Ghostbusters is a stale license? Pinball is dying? Is this 2000 or 2016?
I'm surprised to hear about the delays, it seems like everywhere you turn another GB is going up in Portland...
Quoted from seenev:I have none. Thanks for making me sad.
This forum may not be for you then
Quoted from Kiwipinhead:This forum may not be for you then
True that. If you don't have any machines to glue trinkets & Xmas tree orniments to there isn't much point in hanging around
Quoted from Gort:Met Pro payed in full 1/14/16 still waiting.
I was just told that Met Pros are back on the line in mid June.
I was also told that GoT Pros are back on the line in late July/August. GB Pros are taking a backseat for the LEs to get on the line and out the door.
Quoted from Vino:So it really is feasible that a recent order of MMr or TH will ship before MET or GB?
That would be some sweet revenge there
Quoted from ForceFlow:Honestly, I think that cat is out of the bag at this point. Stern might as well be up-front and honest about the production issues/schedule rather than try to hide it and make customers upset about it in the process. Customers are usually quite understanding if things are explained, some reasons are given, and what is being done to resolve said issues. They only get upset when their concerns are met with silence because they feel like they are being ignored and that they don't matter.
Saying something like this would probably quell a lot of complaints: "Sorry folks, we are having issues with X right now, but don't worry--we are working on doing Y to help resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience. In the meantime, Z will be available in limited quantities, so please bear with us and thank you for choosing Stern Pinball".
And maybe throw in a promo sticker or something to a customer if there is outstanding order.
Anyway, that's just my personal take on it.
So in other words their communication should be up to Chicago Gaming/PPS standards?
Quoted from Kiwipinhead:This forum may not be for you then
I have one on order...Stern is making my first purchase a less than great experience.
Quoted from o-din:The licenses are old and stale. And IMO there have been too many of them as of late. It's killing any aura pinball ever had as far as originality is concerned. Pinball is dying along with it's dying themes.
Hey O-din, if they keep making them like MET and AC/DC, they can use all the stale licenses they want. Both of those stale licenses are great games!
What ever the delays maybe (because they really don't tell us much anyway), just think of how much further the GB code will be when they start rolling out the machines again. It can be a plus in your favor.
Quoted from DeathHimself:What ever the delays maybe (because they really don't tell us much anyway), just think of how much further the GB code will be when they start rolling out the machines again. It can be a plus in your favor.
Any upside to the GoT delay? We really wanted to be playing soon.
Quoted from PoMC:Any upside to the GoT delay? We really wanted to be playing soon.
Not from the delay standpoint however from the GB announcement standpoint there have been many GOT Prem's and LE's listed recently with hardly any plays at great prices, that can still be a plus in your favor.
Quoted from DeathHimself:Not from the delay standpoint however from the GB announcement standpoint there have been many GOT Prem's and LE's listed recently with hardly any plays at great prices, that can still be a plus in your favor.
Yup there was a premium on here for 6k the other day and I just bought one from someone for 5800. Good deals to be had right now.
I was finding it hard to pull the trigger on the price of a Pro for that much money. I'm not about to spend $1000 more just because of delays. Besides, we like the pro on GoT better than the premium.
Quoted from PoMC:Any upside to the GoT delay? We really wanted to be playing soon.
No there isn't. Waiting sucks ass that's for sure. Been there done that and no fun at all.
Quoted from o-din:The licenses are old and stale. And IMO there have been too many of them as of late. It's killing any aura pinball ever had as far as originality is concerned. Pinball is dying along with it's dying themes.
I 100% agree with you on old/stale licenses. And it will die if it doesn't bring in new blood. Too many licenses are targeted at the 40+ crowd. I have a few games in a pub and most of the people on them are in there 20s. It would be nice to see some themes that would appeal to that age group more. Granted location may be a smaller market than for home buyers but without location play pinball will die as there will not be another generation looking to buy the games they played when they were young.
Vid suggested a suicidegirls theme a while ago. On my location this game would pay for itself in weeks.
Quoted from clg:I 100% agree with you on old/stale licenses. And it will die if it doesn't bring in new blood. Too many licenses are targeted at the 40+ crowd. I have a few games in a pub and most of the people on them are in there 20s. It would be nice to see some themes that would appeal to that age group more. Granted it is a much smaller market for home buyers but not necessarily location players. Yes things are going well now but without location play pinball will die as there will not be another generation looking to buy the games they played when they were young.
Vid suggested a suicidegirls theme a while ago. On my location this game would pay for itself in weeks.
Stern has so much business they are having a hard time meeting demand right now. Licenses are not a problem. Production capacity and supply chain issues are the problem.
