No. Dec 14th.

Then I'd have another pin coming.

Borg already confirmed his game is coming this year.

So I was giving Stern shit about how they are pushing their limits and pissing off a lot of people/employees/distributors with the growing backorders and Gary stated it is a necessary evil because of license agreement timelines, etc. They have to do or they will lose the rights?

I had a thought what if after Rush-into 2022 Stern takes a break and plays catch up. Put the future cornerstones on hold until things get caught up? If they wanted to do a quick cash grab in-between to cover operating cost they could do a 300 run of KISS Pro and a 300 run of Ghostbusters(special purple edition?) Lots of ways to make money while catching up and not pissing off your customer base. Just a thought?

How bout some vaults for 2022+ BTTF and I am all good

Or they piss off the customer base waiting for all the rumored releases? I think its a hard balance right now of producing scheduled titles and keeping up with demand of existing titles. No one could of predicted what the world is going thru right now. Crazy times we are seein, and I don't see it ending in the near future.

I feel for some pinheads-some people keep getting kicked down the road-especially with Mando. I think it is unprofessional and it puts distributors in an awkward position. Get ahead of it already and quit putting out new titles until you do imo. If I wanted to wait a year for a game I would buy from Spooky(Oh snap-I just did waiting for Halloween is agonizing)

I would punt until Feb 1. Fulfill some of the existing orders that are getting punted 3-4 months. The problem with a growing backlog is that while you might get a ton of orders on the books from folks excited about the shiny new thing, you're going to piss off your customers by making them wait an extra long amount of time so that you can cut in line with the new stuff. It works short term, but long term fewer people will buy something then need to wait 6 months to a year to get delivered.

Any confirm out there of which in production Stern titles will be completely cut from 2022 schedule?
I’ve heard rumors a few may be pushed in order to keep up with new releases.

Borg freakin knocked Metallica out of the park-wondering what he will do for RUSH? My wife has commented that RUSH is what pinball music is all about.

AC/DC and Aerosmith did not do it for me but I love my Rolling Stones, Metallica and Led Zeppelin(epic) so the jury is out for me on RUSH?

Wait...aren't we saying the same thing? Or are you just saying specifically the 14th?

Rush for Dec 14th is my speculation guess. Not sure why I thought you typed 2022.

That is silly to say.

Just a bit of an exaggeration...but I did wait 8 months for my SW Pro and people are still waiting for day 1 Mandos...so maybe not too far off?

8 vs 13+ months, seems like a big difference.

Though, 8 month wait still sounds like it sucks.

Hey, I'm not arguing with you. I have no clue on sterns strategy, but as consumers we are being force fed to wait for everything we want now, and not just in pinball. Not really sure how they will handle it. After picking up gz and gnr 10 days apart, I hope rush is pushed back a bit. But I don't believe it will be.

"How bout some vaults for 2022+ BTTF and I am all good"

Vaults are just knock offs of the originals. Also, Im pretty sure they dont want to be caught up. Its the scarcity that makes them valuable. Put your time in and Im sure you can find one.

BTW Rush still sucks. Limelight forever man. Stern has no answer to JJPs rock pin.

I don't think you will see Stern putting out any DMD, SAM or Spike1 games for a long time.
They just don't need to anymore and their lines are set up to mass produce games based on their most recent tech. Why take the time to change lines over and retrain assembly staff when they have a backlog going out the door?
I ordered a Deapool pro in Nov2020 and ended up buying a used one 2mo ago. Most games I discuss with my distributor aren't going to be available until the spring or later. Stern should slow down there release schedule to play catch up but they won't stop and they won't be looking to vault anything for a while imo.

That might just be bad distributors. I had my game over quickly, played for the summer and sold it to fund Ultraman already....and I'm in Canada lol

Get out of here with that bs. Gnr is definitely pretty but boring as hell. Watch one in public and count the people that walk away with balls still left to be played.

How can you blame distributors for Stern not giving them games to give to their customers ?

Sure they do. All of their music pins make you want to keep hitting the start button. I played GnR many times this weekend. Beautiful game. Total snoozefest. It's the first time I wanted a multiball to end. (Don't believe me? There were two guys in line behind me during a marathon multiball session and I turned to them and said, "Trust me, guys...I want this over as much as you do." Wish I knew who they were on Pinside so I could call witnesses...)

