On games with a deep ruleset it really helps show your status for multiple modes that are running at once. Plus, I and many others really like the high quality HD animations that an LCD can bring. With competitors using LCD tech Stern should do the same (at least a DMD sized one like you suggested) in the next year or two if they want to stay relevelant. I'm not sure how many cell phone manufactures are left making flip phones and charging iPhone prices for them.

Duplicate post.

Even if they used a DMD sized LCD wouldn't the cost of the LCD be pretty close to a DMD? The other day I saw Dell selling 23" 1080p LCD's for $100. I wonder if the bigger cost for Stern to make the switch is developing a new platform to support an LCD. With an LCD displaying HD video and animations Stern would need to use a PC to run the system and develop other hardware around it.

I think a reason why JJP has gotten a game out with an LCD is that they were able to start with an LCD on their first machine and build hardware around it to support animations, videos, etc. Stern will likely have a harder time switching to an LCD as they need to come up with new hardware to support it as well a learn how to integrate animations into it. Keith Johnson mentions in his Pinball Magazine interview that a lot of people don't realize just how much effort and work went into creating the platform for WOZ as well as how much more complicated it is to design code for rules around LCD animations, videos, having 4 animated areas updating on the LCD all the time, etc. Hopefully Stern is already doing R&D into leveraging an LCD as based on Keiths comments its no walk in the park to switch from DMD to LCD.

It seems like much more work is needed when coding a pinball machine with an LCD rather than a DMD. Sounds like Stern has there work cut out for them.

Here's a section from Keith Johnson's Pinball Magazine interview regarding coding for WOZ.

PM: Is it very different to program a display effect now than when you were programming dot matrix displays?

KJ: "It’s more complex. With dot matrix animations all you do is say, “Here’s a block of graphics I want to show, whether it’s for full screen or part of the screen, and then put in some text down there.” With what we do, we have a lot more to think about. There’s a lot that needs to get onto the screen and it takes a lot of time to send data to the graphics card before it gets displayed.

We’re managing what the data is – whether it’s a movie, a sprite, or text, or whatever – and we’re trying to keep that as slim as possible. Then we’re trying to get everything to show up in the right spots, so that it looks pleasing and not like it’s just thrown up there.

With dots you have a very limited area that you can work with. It’s just very obvious which things fit where, whether you’re going to use a small font or a larger font. With what we’re doing, which is a 1360 x 768 full HD display, there’s a lot more tweaking in terms of what the exact right spot is to put down text, what’s the best way to show this movie while the ball is doing something else. It’s a lot more attention to a lot more things than you would have to worry about with a dot matrix."