
Episode 50: Is Stern Pinball a victim of its own success?
In this episode of The Flipside, we dive into one of the biggest conversations happening in pinball right now. There is a growing perception that boutique pinball manufacturers are offering more...
Highlights
- 70-80% of Stern's market is home buyers rather than location operators
- Fall of the Empire likely underperformed home market sales expectations despite strong location performance
- Most new Stern releases have between 300-500 units on location
- Stern machines can be ordered and received within approximately one month of purchase
- Jersey Jersey Jack Pinball orders can take 4-5 months for delivery, even with recent production ramp-up
Notable quotes
“The smaller companies don't have the overhead that Stern has. They don't have the big manufacturing facility Stern has. They don't have all the employees that Stern has to pay... they can take some lesser margins.”
“The reason why they're at where they're at is because they have to have a predictable... It has to be repeatable... these games need to be built on a broader scale because they're making so many more of them than everybody else.”
“I truly believe that people don't – like the people at Stern aren't trying to do anything like, oh, I'm going to build you a cheaper product and charge you more. I don't think that's it.”
“People love these Stern machines. They love them... They like the way the games play. They like the way they're coded. They feel like they're really smooth... So what is this like value conversation that's in the community?”
“It feels like stern is the leader and people who used to root for them are rooting against them now and i don't know why you'd root against them because i just feel like they've done so much great for the hobby”
Entities
- Barrels of Fun· company
- Electric Bat Arcade· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Tilt Games· company
- Dungeons and Dragons· game
- Fall of the Empire· game
- Harry Potter· game
- Walking Dead Remastered· game
- Mason Conrad· person
- Retro Ralph· person
- Serge and Cale Hernandez· person
- Zach Sharpe· person
- Spike 3· product
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