I think with the exception of the Beatles, music licensing isn’t as costly as one would think compared to all the mega franchise themes. Could very well be one of the reasons why mfg’s keep churning out music pins along with the fact they tend to do well on location.

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I give Stern a lot of credit for how they handled this. yes they tried to keep costs down (it's what any good business does) and went too far, but they stood behind their mistake. I know many people that got replacement cabinets, including myself. Future cabinets were built better to end the splitting problem. Its because of customer service like that that i'll continue to buy Stern pins with confidence.

Is Beatles considered a success or did not meet expectations? I don’t want to say it was a failure. Seems you can still buy all models and the cost was definitely higher than other games due to licensing I assume.

My wife, daughters, and I just couldn’t get into it. Just didn’t seem like we were playing a music pin but playing an old Stern Seawitch. Would a new all designed game have been a better option than a re-skinned Seawitch?

Hope they pull off zeppelin if it gets made.

Apparently the license wanted a vintage pinball vibe which is what we got. It’s also why the game is focused on their early careers. It’s what Paul wanted.

Too bad. Sgt Pepper would have been better. Not worth giving in to the artist imo in an area they are not familiar with. Paul knows music. Metallica, Aerosmith, and AC/DC
are way better games imo.

Well it was either that or nothing. I actually like the game quite a bit. Not enough to own it but it’s a fun shooter.

First I heard of this...where is this info from?

I recall hearing this on the Kapow podcast that was a deep dive into the making of the Beatles.

Zeppelin is supposed to be a full-featured game. There was a brief rumor of a reskin, but that was quickly quashed by mnpinball , who seems to be the God of All Stern Knowledge.

Well if it was a claim by Kaminkow, I wouldn't believe it. I find it hard to believe that Paul had a preference about anything pinball when they make freaking Beatles socks, FFS...

Yeah, but those socks are handmade with vintage-era child labor. Paul really is a stickler for detail, apparently.

Latest from our disty is new pin announced around the 15th Dec...but they are 0 for 2 currently and going for the hat-trick.

I can let my fingers do the walking and search Pinside, but if you have that video easily-accessible, I'd love it.

It's not a video, just a thread with step by step pictures:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/reinforcing-stern-cabinet-legs-step-by-step

Its Led Zeppelin dude

‘The Drop’... is scheduled for the 15th Dec.

2021

I think we will know something by 12/15.

Based off of their previous time between releases, the next Stern Pin is due out 17 January. I give it a 95% chance the next pin is revealed in the next 45 days.

I’m still going with sometime this month because their stated goal is 3 cornerstone titles per year and 2020 was a slow start due to COVID, nothing from 12/19 - 5/20.

Considering a couple sources claimed this new title went on the line the first Friday of November it would seem like mid January would be a long time to sit on games at their production rate.

Just guessing and hoping though!

I wonder what the status is of their 5000 game backlog. I'd imagine they are working on getting as many backlog games built before taking orders of a new title.

Aren’t they always backlogged with dealer orders? I kind of thought that was what Gary implied on podcast.
With multiple production lines and their production rates where they are it isn’t a crazy amount. What is their current rate, 50-100 games a day?
Heck, in addition to all the dealer orders for their regular games they throw Heavy Metal and a different Home edition pin into the mix and seem to be doing fine keeping up.

Well they apparently haven't built any Star Wars pro machines in the last 4 months as I am still waiting for one.

They rotate their line frequently through titles in production don’t they? They can’t possibly build all titles simultaneously. I’m sure when Star Wars is back on the re run line it will get 500 units built in a week.

Last time I checked there were still dealers claiming to have some in stock and this may play into when it hits the line again. Been a couple months though.

Listened to recent Super Awesome Pinball Show of Gary Stern. Best interview of the decade. Gary Stern discusses pertinent issues, gives real stories and shares Stern philosophy. He spoke at length on licenses and copyright issues with knockoff toppers. Gary also mentions DLC, EU tariff and 30 Year Stern book. These statements apply to your question:

Stern has 50 office workers that work from home and 250 factory employees.

Stern produces 70 games a day now and that level was a ramp up to help address the backlog issue.

Stern has a 5000 pin backlog (@22 works days per month, this is just over 3 months. If backlog was run every other week for a week, it would take 6 months to catch up).

Backlog is being worked in and being run in batches of 500 or more.

Stern will be further ramping up factory production because of strong backlog.

Stern wants to continue releasing 3 cornerstones + studio pin + vault per year.

Stern has 3 years worth of licenses under development (@3 cornerstones + studio, times 3-year duration means Stern has 12 licensed pins in active development. Average development cycle is 14 months).