Stern has no need for different licenses. They are catering to the booming HOU and collector market right now. The licenses are geared towards "grown up kids" with cash, period. Guys like me who grew up loving Ghostbusters and Metallica, who have the money now to buy expensive toys.
Stern's business is thriving because of people wanting those so-called "stale" licenses. Those "stale" licenses has kept Stern in business, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future, no doubt.
They have had a ton of comic games, pretty sure comic movies are pretty big at the box office..................
Quoted from seenev:I have none. Thanks for making me sad.
Funniest thing I have seen all day! Epic
Quoted from clg:Vid suggested a suicidegirls theme a while ago. On my location this game would pay for itself in weeks.
This is the smartest idea for 1 reason; everyone can agree that it will need a full JJP style LCD screen no matter what company makes it
Quoted from clg:Vid suggested a suicidegirls theme a while ago. On my location this game would pay for itself in weeks.
Yes, please!
Or "My Free Cams" with the LCD display rotating between a live feed of the top 10 rooms or camgirls!
Quoted from PoMC:I was finding it hard to pull the trigger on the price of a Pro for that much money. I'm not about to spend $1000 more just because of delays. Besides, we like the pro on GoT better than the premium.
Well if you don't like the premium no sale price is going to be good enough then....
Quoted from clg:Too many licenses are targeted at the 40+ crowd. I have a few games in a pub and most of the people on them are in there 20s. It would be nice to see some themes that would appeal to that age group more.
I'm in the 50+ crowd, but that doesn't mean I'm stuck in the 70s. Pinball was cool when they surprised you with the next theme, licensed or not. Not one a certain group have been begging for for years on pinside. There is no creativity or soul in that.
I'm gaining more and more respect for 80s pinball these days. Original unlicensed themes with way out hand drawn artwork are timeless. I have no more licensed themes in my collection.
I just keep throwing my two cents out there so hopefully pinball can wake up and smell the coffee before it's too late and maybe it can capture some of the greatness that once was. Not gonna happen with the road it's on.
I know exactly the date GBLE orders will be delivered... June 10th. How do I know this? Easy. I am getting rotator cuff surgery on 6-9 and will not be able to play pinball for 6 weeks. So clearly my GBLE will show up the day after my surgery. It will be sitting there for 6 weeks torturing me while I recover.
Quoted from o-din:I'm in the 50+ crowd, but that doesn't mean I'm stuck in the 70s. Pinball was cool when they surprised you with the next theme, licensed or not. Not one a certain group have been begging for for years on pinside. There is no creativity or soul in that.
I'm gaining more and more respect for 80s pinball these days. Original unlicensed themes with way out hand drawn artwork are timeless. I have no more licensed themes in my collection.
You should call Gary Stern and tell him your point of view.
Though, I hear he's tough to get ahold of lately, counting all the money they're taking in.
When people suggest that Stern start making non-licensed titles, it's only because they're not the ones putting their own money on the line.
Like it or not, licensed themes are the safe bet and they create buzz even before they get released.
Right now, Stern isn't out to make the pinball a better place; they're out to make cash.
Fortunately, what's best for them is also best for us, for the most part. The more money they make, the more money they can use to spend on new technology like magna-slings and ecto goggles. Or LCD screens. Or to hire more programmers,
or expand to a larger facility, or bring other things in-house.
Full steam ahead, Baby!
Quoted from Chambahz:You should call Gary Stern and tell him your point of view.
He will probably just keep on doing the 80s until he is well into his 80s. That will keep his retirement fund going I'm sure. It's not up to me what direction pinball is heading as those spending the money are in charge now. I'm just an observer at this point.
I know this much though. It doesn't take an old licensed theme to sell games. If they made something like Whirlwind now, people would buy it. Even the video game industry have lots of original themes that have been quite successful.
Quoted from o-din:I'm gaining more and more respect for 80s pinball these days. Original unlicensed themes with way out hand drawn artwork are timeless. I have no more licensed themes in my collection.
What about 90s games? They had the balls to license movies before even knowing if they were any good. A lot of times the games turned out better than the movies.
Quoted from dmbjunky:What about 90s games? They had the balls to license movies before even knowing if they were any good. A lot of times the games turned out better than the movies.
No, the 80s licensed games were the best. E.T. and Rambo are untouchable video games.
Quoted from Hougie:No, the 80s licensed games were the best. E.T. and Rambo are untouchable video games.
Yeah, you didn't want to touch them!
Quoted from Gort:Met Pro payed in full 1/14/16 still waiting.
Gort, you might want to get a different distributor. I payed for a Met Pro recently and it only took a week for delivery from the factory. The distributor also doesn't charge until the game ships. I've never had to wait as long as you've had and I've bought 5 NIB from Stern; something is seriously wrong there.
