Quoted from flynnibus:

Reposting from another thread... For those of you who were not in the hobby back in 2005-2011.. and wonder what people are talking about with Gary Stern's approach to things..
Turn back the clock to 2008, when after Stern has been struggling and the economy is really headed south he basically lays off everyone in design sans a handful of people. Here you have Keith Johnson, a player turned game coder and designer hang out some dirty laundry about what happened inside Stern... and then you get 'The King', Steve Ritchie himself chiming in on what was wrong.
https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!msg/rec.games.pinball/pt79ouRvHpw/IFsx_cjge1UJ
It should be very eye opening for those who only know the 2011 and later years of being in the hobby.
Probably more shocking for people is realizing just how dead people thought the industry had gotten and no one saw any light at the end of the tunnel.