Gary let it slip that Stern has already delayed a few titles this year, and then nothing more about what that means. Is Stern focusing on building AIQ and backlog perhaps? Is LZ being pushed to Jan ??? Is BTTF is pushed until May? The most amazing thing, was that Stern’s 75 year old CEO, Gary Stern, is aware and highly engaged in all aspects of Stern and the pinball industry.

That's where I'm scratching my head. EHOH has had 3 production delays since summer. People are waiting months for their AIQ. Tons of people want certain titles that are borderline impossible to come by (DP, JP Prem...etc.). They just announced yet another version of the Home Edition (SW comic).

Why would you announce a new title when you can't even pump out the games you already have? If inventory of game-specific items isn't an issue, why not keep the lines on the titles you've already released, and when Planning or Production can see a spot in the future when they will begin to come back to normal, then release the next title. They're like a movie theater with 6 screens but want to have 8 new releases.

The backlog means that they keep pushing pricing upwards. It is no skin off their backs if DP or JP sales turn into sales for a new game. When a company is capacity constrained the first thing you do is raise prices. It pushes up margins and forces your customers to make buying decisions quickly. I'd assume much of the development cost is absorbed in salary/overhead (designers and programmers have to be working on something). The downside is that creates a bunch of pent up demand which makes it easier for new competitors to enter.

The delayed titles this year were from what I gather Turtles was supposed to be mar/apr and AiQ mid/late summer. Ended up being May and Sept respectively. Turtles was a big delay.

Would be interesting to know of the 5000 games on back log, how many are actually already ordered by customer(us) and how many are ordered for dealer inventory and remain to be sold to the end user.

I wonder how Stern’s factory is laid out after covid shutdown. If there is only one main line and space is available, why doesn't Stern set up a second line and increase output to 100 per day? Spend 2.5 months to set it up and then run AIQ there for 3.5 months. The main line could then be dedicated to backlog and be knocked out in 3.5 months. Stern will have a lot more flexibility built into their factory afterwards.

I thought they had at least 2 maybe 3 lines running currently, may have been mentioned on one of the podcasts a few months back.

That makes more sense because they had a lot of room leftover when they first moved in. Glad it is tailored how it needs to be. Thinking more about it, no way Stern could be cranking games out so fast unless they were set up efficiently. So to build 30 more games a day, Stern would need to hire more people.

There may be enough slack built into the production line to increase output without expanding floorprint. They probably won’t compress social distancing rules because that has been the bedrock of their success. Maybe they could still reconfigure their lines to support higher throughputs required. It’s always cheapest for a business to pay workers to work OT than to hire more people. So the factory could extend work week to 10 hours a day / 5 days a week until caught up or the factory could extend work week to 8 hours a day / 6 days a week until caught up. Most people would jump at chance to earn time and a half for 3 months of overtime. But the factory could always add another shift.

No need to push out another title: 2021 next game.

Disagree. More orders means more stability. If Gary is correct about the current backlog, (I bet he is exaggerating a bit) 5,000 games is only about 70 business days of production. If you employ 300 people and have a huge factory to keep cranking, you need to be as healthy as possible. Get more orders.

That’s my birthday and I turn 50!

When I took the factory tour in January they had 2 lines and only 2.
Gary said they had 250 people in the factory, that’s got to be a fully staffed 2line production capability.

Gomez said they only have 2 lines still ... as of last month at least. One for newest pin and one for everything else.

And I suppose the place was full, no room to expand anywhere, right?

Yup. Huge factory floor, completely full.

Licensed or not we should be getting more for our money. Like a car has several models the pins just don’t have that extra stuff or whatever you want to call it past the base model. Add x or whatever the $amount is and make great full production intense detailed pins all models.

Get ready. That's when things really start falling apart.

They did 10 years ago sadly. Parkinson’s, recent heart attack, degenerative disc disease, autoimmune disease. Health worsening and started collecting pinball last year. Really takes my mind off things and makes me feel good when playing. Stranger Things arrived today and deposit placed for EHOH. Looking forward to Sterns next announcement.

Wow, that's terrible. Sorry to hear that. For me, the classic "it's all downhill at 50" really did start at 50. For the parkinsons, look up the DIY 670nm light bucket. There's research that indicates it helps at least slow parkinsons and other neurological problems and help ease symptoms.

https://redlightsonthebrain.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/cossack-instructions.pdf

Watched John Wick 1 & 2 again last night, would make a fun action pin. Loads of great scenes for modes and multiballs, Ironman on steroids gameplay, use the lockdown button for chaining combos, add a couple magnets, couple drops, kickback, few spinners and I’d buy.

Hell yes! Would love to a John Wick pinball!

John Wick would be a dream theme. It could be an awesome game.

Thanks so much really appreciate it. My neurologist at the VA said it started when I was in the navy back in 1992. So I had Parkinson’s for a long time. Will check it out. Sucks not being able to work.