Based on that logic, the next Stern pin will be Fleetwood Mac.
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Who was that clear to? There's a rumor every week. (That's "rumour" for those of you not in the US.)

May be in July ... or mid July !

if rush isn't selling that well, why does stern keep putting it back on the line? I would think that a company like stern would have a handle on what is selling well and manage their manufacturing around that (which is what I believe that they are doing)

Gomez recently said in an interview its selling far better than expected.

I think he also said this year’s senior class is the best ever.

The last time I was at Stern, I saw the Bond whitewood but did not see anything to do with BTTF.

Nice. With Kaminkow being a huge James Bond fan, it’s pretty much a guarantee that we are gonna see bond at some point.

I just hope BTTF is in the lineup somewhere!

All this talk of upcoming titles hurting future sales is a little out dated. The secret release method is archaic and out dated. The only thing it does allow is for manufacturers to half arse it or phone it in on a release.

Just look at the movie industry, the gaming industry, apples yearly shitty releases that everyone knows is coming, they announce years in advance what they are working on and releasing and it doesn’t effect sales especially where AAA products are involved.

Larger markets? Sure! Could it be applied to pinball? Godzilla suggests yes, orders are still flying in and that’s not going to change once Venom or Bond show up, buyers for those titles will still want their Godzilla fix.

Aslong as each game is great and a must have whether that’s until the next new shiny release or for longer, everyone’s going to buy in exactly the same way they do now.

It was never expected to sell well overseas as Rush was more of a North American band.

Plus it's the first LE at over 11k...and they made a 1000 of them.

Guess you could use that argument but then Iron Maiden is a pommy band and sold well everywhere.
Rush still had hits in other countries too including Oz.

Urban Dictionary - Pommy
a term used to describe the appearance/personality and overall character of a stereotype british person
There are way too many pommy dickheads in this place

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pommy
what a shite site. I had to correct at least 4 grammar and spelling errors in their 2 line definition/example

Aussies have been calling Englishmen Poms (and you guys Yanks) WELL before the urban dictionary was even thought of though.
We do love our slang over here

Never heard "pommy" before but Australians I have met definitely use a lot strange slang words that aren't obvious to anyone else.

Its their newest game. They want to make their money. Again Rush is not really a good game. Pinside really needs to take the average of those scores rather that just the highest. If you did that Rush would be lucky to be in the top 50. The people who rate it so high are obsessed with Rush and no logic can convince them otherwise. Look at the Pro score. You are telling me a clock that just tells time and a ramp justify that score?

Haha. I had to look it up, too. Glad I did.

"Australians have been using the word freely since its probable emergence in the late 19th century as a nickname for English immigrants, a short form of pomegranate, referring to their ruddy complexions."

rush was one of the games that I wanted to be epic. is it? no, not by a long shot. there is nothing new or innovative in the game. however, it's a solid game that has great flow and plays great with a well integrated theme. tim and ray did a great job on the software and continue to make it better and better.

in my mind, if we really want to talk about people who need to be convinced that their game isn't all that they think it is, let's chat with the people that think that led zeppelin is a game that should be in the top 100. better than fathom?!? I don't think so

Haters going to hate. You seem obsessed with this topic.

Darth Vader is a good code name for BTTF
Air would be good for Jaws

I agree that the "cannibalizing sales of the current titles" thing doesn't really hold water. I'm not buying TMNT, Mando or Rush now simply because they haven't told me what's next. I'm not buying those games because I don't want to own them. If I knew what was coming, I'm more likely to put a deposit down on a theme I do like. I think the number of people who both want a pinball right now AND pay any attention to stern's upcoming release schedule is very, very small. Pure speculation, but I really enjoy seeing new games released.

Wow.. I never would have guessed.

Movie tickets...10-15 bucks. Video game.. $60... People buy multiple of each every year. Pinball machine? 10 grand. It's not the same. You put Godzilla as an example but it's top rated game and universally acclaimed. And people have Elwin on a pedestal to the point where the only thing potential GZ buyers might wait on is the next Elwin...

What if we assume the most successful pinball machine company knows what they are doing with their marketing/release strategy?

With word being Elwin on jaws that's The only reason I would buy Jaws not really invested in the theme at all, but Elwin.

I'd love to see... and honestly don't understand why it hasn't happened yet with all the nostalgia filled men that buy these games...

GI JOE!

So many incredibly awesome possibilities. No real way to pull a TS4 and get shit on bc of the way GI JOE was. Including anything would be great, and certain things would be bonus (the aircraft carrier, the general, etc)

So many modes. Snake eyes vs storm shadow. Hawk vs Destro. Lady J vs Baroness.

Bombs, guns, jets, helos, ships....

cobra commander final wizard mode.

I mean seriously....

You had me til the end.

Please come up with 100 games that are better than Led Zeppelin. Fathom? C'mon.

Honestly tho, at some point it's like asking who the best ever QB is. You can't compare 1980s to today in the same fashion. It's completely different.

