No. Did the email ask for your SS#?

Nope...just a jaws update email

Classic phishing!

I did! It's legit I think but it's much too long. I bailed 1/4 of the way through.

Lol, folks at work say test websites on Dave because if its too long to get through I am out! never can stand these long surveys.

I was done at ...

Did anyone else get an email ...

I got it and promptly returned it.
Hope it helps them make good decisions in the future!

Nope, but I'm surprised they would sent one out. Can't they just get this data from the Insider Connected activity logs?

No... the survey was much more detailed and broad than what they can get from IC...

I took the survey - it was definitely legit. It was long (~20 min) but they at least warned about the length up front. Supposedly, I will get $15, but it is unclear when or for what

Question topics included...
- where you play (FECs, barcades, bowling lanes, trampoline places, go karts, etc etc)
- what you are willing to pay for new pins (what is cheap/medium/high)
- what you are willing to pay for accessories
- if you want any digital/virtual pin capabilities
- what manufacturers' games you have in your collection / which you are most likely to buy
- what digital / insider connected features you may want

Your next NIB LE

Will you pay $17,999 for our next LE with basically no mechs?

Is this the end of pinball?

The unsubstantiated rumor mill says private capital has made / is making a play to buy out Stern. The timing of this supports that theory.

I was thinking the same thing... if the rumor is true. Pinside moderators seem to have removed that thread so perhaps it is not.

Or Stern asked them to. Not often that a rumor thread is completely deleted.

It's was a Thunderbird thread. Sometimes it isn't a conspiracy, just stipidty.

As someone who works in finance and has been through the private equity ringer a bunch of times, we better all hope that the rumor isn’t true.

When I mentioned this months ago I was chastised harshly, by folks just not wanting this to happen. Don't shoot the messenger.

Why are they not tapping into the knowledge of their distributors? Did this email only go out to LE buyers, or perhaps only people who purchased directly via the Stern Shop?

FWIW, I have never bought a machine from stern and am not an LE buyer. But I have bought t-shirts from the stern store.

Or alternatively, they could get the answers they seek from pinheads who buy their games, and if there were a place they went online to make it easy for us to just ask our question, which will be this:

"Are you alright just coming along for this new ride, while we try to vacuum every last dime out between the cushions"

What makes you think they're not?

Hmmm. Current Stern management versus a private equity firm's management. Sounds like a "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" situation.

As customers, would we really notice a big difference? Maybe. To avoid a car analogy, let's use guitar manufacturing as a comparison. Fender guitars were founded and owned by Leo Fender from 1946-1965. CBS (yes, that CBS) bought Fender in 1965 and proceeded to dramatically increase production. While CBS ownership also brought innovation, most guitarists consider "pre-CBS" Fenders to be of superior quality. Today, they are much more valuable than Fender guitars after 1965.

The interesting thing about this Leo Fender-Stern comparison is that it doesn't line up. The more apt comparison is Leo Fender to Data East/Sega. Then CBS to Stern because those acquisitions brough a dramatic increase in manufacturing capacity and also led to innovations that benefited customers and the industry. Today, there are far more small businesses making guitars and music equipment. The same is true of pinball. If a private equity firm bought Fender today with the intention of squeezing as much profit from it as they can, it will kill Fenders reputation for quality and that void would be filled in the marketplace by competitors such as Gibson. Stern's competition (JJP particularly) is well-positioned to take market share from Stern, especially in a market that is probably more saturated - relative to long term demand - with pinball machines (a durable good that lasts decades) than the guitar/music market is with Fender guitars and equipment (also durable goods that last decades).

If I were exploring the acquisition of Stern pinball, and my chief objective was to meet or exceed the profits Stern already makes today, I would not be sanguine about the chances to succeed UNLESS someone in leadership really had a vision for making the company and its products better. That was why Leo Fender sold the company to CBS. And, for the most part, CBS succeeded. They had a vision for the company. So did Gary Stern when he bought Sega/Data East. But now, if he wants to just cash out... The writing is on the wall.

Any smart business develops various exit strategies.

Merger and acquisition activity is set to pick up with Fed providing clarity on at least 3 rate cuts this year.

Stock market continued to rally since November.

Tax cuts are set to expire in 2026. Prob a good time to explore getting out while the gettin is good.

Stern is progressing towards a 2 tier pricing structure much like they do with Big Buck Hunter.

As a business, they are/should be considering recurring revenue streams within their ecosystem of past, current and future games.

I’m not talking about $2k toppers

if they do add paid sub needed game modes and other stuff. the IFPA should strongly recommend that evnets trun off all online stuff in games used or say that login = DQ.

The private equity game is usually a lot different nowadays than that example. Typically they come in with a goal of re-selling the company with some multiple in 3-5 years depending on the fund. OpenGate Capital (who was rumored) tends to be around 3 years. The strategy is usually raise prices and reduce cost to appeal to the next buyer as well as typically acquiring more companies to grow the business quickly.

My current employer is owned by one of the largest private equity firms and they purchased us and our largest competitor to capture the market share completely. They merged the two, acquired some other companies and raised prices across the board and the product has suffered badly as there was no long term vision anymore. Just preparing for the next 3 year sale.

