Quoted from Psw757: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!
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.