Quoted from Chambahz:Tell you one thing, it seems as though every other Pinsider complains about code not being completed fast enough.
With the release of an occasional vault addition, Stern has 1 fewer pin to tie up their programmers.
It stands to reason that there's no new R&D to do for the vault editions, so it's more profitable and it keeps the assembly line humming along.
I'd like to have 6 new machines each year to choose from but I'll be happy to have only 2 if it means Stern is stronger financially.
I was actually thinking the ONE good thing from a vault edition would be a new code release and they would fix a few of the existing code issues in the game if they were going to sell a few hundred more of them. But you're probably right.
Stern is not going down to 2 machines a year to make more money. They're going down because I think they do a good analysis of the market and realize their share of the market will shrink slightly (with the other competitors coming out). If they can sell a few less games but for more money (8k or so) then they can still make a good profit at least. I think they'll also be expanding their business in other areas including redemption games (as others have noted before) to grow their business. Just my 2 cents.
