So Stern may pickup another hot title that causes people to bang down their doors to "shut up and take my money". Walking Dead would seemingly cause some significant preorder interest.

Here's the 64K question. What will they do with it? Will they step up their game significantly in light of the increased pin market competition or will they design another average game (as measured by number of toys, quality of build materials and possibly not finishing the code)?

This seems to me to possibly be a pivotal moment for Stern. To stay the course with their recent formula, or to attempt to change things up a bit. Will be interesting to see what decisions they make with their next few releases whatever they may be.

Well I've been off Stern for a while. I got very tempted with ST, and had a preorder in place for quite a while. I pulled it reluctantly when the LE was announced at 8K. In hindsight I'm relieved that I did, with no regrets. MMRLE was exactly what I was looking for (I hope) and I had dry powder (cash) when it was announced. Increasingly I'm looking at Stern in a different light. I'm rather tired of their formula. Their LE lure no longer holds sway with me, and I'm happy to play their games in other people's collections.

I'm more interested in the newer manufacturers offering pins quite frankly (though at 8K/pin I'm less and less interested in NIB at all). It will be interesting to see how many other buyers put their wallets away, or if Stern continues to be able to sell like they have over the last two years.