video before, so it's really the only answer that makes sense.
Quoted from pinballaddicted:I really do not agree that Stern do not give a shit. They do give a shit about their customer base and go out of their way to look after repeat NIB buyers. That is who keeps them in business right?
I can't tell if you are serious or not...
Your distributor may care. I haven't seen any indication that Stern does or that they even know who their repeat NIB buyers are.
Quoted from John_I:Have you talked directly to Gary Stern ... in the last few years? They know who is buying the games now. They especially know who is buying the LEs and Premiums that bring in the most profit. To say they don't care about the customers or even know who they are is foolish at best.
Yes, I have. They may know better who there customers are in the aggregate, but I have seen nothing from Stern that they know or value me as a repeat customer (small potatoes compared to some, but still a repeat customer). I hope they will take care of me if I every have a significant problem, but I get more love an interest from my car dealer than Stern and I'm going to buy a new pin far more often then I buy a new car.
Easy examples - I have a Batman LE. Easy target for a batsignal add on for the game. Did Stern even bother to see if I might be interested in one? Nope. Does Stern send me flyers or emails or any type of marketing when they have a new game? Nope. As someone who has bought multiple LEs, do they market new LE models to me? Nope. Stern should know I'm very interested in Elvira 3. Do they value me enough as a customer to do something with that info? We'll see.
Quoted from PinMonk:No idea about Gary Stern, but I believe Steve Ritchie is a straight shooter. Gomez has proven over and over that you can't believe a word that comes out of his mouth, so I wouldn't ask him anything you want a straight answer on.
Rec'd for credit where credit is due. 
Quoted from frolic:To be fair, you are the customer of one of the resellers. A good reseller, taking advantage of modern sales tools, should be maximizing their customers. Stern doesn't sell direct (outside of the SLE one time), so no I don't expect them to do what you said. Same as Nintendo doesn't do it, but Gamestop would.
Kind of makes the point to me about how a lot of distributors are crying poor about their low margins on games because they've commoditized themselves, but if some did what you just outlined, they could be maximizing their profits on each customer as well as boosting customer loyalty.
Anyhow, I agree with you that things can be done better, but I don't blame Stern directly for some of this.
You are correct - technically, I'm a customer of a Stern distributor, not Stern.
But even though I bought my car from a Toyota dealer, I get plenty of marketing from Toyota corporate. Same idea. Plenty of other examples.
In a super niche market like pinball the manufacturers owe it to themselves, their dealers and the end user community to have complementary marketing and do the little things to give the impression they care about the actual end users.
Quoted from PinballNewb:Color by numbers playfield VE confirmed?
Yes. Crayons extra.
1 week later
Quoted from PinMonk:The excuse with Batman'66 shipping with 0.57 was that it was a last-minute thing and they only had a few months to pull it together. No such timeline for Star Wars, which supposedly had a long lead. So there's no excuse for shipping with beta code on Star Wars, except that Stern is pushing out so much stuff they can't get games even out of beta before they ship. That's wrong behavior and should not be rewarded.
+1. I have given you a hard time for bashing on BM66 code when we knew the code was going to be alpha/beta for a long time.
But you are absolutely correct - there is no excuse for SW to be shipping with unfinished code. As long as Stern considers completed code to be an afterthought buying unfinished games is indeed rewarding them for bad behavior.
3 weeks later
Quoted from DerRoland:What you mean?
SW premium / LE manual first page:
"Each pinball machine has unique characteristics that make it a one-of-a-kind American made product. Each will have variations in appearance resulting from differences in the machine’s particular wood parts, individual printed art and mechanical assemblies. No playfield is perfectly flat and varies depending on the season. Game play willresult in playfield dimpling as the harder steel ball contacts the wood and coating; over time multiple dimples will blend to make them less noticeable. Normal plastic insert crazing (tiny stress cracks) and ghosting (small cloudy areas around insert edges) are often seen in pinball machines, due to a combination of plastic mold stress, pushing of inserts into purposely undersized holes, and heating and breaking of inserts’ plastic “skin” when the playfield field is sanded."
Discussion here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hey-stern-are-you-serious/page/126#post-3889394
This will be known as the "Screw you, customers" clause as we move forward. QC be dammed.
"purposely undersized holes"?
If they are undersized, then they are not the proper size and are therefor defective.
Quoted from frolic:My understanding on reading that was just them explaining inserts are fitted tight into the holes, banged in. If the inserts were a perfect match they'd slide out.
They need to be tight enough to avoid falling out, but being tight enough and avoiding ghosting because of too much pressure should not be mutually exclusive. Ghosting is a defect caused by too much pressure.
Quoted from beelzeboob:So, based on the video of the LE, Steve Ritchie just signed a card on the apron for this game? Not even on the playfield itself?
Wow. Lame.
Must be to save time for Steve signing when replacing all the playfields with ghosting issues.
Oh - wait ...
Quoted from beelzeboob:My friend (who thought the game was $15000 like the BM66 SLE) just saw the LE today and thought it was awesome. He's looking to sell his Safecracker to get a SWLE.
Have your friend PM me. I'll be glad to sell him an LE for only $14000. 
Promoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!
Los Angeles, CA
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider jfh.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
