13 years seems like a long time to me.

All games, except ems, will go up about $100 in value just like every year.

So it won’t be very interesting. We’ve been seeing this for 10 years now.

It’s amazing all the people who engage in this same ritual every year when stern raised prices $100, which is as inevitable as Tax Day. A dumb outrage thread which immediately becomes a rolling stern grievance thread going back 33 years of alleged pinball crimes.

Don’t you people ever get sick of this useless endeavor?

Find a new hobby. Does the peace corps still exist?

The past predicts that stern will raise prices every year just like everybody else on everything and the past also predicts the same dozen idiots plus a few “look at me!” Newbies will engage in the “shame on stern!” Circle jerk which inevitably becomes another ghosting, dimpling, and topper thread.

The present proves this is correct.

I’m trying to figure out if everybody here knows why they get a raise every year.

Hint: it’s probably not because you are doing a good job.

Well don’t you think you should? Surely you are performing well enough that you deserve a measly cost of living increase annually.

Or else your pay is actually going down every year.

I have my doubts it's hurt that much. Seems like business as usual over there.

Home sales are through the roof. I know many people who NEVER before talked about buying games and they've pulled the trigger the last few months. Gotta do something with that canceled vacation trip money.

Yeah I don't see anybody here clamoring for a return to the Sharkey's Shootout/Striker Extreme days.

It's not rocket science.

Everything goes up in price every year.

Supply costs go up. Labor costs go up, from the guys designing games to the people assembling them on the lines to the truck drivers hauling games to the airport or distributors. I guess people here don't think designers like Keith and all the people involved in designing, building, and distributing these mega successful games should get raises every year, but I'd guess these employees - and management - disagree.

People here really think the extra $100 they need to spend on a new game every year just goes to buy Gary Stern another ivory backscratcher. WHy aren't they sending angry letters to the Frito Lay CEO over the fact that a bag of Doritos goes up 10 cents a year? WHy aren't they bitching at the cable company for the annual $9 increase in their bill? Are you on some La-Z-boy forum ranting about the fact that the Murray Recliner with built in cooler and massage rollers went up $30 this year?

WHy do people here seem to think the laws of finance and inflation apply to everything but pinball, and that these MEAGER nominal annual price increases are some kind of a personal affront and cash grab?

Are pinball people really that stupid they can't understand what is going on here? Stop trying to isolate pinball from everything else in the world. Pinball is not some magical product assembled on a secret island by slave labor Oompa Loompas where they are immune to the same financial pressures and cost of living adjustments as everybody else, and every price increase is somehow 100 percent padded profit. You are making fools of yourselves and inviting ridicule!
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And yes, I just posted a Cher gif. My mom makes us watch this goddamn movie every Thanksgiving!

Your theory - like most here about Stern and their business practices - is terrible and not related to reality.

Stern saved no money "reskinning" a game designed in the 1970s. It's not like they just popped in an old floppy disk and slapped new art on an old game called it a day.

Every single post in Beatles is in a different position than the seawitch game. It's a different layout, and it had to be designed fresh just like any other new game.

People were begging Stern for YEARS to "update" old layouts. They finally did it and there was a meltdown here. SHOCKER!

I hate to break it to you...but SOMEBODY must have liked the "Beatlemania" era of Beatles. They sold millions of records and became a global phenomenon. I want to Hold your Hand sold 12 MILLION copies. No rock band in the past 60 years has reached that kind of worldwide grip on pop culture that the Beatles had from 1963-1965.

That didn't just disappear when they took acid and started hanging out in India.

Stern Beatles is a great game, and it is based upon their most popular period. Fun, looks cool, sounds cool, it's the Beatles. I'm not sure what a two-year old game has to do with Stern's annual price increase in 2020 but I'm sure somebody will tell me. Or is this just another rolling Stern pinball crime grievance thread?!

Every single license in the history of pinball came with restrictions as to what they could do. They don't just hand over the IP and say "go at it boys, whatever you do is cool with us no need for sign off!"

Can you offer us any other earthshaking licensing/business insights?

People had dumb, unrealistic ideas that a game without ramps can somehow be sold for $3500. The STILL do. That’s not my fault.

Drop target banks cost more than ramps.

Don’t you mean all pinball price hikes?

Is there a single manufacturer who doesn’t raise prices regularly?