Yeah, that's WEIRD. Down the Road Brewery closed in Aug 2019 when its founder died suddenly (at only 46), so they've been out of business for almost 3 years now. The space was sold almost exactly a year later, in 2020, to another brewery.

https://www.boston.com/food/beer/2020/08/06/aeronaut-down-the-road-everett-brewery/

Seems like Stern would check with their "winners" before posting it.

per ball is just ball saver.

minimum game time is the same as the other games.

Now on system 3 games BUY IN's have less to no ball save time unlike WMS / SEGA / DE games that gave you extended ball save on buy in

There is no newsletter on the planet that has more words that tell you absolutely nothing than the Stern State of the Union.

I honestly don't understand the point of these, honestly it would be better if they called it something else. There is always zero information!! It's the same every month

Here's some swag, here's some "Army promotions" that no one cares about or even understands, here's our "brewery of the month" that has been closed for 3 years and swore off Stern pins, some more swag, mentions of a trade show everyone receiving the email already knew about, and more swag.

Rock solid job Stern & Constant Contact!

I'm still waiting for my free WWE translite!

Rob

I don't even open the email anymore, instant trash.

Stern SOTU was created to shut Pinside up when all anyone would do is bitch about the state of code on Stern machines.
Every other thread was about how Stern had “no communication” and pleas for anything besides radio silence. Tons of people just begging for any type of word from Stern about things such as what’s on the line, status of code, anything about what is going on with Stern!
They responded, got their shit together with code, hired lots of new people, and have been churning out great games.
I have only actually read a couple of these, but it is pretty ironic to see people whine about the answer to what they previously used to whine about.
Not sure what anyone thought these would be, other than what they are, and I’m sure plenty of casual players and people off Pinside love this stuff and feel a better connection to Stern through them.
Where’s the JJP newsletter to show them how it should be done?

The bitching was well deserved in some cases.

Rob

I guess I missed all the “hey why isn’t Stern telling us about closed breweries?” threads.

Stern announced 18 (!!!) code updates and Mobile ID for Insider Connected 3 days ago. Nothing in the newsletter. Not even a hint. Solid.

People just love to bitch and hate not to bitch.

When people were whining endlessly for "more communication!" from Stern it was pointed out by many that sometimes, there's really nothing to communicate.

Well, now they communicate that nothing on a regular basis and guess what? Bitch, bitch, bitch!

It is, as they say, what it is.

But the fake brewery award was really too much. Now they just make stuff up to fill the newsletter? C'mon.

Just admit it - your day, and indeed pinside - was improved by that fake brewery story, was it not?

Not really. I was just wondering what brewery got screwed out of an award last month so Stern could give it to a long-closed brewery that didn't even like modern Sterns when it existed.

I don't even read it any more. It stopped being 'informative' long ago.

Rob

They started out pretty strong then it just devolved into a by rote recitation of stern army locations and code we already knew about. They *could* make it informative and interesting, but that would take someone in charge who cared about the content. They clearly do not have that.

This is exactly it. It's sent out to "just say something regularly" but it says nothing. Toppers in the works? Code updates coming? A feel good story? Service bulletins? Quick fix of the month? 30 second rule explanation of a code change? There's a million things that it COULD say. It'd be cool if it took this direction.

However it's all about Insider Connected, which had a BIG update that was not even addressed in the newsletter.

I suppose I shouldn't bitch because it IS called State of the Union, and we know how those go...

i remember when i was excited to read about the status of code. rinse and repeat every month. its all about beercades and home collections that only have stern pins in them. u got a jjp in the mix then your pics goes in the trash.

I do recall that Stern of the Union was created to answer the "radio silence" a lot of customers were feeling, especially with #wheresthecode in full bloom then. A lot has changed since that time. Lots of new hires at Stern and the code situation is completely different.