I think the better question is
"Why did pinball die back from 99-2010?
(Topic ID: 241035)
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Quoted from Spagano314:Stern, price, collectors, and nostalgia. As much as people hate Stern, operators are making money, people are playing, leagues are thriving, and more people are interested. I am by no means a Stern fanboy, but without Stern I don’t think pinball would have survived. For that I am grateful (despite the current cost cutting situation). I applaud Jersey Jack and Spooky for making some incredible games, but ultimately they are intended for the private collector which is still a great thing for the hobby. I plan on buying a TNA, Wonka, and BKSOF this year. I am 36 and love where this niche passion is heading. The more people that are getting into collecting, the more it drives prices. Spend your money the way you want. I’m tired of people bashing companies and their choices. It’s all working and more companies are willing to throw their hat in the ring. It’s all good for pinball. One of my best friends told me about 8 years ago that, “owning any pinball machine is better than not owning a machine.” I truly believe that with the right friends and good drinks that it’s better than just about anything you can buy for your game room.
I help maintain 51 games on route for the past 5 years. Pinball would be just fine without Stern. In fact their games (post 5k+ pricing) are rarely the best or even good business choice for operation.
Quoted from ryanwanger:So my route would be Addams Family, Twilight Zone, AFM, MM, and then...what? Houdini, Full Throttle, TNA and all four $8,000+ JJP machines?
Some very solid EMs that bring in lots of new people only willing to spend a quarter at the start.
Plenty of awesome early SS and through sys 11 games. If you dont have out things that are classics from ever era then you are missing great opportunities IMHO. Look at our game list > we route classics like EBD, Frontier, BoP, Jackbot, Atlantis, HS, Sorcerer, etc...; we route oddballs like SST, TMNT
Toss on the classics like TAF, TZ, Creech, and on down the line. I could easily fill a route of hundreds of games and not buy another single 5k+ Stern. The maintainence on those old games is no more than a new one and the new ones often cost 2x up front.
You cold route primarily Sterns from the past 3 years and be fine, but man what a boring and repetitive line up IMHO.
Point being that Stern is sadly NOT the reason pinball is thriving. I would say it is thriving despite their tired but solid formulaic foundation.
*caveat that it is really nice to see them deviate with things like Beatles and BK3000. Now if they could just get pricing back to sub 5k where it should be (really 4500 is the sweet spot IMO).
Quoted from TomGWI:Game list
IO Bar: out of 12 games, 7 are Sterns (why is Beatles listed as BumbleBear Games?)
Pooley’s: out of 4 games, 2 are Sterns
Maria’s: out of 11 games, 5 are Sterns, 1 Data East
Alt Brew: out of 7 games, 2 are Sterns, 1 Sega
Schwoeglers’s: out of 13 games, 3 are Sterns
Holy Crap, you own 19 Stern titles. You might actually have more than me.
Challenge is to remove all the Sterns and see what happens. I’d actually be interested to see the results. I think you might be okay [quoted image]
trust me, we would be just fine 
We do this as a hobby and have put every single quarter back in to the hobby for over 5 years now.
Many MANY sterns have major issues and the cost to maintain is often much higher than any other game. Since this is a hobby, the time suck is a big part of the equation. The point I was making is that IME (5 years and over 90 games cycled through in those 5 years) route pinball would be just fine without Stern. In conjunction anyone doing this for business is likely calculating cost of game, coin drop, time to maintain, and resale value when computing what games are worth putting out.
With that list of 47 games, it is likely worth asking why you think we have ONLY 19 sterns...
Of that, look closer at how many are recent Sterns (5k+) and note how we have and continue to buy games made by other manufactures and many are outlasting Sterns that cost more...
People like to say Stern saved pinball. IME, that is complete BS. Stern is in this for the business and they have shown that time and time again. Individual people of course have passion and it is commendable, but Stern is a small part of 'why' pinball is strong again.
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