Maybe they are looking at aftermarket stuff like Pinstadium, and thinking they can get in on the mod community business and accessory lighting.

But this is not that in many ways.

UVGate

I was wrong on my number. Actually #34.

However that pin will be with me like every other pin I ever buy until I die and pass them on. I'm personally not the trade in or sell type of person.

If this doesn't wake people up to the stern bullsh*t nothing will. Wow 280 bucks for the rest of the game. It like it was released unfinished. The sad part is they will probably make a damn $300+ topper too. If i didn't know better its like this thing was made by EA. Whats next charging for code updates?

Any lawyers here who can explain how this doesn't violate Consumer Protection laws against untrue or misleading advertising? This wasn't mentioned anywhere before yesterday to my knowledge and seems like a blatant bait and switch. You can call it an "add-on" all you want, but this was obviously a marketing ploy from the beginning. The holes for the lights were pre-drilled on the ramps for f's sake. Video game companies get away with it because they label their products "contains in-game purchases", but buyers here had no idea this was a feature until "surprise! Look what you have here, now give us $280 to unlock.". Seems like there is a class action suit in there somewhere.

Unbelievable you can buy a $9,000 "Loaded" LE model of Stranger Things, and have empty pre-drilled holes on the ramps, a blank spot under the playfield for a lightboard, and other missing things for future add-ons. The LE should always have the complete and full experience, period.

I was all about LEs now I'm questioning that. To get the full experience and not have to spend time installing things like the shaker and art blades was worth the extra $.. but I now have no idea what the total cost is to get the complete game.

How many add-ons will there be for TMNT LE to get the complete experience? Who knows now.

Jurassic Park LE arrives tomorrow. Feels awesome the whole game is right there and there aren't any empty holes and spots for pieces of the game Stern decided to remove in order to sell it to me a'la carte later.

UV lighting was never an advertised feature. They can sell add-ons all they want. The game still functions as advertised without it. So there is no consumer case.

We just have a major douchebag move by Mr Stern.

I really hope great options with great supply capability start coming out of more companies with themes we want. So we can more easily vote with our dollars.

Imagine if Tron LE had come with the fibre optics fitted, but no LED parts to illuminate them. No one knew exactly what they were for at the time, and since they didn’t do anything no one questioned that they were there.

Then a month after launch there’s a “mod” announced that is actually the missing parts from the BOM, which light the fibres up in sync with gameplay, in such a way that is not possible to emulate with a mod because it’s linked into the proprietary code (that already existed)

It looks amazing, but it costs extra, even though the fibres were already fitted when you bought it, and the code was already there when you bought it.

That’s this.

Actually this is worse because almost no one would’ve seen that this feature existed, because UV ink is invisible. It wasn’t mentioned on the matrix as “coming soon” (even with an extra price shown).

What I find impossible to get past is that you don’t add UV ink to a playfield, increasing the BOM, when no one can see it, unless you know you’re creating something to be released imminently to show it. How anyone can compare this to a topper or a shaker, which are entirely to taste, and generic (plenty of other companies provide both) is beyond me, unless they’re being deliberately obtuse.

Thanks OnTheSnap for the explanation

It certainly sets a dangerous precedent in pinball.

https://www.theukpinballclub.co.uk/featured/opinion-sterns-stranger-things-uv-approach-sets-another-dangerous-precedent-in-pinball/

So agree with this. Very bad move by Stern selling as an add on, an almost necessary part of the game. I know if this were to continue, I’ll be looking to other companies for pinball. It is difficult to not be upset at Stern for doing this. Seems like they didn’t want to raise LE prices to $9,400.00 or $9500.00, so they raised LE’s $100 and pulled an integral part of the game to sell as an add on to get that price anyway.

Brian Eddy was right when he said during the last ST stream, that ST is a very controversial machine. I’m hearing that Stern is failing miserably with this title and I for one hope people reject this as acceptable or it will become the new norm. Unfinished code, unfinished mechs, unfinished whatever, they can tack on later, to raise prices. How well has this approach worked out for EA games? They are failing miserably with the “loot bag” add ons on one hand, but because sport fans have few other options, they still are able to sell them in some sports titles. Hope pinball doesn’t follow suit. We stop buying, Stern stock holders will be telling them to stop price gouging and start building value in pinball machines for a fair market price. Competition could really rock Sterns world for this colossal marketing blunder.

Stern needs to look at how to work smarter at building pinball machines with newer technologies. This could reduce costs overall and keep the customer happy with reasonable pricing. Continuing price raising, with less and less being put in a machine, just kills the home market. Location based Stern Pro market, will be fine. Stern Pre/LE’s are now becoming way overpriced to even think about buying, because 500 of anything is not too limited, in the near $10k price range (with tax, now over $10k). Come on Stern listen to us your customer base.

