What a bunch of B.S. I've been a JJP customer for nearly 10 years, have bought every single one of their games (sold 2 own 5), and have praised them many times (including offering some criticism). I've been in contact with JJP multiple times over the years, including Jack, and they have all been pleasant to talk to.

I see you and a few others are now resorting to harassment and personal attacks in hopes of driving me away from Pinside. What is wrong with you?

Maybe it's all just a simple misunderstanding and difference of opinion about what the definition of "attacking" another Pinsider is. I'm just not seeing what you (and Panzer) are seeing or claiming.

As I just mentioned to @jwilson, who just called me a whiny bitc* through PM, I don't think some people on here realize they are talking to an actual person. It's pretty easy to sit behind a keyboard and toss out insults, I doubt many of the same people would act that way in person.

Others are right, I don't need to keep responding to every insult and should ignore those types of comments. I've had a lot going on in my life personally so that's why I'm on here often, talking about pinball has been an outlet. Pinside has changed a lot since I joined nearly 15 years ago in that while the site itself has continued to improve a ton there are simply more rude people here or at least people willing to be rude to others (maybe that just comes with more people joining). I'll do better about not engaging with them. I actually just unignored everyone I had on my ignore list, will try this again and add to it if needed.

How about Stern’s new leadership? They really seem to be trying to develop a new revenue stream capability with IC and the ability to sell DLC.
Anyone have an opinion on how that will work out? Or Levi’s nana?

Whew… is it safe to talk now?

That was a whole lotta spanking going on!

now that would be something to see.

Wondering how Stern will be in a much larger manufacturing capacity and now that disposable income, COVID free money, the stock market and collectable market are way down will sustain. A lot of Banning pricing on used pins that don't sell. Thinking Bally/Williams back in 1999 struck the high point and then. . . Agree with YouTuber TazPinball. EM's are worthless and values are tanking.

I predict fewer sales and higher prices. (Which is likely the plan)

As we start the year off strong by screwing over all the customers with existing unfulfilled sales it should set the tone for what's to come.

Please allow my Slight digression.

I awoke from my third brain surgery with no memory of where I was.
Staring at me was the Veteran rehab nurse telling me to get up for rehab. I told her, I’ve just awoken from my third brain surgery.
“What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” She said. And she meant it. I wrote about this in my upcoming book about the whole thing.

I just had to mention it;
it was pretty unique to go through this , but I would recommend it to no one.

I’ll go back and get a picture with her one day. And post it here.

(I thought I was the grease, but I think I am the frosting.)
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I'm going to be blunt: you really need to focus on being introspective. The entire room, even the "nice" guys, are telling you that you're being too sensitive. I'll go a step further with my constructive criticism: your posts often lack the maturity of an adult. Stop making excuses for your behavior. If everyone is telling you you're the problem, take a moment and seriously consider their claims. You have an entire toy story thread dedicated to your personal issues related to internet debate. That alone clarifies your issues to everyone on Pinside, everyone but you. If you continue to refuse to be introspective, please, for the love of God, stop taking over threads with your B.S.

If all 500 of these units sold then it shows that the pinball market is ready for Banning Part II.

I wonder if Stern can reskin BOND 60th, or if the licensor has that locked down...?

So far they aren't even taking the platform seriously, with less features than they should've logically launched with. Having said that, I think the majority of pinball heads would be happy if insider didn't exist so there's no pressure for them to do better. Currently IC is just a thing they can use to track player habits, which is great for them, but currently fairly useless to the consumer. Until I see a good feature set it's hard to take this thing seriously. Can I think of MANY ways this could be great and used to boost the revenue? Absolutely. But it may be years, or never, before that happens.

In the Stern IC podcast Stern just dropped Elwin made it sound like that was not off the table based on how well received it was.

Edit: based on the level of conversation currently happening in the ‘hype’ thread though… well, there it is.

People are just mad at the package and the price. If they stuck the game in the Woah Nellie cab, called it Star Gazer Returns, got Zombie Yeti to draw a tribute to the sorceress on the backglass and replaced the hat on the disc with a raven sculpt and sold them at the standard Premium price they'd move a lot more than 500.

Star Gazer (resized).png

Yeah, and Levi will ignore bubble burst threads. Sure.

Unless Gary owns 100% of his company, I would guess he has investors, they expect the same type of growth from the companies they invest in than companies that are on the public market. They might be less irrational and more patient but they still expect to make a profit on the money they've put in.

I know everyone thinks like the stock market and rising stock prices … but that is not the only kind of returns investors seek.

Know how land owners and landlords make money for generations? Recurring passive revenue. Not by selling property that appreciates but keeping it working…. They want their assets working and generating steady predictable income. Then you can gamble with other speculative assets.

Same as people who invest for dividends… instead of price growth.

And yes, stern has active investors.