Anyway, there aren't 100 games BETTER than led Zeppelin. There are 50 perhaps, but not 100.

Hater.

I'm not sure these examples make sense. Movies and games are so cheap that few people don't purchase one just because they know another one they like better is coming out soon. Stern worries, though, that for example, that a lot of people would pass on Rush if they knew the next machine was their dream theme. Where if they didn't know and purchased Rush, they might reach for their dream theme anyway. It's not consumer friendly for sure, but they're probably right from a business sense.

**sorry, missed sorokyl's post which basically said the same thing.

Id prefer the 12 inch Adventure Team line… Kung fu grip, Secret of the Mummies Tomb, Search for the Stolen Idol, White Tiger Hunt, Devil of the Deep.…hell look at the titles of the old sets. The modes are already named for you! . And the artwork on the old boxes is awesome…

Used to collect them in a past life…

LZ is very underrated. Great code and shots.

Definitely better than Fathom.

Gary has stood by this business model for ages. I think it worked during the dog days at Stern with marginal sales with mediocre titles. Nowadays pinball is coming back and demand is high. I do agree with you that it is a bit archaic in today's world. I actually think Stern's marketing team does a good job but could do even better with having a pre sale business model. It is a little fun trying to guess and I have been surprised a few times now. Sometimes the anticipation can be nerve racking so a surprise release helps lessen that.

I can understand keeping the titles a secret. Why keep the designers a secret? Our next 3 games are ? but next 3 designers are Borg, Gomez, Eddy. I dont see how that is a bad thing

Even citing the designers can lead to less sales too. "Eddy's layouts are boring, I know I won't want that one, maybe I will buy that Legends of Valhalla instead."

Is a final run of Stranger Things Premium happening?

Keeping the games secret is an admission you have doubts about your games plain and simple

Retired - no more happening

Doesn't look like it. The game is retired.

As a holder of pre social-media a marketing degree I've never used I'm going to strongly disagree with this statement and fully support Stern keeping their upcoming games secret.

One thing that was drilled into our heads was "the Osborne Effect".

There was a computer company back in the early 80s that launched a computer line of high end machines called "The Osborne 1". Half way through their product cycle the CEO said something along the lines of "wait until you see what we have in store for you with The Osborne 2... Orders for the Osborne 1 cratered as everyone saved their money for the Osborne 2. Sales slumped so much, the company did not have enough money to get the Osborne 2 off the ground, and the company went out of business.

Stern does not want present sales to compete with possible future sales.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

I'm still surprised by this as I think there would be big demand.

Show is smoking hot!

You are probably rite

Same. Prices are are also skyrocketing on the used market. If they could make the premium more reliable, I would be all over getting one.

Same reason mentioned before. The Osborne Effect. If people find out a designer has a title just around the corner, like Keith Elwin, orders for current stock dry up as people wait for the next thing.

Its interesting to consider all the psychology involved in selling. Fomo, artificial scarcity, social proof, herd mentality. There are courses for sales forces to learn all these techniques and more. Went to read up on the Osborne effect and ended up learning a lot about mental manipulation to drive sales. Pinball companies use a lot of these methods!

Never knew about the Obsorne effect. I wonder how it works when releasing a new title. Is it better to announce then wait a week to take orders or is it better to take orders a few hours after it drops (like you announce the game at noon, then open orders at 3pm)

In digital games, it's all about building a narrative up to the launch in order to control the number of people who buy instantly, building high day one concurrency and twitch views. (This is another reason Digital Games + Pins are different... stern needs to keep people interested for MUCH longer than say Elden Ring as they make 100s a month for years vs selling 10million licenses on Day 1)

Stern totally dropped the ball on this one.

No last call. No premiums built on the last production runs. No warning of it going OOP.

The game had two years of builds and almost all during a global pandemic. They should have said "we can't get projectors, thus we're pausing (not ending) production until 2023 for one last run. Put in an order now to lock a spot".

I'm not even sure they built more premiums after they released the topper. How crazy is that? This would sell better than Mando in this market for sure. Insane.

Still a little hopeful they will do a "final edition" for the release of the last season. Completely unlikely, but a limited run ala 40th would be so cool, and it would sell out.

Would buy a Stranger Things Premium for sure.

By a VERY large margin.

I think you are in very good company. There are a lot of people that passed on Stranger Things Premium when the code was kind of rough out of the gate and the TK lock had a lot of complaints. But now that the code is basically done and the TK lock can be made to work reliably, it's definitely in demand.

Stranger Things was a sleeper that wasn't exactly well received out of the gate. Early sales were likely affected. That's probably why they are gone.

You can see below that the first year and a half it was out, it wasn't cracking the top 25, and has only trended up more recently since it has stopped production.
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It is really not a great pin. Had one. Not bad but not a keeper by any means for me.
AFM is much better and more fun.
Same layout (or very similar) but with much nicer flow than stth