Quoted from dmbjunky:What about 90s games? They had the balls to license movies before even knowing if they were any good. A lot of times the games turned out better than the movies.
The 90s kept variety with a few retro, but mostly current licensed themes, and several original that have become the most sought after of them all. It was a great time for pinball, but now it is just a shadow of that. And it's not just Stern. The trend is throughout the industry.
Quoted from Rarehero:Yeah, you didn't want to touch them!
Truer words were never spoken. I learned how to use several choice words playing those games in my younger days.
I think the last current license Stern had was Tron Legacy. It came out within a year of the film. I'm pretty amazed they went for that license. It's not a theme I would have associated with pinball which makes it an even better game.
Edit: I did forget about Avengers. It came out same year as the movie. It wasn't as big of a risk as Tron considering that was a sequel to a 30 year old movie. It was still a risk though.
Quoted from o-din:I know this much though. It doesn't take an old licensed theme to sell games. If they made something like Whirlwind now, people would buy it. Even the video game industry have lots of original themes that have been quite successful.
I'm with you Odin.
I don't doubt the fact that Stern is making money. They are targeting a particular market with a safe (it has worked so far) approach. There are other segments out there though and the collector market is finite and ageing. It will not matter for Gary and his investors though as short term they are doing well. Long term remains to be seen but I can't see things going like they are now 5-10 years from now. Maybe when they get their production issues sorted they will look to branch out a bit. Its nice to not be reliant on a single market.
Quoted from Flato:Didn't they just make game of thrones pretty sure that a recent license.......
That seems to be the new trend. A TV show that's been on o few years in between all the old shit so they make you think they are keeping with the times and cutting edge. I like the gameplay, but the theme integration is pretty bad on that one.
I'm still waiting for a Rambo pinball machine!
Quoted from Flato:Didn't they just make game of thrones pretty sure that a recent license........
TWD too.
Avengers, x-men, game of thrones, iron man, star trek, hulk, spider man, the walking dead are all current and relevant themes
Yeah forgot pirates to, so when u think about it outside of music pins isn't ghostbusters the first retro movie Stern ever did?
Quoted from Flato:Yeah forgot pirates to, so when u think about it outside of music pins isn't ghostbusters the first retro movie Stern ever did?
Yeah, but that doesn't fit the critical narrative!
Quoted from Flato:Avengers, x-men, game of thrones, iron man, star trek, hulk, spider man, the walking dead are all current and relevant themes
I didn't say they weren't relevant but it's not like taking a chance on something that's hasn't been released yet. GOT, ST and TWD were 4 years old when they made games based on them. They already knew the demand would be there because they knew they were successful.
I'm not saying that isn't smart or they shouldn't do it that way but the games of the 90s were risks. LAH, DM, Barb Wire, JM. These were all unproven licenses that they decided to take a chance and base a game on. That takes some intestinal fortitude my friends. Again Tron Legacy was the most recent risk that Stern has taken with a license. Avengers was a risk also but not as big as Tron considering it was a sequel to the rest of the Marvel movies.
From what I gather at Stern there was no room for risk at all until very recently. Perhaps in the future they will be more adventurous but really it doesn't make a lot of business sense to develop a pinball on a hit or miss movie.
This discussion makes me think, was there any current license in the 90s that was successful? The only one off the top of my head is Addams Family. That movie was pretty successful. Maybe Stargate.
Quoted from cantbfrank:I know exactly the date GBLE orders will be delivered... June 10th. How do I know this? Easy. I am getting rotator cuff surgery on 6-9 and will not be able to play pinball for 6 weeks. So clearly my GBLE will show up the day after my surgery. It will be sitting there for 6 weeks torturing me while I recover.
I got rotator cuff surgery almost a year ago. At 6 weeks, you won't be able to stand directly behind the machine. You're gonna be way off centered. Forget trying to nudge it. Took me 3 months before I could play normally again.
All I can tell you, is that it's the worst surgery ever. Do all the home stretches they instruct you to do.
Quoted from Flato:Avengers, x-men, game of thrones, iron man, star trek, hulk, spider man, the walking dead are all current and relevant themes
Avengers- 1963
X-Men- 1963
Iron Man-1963
Star Trek- 1966
Night of the Living Dead-1968
POTC- 1967
Etc, etc, etc... I'm not sold...
Quoted from o-din:>
Avengers- 1963
X-Men- 1963
Iron Man-1963
Star Trek- 1966
Night of the Living Dead-1968
POTC- 1967
Etc, etc, etc... I'm not sold...
Despite there previous incarnations they are extremely relevant today with kids through grandparents. Just saw civil war and plenty of families in there with little kids you could not ask for a wider audience.
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