Sorry to disagree but GNR is in the top 10 , Led Zeppelin isn't even in the top 50 .

So is Squid Games. Also overrated. (And if you really take your leads from the Pinside Top 10, we've got a few things to talk about...)

Oh , here comes to speech about the ratings don't matter , especially if they don't agree with what you say

What is great about Pinside is you can agree to disagree
-GNR is a turd or box of lights with Fat Axl
-Led Zeppelin is a masterpiece and Steve Ritchie's Swan song from Stern-Legendary

People keep saying Stern will not do vaults unless they are Spike? How hard can it be to source old boards and configure the line? Lots of money to be had for vaults. You know what I like about vaults? They help keep prices relative and on earth, when Iron Man vault dropped so did the overpriced Iron Man's. I want a KISS but I really think they are extremely overpriced-need to do a vault asap.

I prefer to disagree to agree.

W H Y would Stern run a vault? With a backlog of 10k games and growing and a pipeline of blockbuster themed pins coming, there is no reason to vault anything. They can’t build what they want to, now. They should spend their dollars extending licenses a few years for each game in production.

For the record , I really enjoyed the Led Zeppelin pinball machine .
But I enjoyed guns and roses more , and I felt I
got more for my money .
I will stick up for what I like , I don't need to shit on games I'm not into .

I had a kiss. Over rated. And I love the theme. But was easy to sell

overrated or not, Stern has laid many a musical turd pinball machine. Stones, Aerosmith, Primus, KISS and Zeppelin are bad. The rest rate from great to excellent on my scale.

Why would Stern do a vault? Stern needs to keep their hands in as many pockets as possible. They have 5 lines and now lots of employees making the big bucks. Got to keep the machine churning with action. Why is Stern messing around with the JP Pin and a 40th Elvira in the midst of HUGE backlogs? Greed or savvy business sense? I think if Stern can slow the shit down and offer some vaults to keep the children fed it will help lessen frustrations from months and months of delays?

Vaults suck I want innovation and new games sorry

You thought you wanted innovation when you bought that paperweight JJP GNR-BTW did you ever sell it or is it still collecting dust?

One thing for sure is Stern is on fire right now with new innovative games. After RUSH it will be interesting what they bring in 2022?

My interest list in order...

BTTF
Beetlejuice
Mission Impossible
007
Superman
NHL

Just realized who I was going back and forth with so I'll bow out and let you have the last word. But I never shit on GnR if I said it's a gorgeous game with an amazing light show. I just said it was boring. I've also said Godzilla is an amazing game but I don't like the theme, art, or callouts. I kept playing it at Pintastic this weekend, though. So you tell me: what's more important in a pinball machine? Again...the last word is yours.

C'mon Boob-One man's turd is another man's treasure

And the Pinside ratings don't matter, btw, whether I agree or not. Remember when STh was a shitty game? Pinside likes to change its tune every 3 months or so.

2112>> 12/12/21 or 21/12, 2021 me thinks

This machine is going to rock!

What part of STERN DOESNT NEED TO VAULT A GAME. Lines are full now. Vaults were to fill in gaps. There are no gaps, thus no vaults. Let it go.

Yes vaults are to fill gaps and also for quick cash grabs. My idea for vaults was to get caught up is all, I like new games as well. Put a cornerstone on hold for say 3 months delay-churn out some vaults and get backorders to a couple months tops? Food for thought?

vaults .... N O ! Issuing vaults are for losers who can’t come up with something new to put on the line.

They are already cash grabbing with the new games. I don't foresee a vault happening for years.

So if you put 300 or 500 vaults on the line, how does that still not put new games backordered even further?

Uses different parts that aren’t backlogged

No one knows what parts Stern has on the line for games in production.

cam inside Illinois First National’s vault showing a machine counting Stern’s profit in real time. There are ten more like it that are being used. Ten additional machine have been ordered to handle surges when the money spills onto the floor and quickly fills the room. I am pretty sure this is the only kind of vault Stern wants.

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I don't doubt Stern is putting in game specific parts orders 200 to 500 units at a time. They have to constantly rotate the production games being built to satisfy older orders. I expect to see Star Wars and Batman drop off the production list soon, most likely after their next run of these.

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