There's certainly room for improvement...

RM's "DR value" could even end up like, "pulling a Bradbury" on their sorry arses!

I don't get why stern doesn't add this in for free to remaining LE orders for stranger things that haven't sold. Driving sales on a larger profit margin item (the LE game) makes more sense than driving sales on a lower profit margin item (the uv kit)

I normally don’t defend Stern, but if the lighting mod came with the LE, people would complain that it should be an exclusive feature of the LE and should not be available to premium and pro owners. I think selling it as pure mod, makes the most sense.

I WAS WRONG!!! After some thought and after reading many of the posts on this thread, I have changed my mind. I had no idea this kit was as elaborate as it is. I am pulling a 180 and stating for the record this move was absolute BS! This was a piss poor move by Stern

And this is the real problem. There is no consequence for Stern.

"First, no matter how much money you make, it's never enough."

The UV art is a great idea!

But it really should have been in the game from day 1.
The upside down should look like this, stock. Not by paying 300$.

After playing a bit, overall really disappointed. Being a huge fan of the show, I just feel the theme integration is poor, not enough call outs, no real main story line (Take Deadpool, you are Deadpool, you fight vilains, JP2 you visit the island, BKSOR you fight monsters and challenge the BK) Here it just feels like going through mods, not really caring for anything else happening. The layout is ok, not great not bad either, mainly due to the invincible artichoke, the plunge into the open playfield and the right orbit that just feeds the bumpers. Nothing crazy.
It's an overall meh for me as the code stands.

And please give me a Never Ending Story mode with the song.

If I'm really picky, where are all the great soundtrack of the previous seasons? The soundtrack of the show is really awesome if you listen to it, can't really find anything in the game that sticks out.

I think the uv-kit looks better than the projector.
So get a pro and buy an uv-kit.
If you like the game...

A Never Ending Story mode is probably in a season 3 content pack for $500.

You're right. The reason is that almost all of the most outraged complainers are people who were very vocal about not buying the game for various other reasons before anyone knew about this. Most of us that did buy the game think it sucks that we have to buy this separately, but we buy it because we can afford it and its pretty cool.

Agreed. Pro with the UV seems to be the best value offering

twenty84 the "outraged complainers" are sticking up for you the buyer. You bought a game with special UV art that nobody knew existed 24 hours ago. That's an awesome feature! What's not awesome is now you have to fork over more cash for it. This should have either been on the game day 1, or it should have at least been known about. I don't think the extra money would have changed many peoples decisions to buy vs wait, but to not show it and then put it behind a paywall is very shady.

I'd sign this but for me (!) the Demogorgon "rattling" adds an essential part to the fun of the game.

Super shady, why not be upfront Stern. These business practices are worse than a used car salesman. Zach Sharpe is a disgrace.

Maybe not. Batman66 SLE buyers got an interactive batsignal projector as a standard add on. When the game was revealed at expo Gomez said that LE and Prem buyers could buy the batsignal projector as an acessory. Most people I know thought that was a great move by Stern. I cant think of anyone who thought it should have been sn SLE only feature and were upset the lower models could add it in.

I think that projector added an interactive WOW effect to the game that was really cool and is very comparable to this UV feature on Strager Things. Not essential for gameplay, just a cool feature that's helps with the theme immersion.

I think if this feature was standard on the LE (maybe premium as well) and upgradeable for other models people would have reacted much better to the announcement.

Pretty soon they'll be selling 3rd flippers and ramps as "mods"

I'm a big fan of the show and wanted this pin to be made . I was a bit disappointed about how the pin turned out , but it is what it is .
I really like some Stern pins and if I won Lotto I would buy Elvira and JP . I could even get over Playfield issues because the games look fun . Having to pay to unlock a built-in feature is just bulshit , even if I had all the money in the world I don't think I would buy a new Stern just on the point of principal , everyone knows they are trying to cut costs but I never thought they would stoop this low .

Seems like this mod should be an easy pass. UV lighting on pins has never really looked all that impressive to me. I owned a Viper Night Drivin' that has the UV/blacklight feature built in. Neat, since it was already included in the game and Viper also had glo-balls which added to the UV effects. But not something I would've paid to add if a kit was available.

A few years ago I made and installed UV "stadium" style lights for one of my Tales From the Crypt games. That playfield artwork is light reactive and I also installed those green glow rubbers. I thought it was cool since I made the light kit myself and never saw anyone else do that on a TFTC before. But ultimately, UV light is not pleasing to my eyes and I don't wanna stare at UV lighting when playing a game.