Guess it’s for worse after Bond 60th…A game for $20k that has 1/16 of the features (just add $5k) as that other overpriced turd we all know and hate called Toy Story 4 CE lol.

Looking forward to the next cornerstone title that will come with a more “reasonable” price. Hoping for Back to the Future at some point from Stern.

I’m glad someone finally had the courage to mention TS4 in a stern thread.

Someone had to, there’s not many other priced games to compare it to.

Just stop posting on this thread. It is the best thing you can do at this point. There is one person that has been ejected from this thread twice and you know who that is.

Uncle Rico is asking to please just stop before he busts out the T Bone

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that's true. Compared to bond 60th. TS4 looks like it has something to offer. Compared to Godzilla premium that's 4k less than TS4. It looks about half of what God has to offer. If you want real bang for the buck. Buy RFM.

You mean like, Insider Connected PRO?
They are just drooling thinking about getting a cut off EVERY connected game on location.

I suspect years from now when a documentary is created over the current pinball era, the first pinball revealed under CEO Davis will be a pivotal moment.

Maybe.

I personally think this is all down to this license just being dumb. Whoever chased it and brought it in without doing more due diligence feels more at fault than the CEO to me.

But who knows. Someone got hyped up over the pointless and meaningless 60th anniversary of Bond flicks. I realize there are superfans, I don't care, they're obviously not a huge pinball market given how the LE went over, let alone whatever happens with this overpriced game.

Maybe I'm wrong. My guess though is we're going to continue to see really good games from Stern with great packages, so long as they don't continue to pick dog licenses. Why doesn't anyone ask at the first meeting "Hey, are you cool with us using our own in-house artists? Our fans expect more than existing asset collages." And just walk if they balk at that. Always another fish in the sea happy to look good on a game instead.

Good points. I don't care about this game anymore than the contract game Supreme or others like it. Stern did price this game. I would add that a CEO needs to have his finger on the pulse of the industry and 'read the room' as much as maximizing profits and planning growth etc... Based on what I'm hearing such as 'killing the golden goose' and other outrage over this particular release, it seems it is bothering people in this hobby and discouraging people and driving others out. I hope I'm wrong.

Pinside is a small portion of this industry, despite the fact that it may be at the center of our universe. The overwhelming number of pinballers I know are either not on pinside at all, or have merely used it now and then to try and find some information. Most of them can’t stand the melodrama and shenanigans on here. So the pulse of pinside is but a small portion of the greater market for pins.

Nope. Everyone even remotely interested in anything pinball is here. You just shut your whore mouth!

Maybe stern needs to di a better job of vetting the licensors tastes before committing to producing the game. Spend more time on the pitch and negotiations so they can avoid this trap over and over…

Tire of ‘the licensor…’ when we are talking total misses… instead of line item stuff

Do they have the time to do that from concept to release ?

The licenses are often secured years ahead of time. It’s likely more a question of investment…

Stern uses almost all contract artists now… to do a concept and pitch requires time and money. Along with their own design teams investing into the concept.

They often secure a right to pursue before actually deciding to put a game into production too. They could do that vetting before moving to the next stage.

But i mean… after how many times, stern should know how to ‘test’ what the licensors will allow… or not.

This part really baffles me too. Nothing about Bond was that special that it feels worth putting on handcuffs to secure it.

The 60th anniversary? Who even really cares? Outside of a handful of Bond nuts. There is no new movie to piggyback on, and the last one wasn't even received all that well. I liked it okay, but honestly it was a bit of a downer. Sort of a depressing end to things, not much popcorn, not very pinball in vibe.

I watched it with my wife and when it was over we kind of looked at each other with a "well, that wasn't a date movie" feeling.

I assume Stern got ambushed by the "you can't stack modes" bit, and maybe that's a bit esoteric to discuss when securing the license. But they should skip any license that won't allow them to use one of their in-house or contract artists. That should be easy enough to ask about day one.

I worked on a Bond video game a few years ago. It was a challenging license to work on, I can guarantee Stern is feeling the same challenges. I wouldn’t be so quick to blame Stern.

I don't doubt your experience, it just adds to the picture.

Stern got in bed with them. Nobody forced them to make a 4th Bond pinball.

Assigning blame is pointless, this isn't about making it personal. Nobody thinks George Gomez is a bad person. But the end product they're selling is on them in the end.

Game of Thrones was a huge pain in the ass too on the license side, lawyers all up in the art etc. But you should learn from crummy licensors and stop trying to chase more of them.

Yeah totally agree.

“We have some notes”

Wouldn’t it be cool to see what a designer like Elwin and an artist like Yeti could do if they weren’t constrained at all by a license - or the resulting $$$ that’s burned paying for it?

I wish I could share some of the stuff we dealt with on that game. It was crazy.

[Removed] was starring in Stern's new video today.......

Maybe he thinks he's the new Michael Eisner of pinball.

I suspect you meant ‘starring’.

Yup..... HA!!!