Private equity is a huge part of the enshitification of everything.

Thank you for the new word. I plan to use it often. I will send you a nickel every time I use it.

That survey was brutally long. I got about four or five pages into it asking basically the same questions over and over in different ways and checked out.

I didn’t really care about the money but was just trying to help… no way I want to spend that amount of time on something that makes your head spin!

I told ya IC was the gateway to a subscription model. Pinball is going to suck when that happens.

New stern pinball will suck, but there are other manufacturers; and if they all go to a subscription model, I’ll be happy to play the hundreds of games that are available offline.

But I don’t play any subscription games. World of Warcraft came out 20 years ago with a subscription and I said “fuk that shis”. I’ve never felt like I’ve missed out on enjoyment in the last two decades, my money just went elsewhere.

$0.75 for a new game is a bargain. I’d expect to pay $1.00 and anything over $1.00 the game better be in great shape and an excellent title with a fair chance at a replay.

Is Stern going to start making slot machines?

Enshitification is actually a term that's been around since 2022. It's on dictionary.com, wikipaedia, etc. Here's one of the definitions:

"the gradual degradation of an online platform or service's functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users:
ex: There's been a significant enshittification of the website in just this year alone."

I think they are gonna sell everything it Sega & buy it back in few years.

and when IC starts to get forced off at big tournaments to make things fair?

Been a customer since TSPP and got otis.

Filled out the survey and there were some good questions in there and some scary questions.

Scary:

What is the minimum price a new pin could be and you not be worried about quality?
What is the minimum you'd pay for a monthly subscription... max?

There were lots of questions (later on) geared to how much of a riot we'd have if they had a subscription for extra features on a machine... and on an app.

Interesting:
How interested are you in factory tours?
Subscription merchandise loot boxes?
Stern DIY how to repair videos?

Weird:
What is your level of familiarity with Park Ridge Pinball.

I did the survey and said min i'd pay is a dollar and too expensive would be $2.....so i did my part.

This is a common survey technique to ensure that someone isn't just clicking randomly or picking the same value every time.

If someone says they know Park Ridge Pinball well (which isn't possible), you can throw out that survey entirely or discount that person's answers.

Super scary.

I've been saying for a while that I foresee a "Multiball" subscription package coming soon where every new stern comes with one multiball mode but if you pay $14.99 a month you'll be allowed to get the additional Multiball modes unlocked on machines that you log into on IC. Don't have IC? then base package multiball is all you get.

Same thing with wizard modes.

This is not good for pinball.

There was a section in the survey about user customizable features in your game.....not sure if it meant a remote/easier way to adjust settings like flipper power/etc...or customizing rules/a game mode builder....but that would be pretty cool to have dlc or user created challenge modes, etc

oh boy, here come the DLC IS EVIL crowd again.

Like, where did you get this notion from? Video games that cost 60-70 bucks and provide hundreds of hours of gameplay and entertainment? Like, I have yet to play ONE SINGLE VIDEO GAME where the core game sucked, but the DLC really made it great.

Please. ANYONE. Name me ONE video game where the core game isn't worth the price, and you NEED DLC to have a complete game. Just one example would help your argument here.

Don't y'all get tired of running from the boogeymen in your heads and under your beds?

In reality (stay with me here), DLC is simply extra shit to milk the superfans. Like toppers, artblades, shooter rods, etc. these people comprise a sliver of the userbase, but provide pinball and game developers with a lot of extra income. Like, $10 emotes never made any video game better or worse. It's just extra crap. Those mods you buy here in the marketplace? That's user made DLC, ya ding dongs. Is that evil too? "oH nO, mY gOdZilLa aInt cOmPleTe wIthOuT tHis $3o0 3D pRinTeD sHit!!" like, buy the shitty topper if you want an extra mode. it doesnt make the core game any better or worse.

The answer everyone should be filling in is “Free” and “Zero”

I got the survey as well, but bailed. The link wasn't hyperlinked to my 'individual survey' which made it a bit sus.

It asked you to pick three features that you'd want in a paid subscription and this was NOT one of them. It was mainly things like being able to play machines virtually(in the vein of try this table virtually before buying if on location isn't possible for you), different stat tracking and leaderboard options, custom user content, streaming platform access, they were all add-ons and nothing that was a carve out of existing gameplay features a la multiball.

Lots of questions about other entertainment devices as well, such as bubble hockey and air hockey.

Subscriptions suck, even more so when the value is low.

You're not wrong, but there's a difference between a $70 game with $10 DLC that you can bolt on, and a $7000 machine, with DLC you can(have to?) bolt on.

Anymore, it seems like video games are left a little barren on the tail end to sell that $10 widget. I loathe to think of a world where a pin is not completed (as is the current way, {and potentially incented in the world of this discussion)}, but code completion to your pin is linked to multiple updates.....and you're looking at $7000 out the door for a Pro, but $10000 to get the full, finished game a year later at the same trim level. What are you even signing up for, NiB?

Unless you were willing to open up new revenue streams as they were asking about? You say "better" - what priv equity wants to make its products "better" - they buy UP- i.e. they buy the tier they want and know they can open up more revenue streams from there because of less office politics or old way of doing things.