All the premium and LE owners can be disappointed that their games didn’t come factory with this add-on. But the head hunting of stern, claims of “unfairness” and “false advertising” are ridiculous. Even Kaneda the so-called “marketing expert” is blinded by fanboyism. And many of you have seemingly become a thoughtless echo chamber.
You were all presented with a description of the product you were buying, as well as a comparison features matrix, along with an MSRP. No where in any of those descriptions was this UV reactive playfield, or software feature for UV lighting during certain modes. You all elected to buy it without this feature, at less than the advertised price. None of you even knew it existed until a few days ago, and would have carried on bitching about unmakeable ramp shots, crappy coil stops, and failing lock posts.
Anything being offered for sale above and beyond what was in the product description or the features matrix is, an add-on. Yes, the limited editions are known for having the “most” features in the feature matrix but have never had “all” features. It isn’t possible given the three product line differences and choices, and is purely perception.
Some real world examples that none of you bat an eye at, high end trucks like a Ford “Raptors” and Dodge Ram “Rebels” include most optional features as standard. However there are still factory made and install-ready add-ons available from SVT and MOPAR. Tesla, actually installs mostly the same equipment in many cars but their full capabilities such as “ludicrous” mode are only limited by software.
You the consumer can choose to either buy the add-on, or not. But it is common practice, it is fair, and it is not false-advertising.

The consequence is people aren't buying this POS pin.

I also have a set of Pinstadiums with the UV flasher option. Have to keep the UV connectors unplugged because holy shit, the UV flashing would come close to making me queasy or something....just did not give my brain positive feedback.....was weird.

Unbelievable.

I mean for $9k this should be the whole nine yards, look at AFM LE was $8K plus shipping how can Stranger a things be so much more money? also the SW topper price is off the hook.

I stuck with the original pin stadiums specifically because they don't have the UV flashers strobe effect.
They have UV flashers but the Omega and other new kits have them flashing non-stop and that ruins my brain as well.

I wonder if Stern will get sued by Pinstadium on this? Pinstadium had the UV lighting first didn't they?

Anyway, I think this and the new code update just made the game much much cooler and I think it will spark some interest in the game possibly. This game needs a boost so I'm glad to see some positivity for a change!

My last NIB Stern was TWD and I'm happy to keep it that way.

LOL, Stern.

People defending this are only opening the doors for Stern to really f you in the ass in future games. What's next? After you purchase a game, they announce that for the low price of $300, they will send you a code to unlock a characters voice, activate a diverter to a subway, additional modes.....? It's endless what they can do once they realize the sheeple will keep shelling out money.

I understand the sentiment here, but if Stern did include this kit in LE and it was made available for PRO/Prem machines people would be all over Stern as well. So much haters here. We all know what's included in PREM/LE

Personally I'm a PRO guy as I don't think the LE add-ons are worth 4K.

You act like Stern f*cking people is something new. Are you new here?

This all leads back to horse armor. Way to go guys.

Yeah, you're right. And what if this kit was included in a LE and was made available for PRO.

Ask yourself dear LE people, how'd you feel if the projector was being offered as an option for the PRO machine? I think a whole lot of people would get an insta-cardiac arrest.

I canceled my STh LE because of the lack of features. If they included this cool UV feature in the beginning I might have re-considered buying the LE. However, I'm waiting for what they do with TMNT. Apparently its suppose to be fully loaded even more so than JPLE!

I was one of the few defending the price of the Star Wars topper , it's a very expensive licence and was just an added bonus to game that no one thought would be included .
But to charge an almost $300 to a game that is already lacking in features is ridiculous .

Yep, here's stern, "killing it" alright ... in post 13

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-fixesplease-keep-everything-else-in-the-other-thread#post-5425765

I find this far less ridiculous than the $700 dollar Star Wars topper that looks like it should be sitting on the shelf at Wal Mart for $19.99.

Na - Kevin Kulek and his Predator letdown team had it first

This is how it starts. $280 for 2 strips of lights and a few plastics is now a deal lol. Toss in the side rail, topper, side art, and shooter rod accessories and its become clear that we are being nickle and dimed at these all time record high prices. An LE isn't even an LE anymore as it doesn't come with every feature offered by the manufacturer.

He who shall not he named was right when he said "Stern is driven by profit, not passion" and this proves it.

Couldn’t care less.

Love your work Who -Day , but the Star Wars topper was added extra , stranger things UV is built into the game and they want you to pay extra for it ?

The projector isn't a limited edition only feature. Now if Stern starts selling LE backglass, cabinet decals, and signed aprons I think people would be upset. As for how you include the UV kit on LE, while avoiding the moan-fest, you just say it at launch. "UV kit is standard on LE, optional on other models."