Episode 20: "Is Pinball Dying? Foo Fighters Vault, Stern’s Next Cornerstone & Pinball Hype!"
In this action-packed episode of The FlipSide Podcast, we’re diving into some of the hottest topics in pinball! Stern has announced that Foo Fighters is heading to the vault, but why so soon? We’ll...
Highlights
- Next Stern Cornerstone game will be announced/revealed at CES in early January, likely Dungeons & Dragons rather than King Kong
- Seven titles removed from Stern Vault program will not be in production for at least two years: Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Star Wars Comic Art Edition, Avengers Infinity Quest, Elvira's House of Horrors, and Foo Fighters
- Foo Fighters sale trajectory dropped after strong initial launch despite being well-received game by Jack Danger
- Some Stern Pinball Cup participants are cheating by having family members play on their machines to accumulate points
- Tournament-grade machine pitch settings (7.0-7.5+) are significantly steeper than Stern's recommended standard 6.5 degrees
- Pinball machine prices may increase in 2025 due to tariffs on imported components from China
- Secondary market for recent pinball machines shows prices declining; most machines cannot be resold at purchase price unlike earlier hobby era
- Metallica Remastered Limited Edition had production run of only 500 units and is highly desirable on secondary market
Notable quotes
“Foo Fighters is on there. That one surprises me because I feel like this is a hunch. I have no data to back up or support this. I feel like Foo Fighters out of the gate was really popular.”
“I'm not cool with that only because it's supposed to be a competition. If you're doing things that are technically cheating, then it kind of sucks, man.”
“If you go down there [Electric Bat], there is no way you would come to the conclusion that pinball is dying or dead or even close to dead or on life support. What you would probably come away from is saying it's thriving and people are loving it and more people are coming in.”
“I feel like pinball is a super expensive hobby as it is... unless there's things that they can have alternative means to source them in the U.S. But again, the U.S. prices for whatever these components are may be more expensive.”
“When you get older you have like a hard time gauging age on anyone anymore... this kid... he was like in the top 20 in Arizona.”
Entities
- Flippin' Out Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- CES· event
- Stern Pinball Cup· event
- Avengers Infinity Quest· game
- Deadpool· game
- Foo Fighters· game
- Godzilla· game
- Iron Maiden· game
- John Wick· game
- Metallica Remastered· game
- Nudge Magazine· organization
- Ian· person
- Jack Danger· person
- Kale· person
- Kaneda· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- KongsRUs· person
- Retro Ralph· person
- Rudy· person
- Stern Insider Connected· product
- Stern Vault Program· product
- Electric Bat· venue
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