Yeah I'm really getting fed up with Stern and their constant quest to increase their profit margin by making cuts/inferior changes to their pinballs in spite of protests/criticism by the pinball community.
By far the biggest disappointment for me was when they changed over to the "cheapo" Spike circuit boards in their newer games and it looks like this is the direction they are going to take for the future.
Stern first introduced these boards on their home model machines like Transformers and Avengers because they were a lot cheaper. Obviously they needed to cut costs so they had a bunch of these boards made for production of these games. They sold these games online through Amazon and at Costco and K-Mart and it turned out to be a big flop. I mean if people want a pinball machine they want the "real deal", not some stripped down version of a pinball that is a little more than a toy.
Anyways I don't know if Stern had a surplus of these boards and decided to put them in a few of their newer games to cut their losses and test the waters, but ultimately they put them in their newer games to further cut costs on production (ie more profit). I'm pretty sure in this system of microelectronics there is a main board and bunch of node boards specific to the game and LED boards. From what I heard these boards are really hard to diagnose and service and if you have minor problems with them like a switch or a coil they can take out an entire section on the board. Stern maintains these Spike boards are disposable and cheap to replace. As it stands you can only get replacements from Stern. The node boards cost around $200 with shipping and taxes. So in the past what might be a relatively simple repair, with the "new" Spike system, may require a new board. So basically what Stern is saying is...."Cha Ching!" Apparently the LED boards under the playfield on these games are even pricier. Stern gives a lot of arguments to try to support their claim that the new "Spike" system is better for consumers. Well you're certainly not fooling me Stern, furthermore all the advantages of this new board system resides with Stern. Cha Ching!
I am also not a big fan of Sterns marketing strategy producing pro, premium and LE models of the same game. "How much can you afford?......go for the LE...you know you want it ...ha ...ha." I really can't fault Stern too much for this as it just makes good business sense. I still don't like it though.
I'm also frustrated with the fact Stern continued to introduce cost cutting measures in an effort to increase their profit margin, sometimes taking out and replacing important elements of their games. I'll mention a few of these that I feel are just "cost cutting gone wrong."
Taking out the service rails on the pro models making it a lot tougher to work on games, and replacing these with two long bolts.....really...,are you kidding me?
Replacing the quick lock system in the head and again replacing this with bolts. This really was a great mechanism. Hah....not anymore.
Taking out the lever system for the lockdown bar and replacing this with clips. (Apparently there's no escaping this and new premium and LE games are going to succumb to this same fate in the future).
Releasing games with software not even close to being finished and in some cases needing more than 10 software updates. Yeah who wants to spend a ton of money on a game that isn't even close to being finished. Not me.
Selling pro games with cheap photocopied unfinished manuals. This turned out to be a real PITA for me recently. Really Gary people spend 8K on a pinball and they don't even get a proper manual. Games really need a manual. Heck when I went to Stern's site to get schematic for a board in one of my games I found the online manual incomplete and yes you guessed it they didn't have the circuit board on their online manual either. Really Stern you mean I got to go on a treasure hunt to find this information?
Moving the on/off power switch to the bottom part of the head. This is really a PIA especially for shorter people, especially when you have a bunch of games all lined up. I was perfectly fine with where the switch was THANKYOU very much.
So with all these cost cutting measures why does it seem like everytime Stern releases a game their prices seem to go up.
Why do you think that is ...... c'mon you know.....profit is the bottom line. Yeah also keeping in mind most of their recent titles have been recycled versions of older titles, which you may have guessed are far cheaper to produce. Cha Ching!
Aside from Ghostbusters Stern hasn't really come up with anything new or innovative lately. Don't get me wrong they have been making a lot of great machines. They have a string of winners due in large part to the great game designers and brilliant software people. I think they have one if not the best software person in the business in Lyman Sheats. Yeah they have a lot of great games, but for the price point show me something new or something I haven't seen before. And although I've had limited time on the new Star Wars (Pro) pin I certainly won't be rushing out to buy this title anytime soon. However in fairness to Stern I did like the flow and the sounds. Not sure what the LE has to offer.
So in closing I am very reluctant to acquire any newer Sterns with a Spike board System. With their microelectronics I suspect these boards are even more prone to damage from vibrations and other abuse pinball's may endure. Well at least there are a lot of really good Stern titles without the Spike board system. Also Stern when you are considering cost cutting measures on you games you really should consider the people making your business so profitable. There's also a few other notable players on the field like Jersey Jack and Chicago Gaming/Planetary Pinball and I'll definitely be looking into present and future games they have to offer.
By far the biggest disappointment for me was when they changed over to the "cheapo" Spike circuit boards in their newer games and it looks like this is the direction they are going to take for the future.
Stern first introduced these boards on their home model machines like Transformers and Avengers because they were a lot cheaper. Obviously they needed to cut costs so they had a bunch of these boards made for production of these games. They sold these games online through Amazon and at Costco and K-Mart and it turned out to be a big flop. I mean if people want a pinball machine they want the "real deal", not some stripped down version of a pinball that is a little more than a toy.
Anyways I don't know if Stern had a surplus of these boards and decided to put them in a few of their newer games to cut their losses and test the waters, but ultimately they put them in their newer games to further cut costs on production (ie more profit). I'm pretty sure in this system of microelectronics there is a main board and bunch of node boards specific to the game and LED boards. From what I heard these boards are really hard to diagnose and service and if you have minor problems with them like a switch or a coil they can take out an entire section on the board. Stern maintains these Spike boards are disposable and cheap to replace. As it stands you can only get replacements from Stern. The node boards cost around $200 with shipping and taxes. So in the past what might be a relatively simple repair, with the "new" Spike system, may require a new board. So basically what Stern is saying is...."Cha Ching!" Apparently the LED boards under the playfield on these games are even pricier. Stern gives a lot of arguments to try to support their claim that the new "Spike" system is better for consumers. Well you're certainly not fooling me Stern, furthermore all the advantages of this new board system resides with Stern. Cha Ching!
I am also not a big fan of Sterns marketing strategy producing pro, premium and LE models of the same game. "How much can you afford?......go for the LE...you know you want it ...ha ...ha." I really can't fault Stern too much for this as it just makes good business sense. I still don't like it though.
I'm also frustrated with the fact Stern continued to introduce cost cutting measures in an effort to increase their profit margin, sometimes taking out and replacing important elements of their games. I'll mention a few of these that I feel are just "cost cutting gone wrong."
Taking out the service rails on the pro models making it a lot tougher to work on games, and replacing these with two long bolts.....really...,are you kidding me?
Replacing the quick lock system in the head and again replacing this with bolts. This really was a great mechanism. Hah....not anymore.
Taking out the lever system for the lockdown bar and replacing this with clips. (Apparently there's no escaping this and new premium and LE games are going to succumb to this same fate in the future).
Releasing games with software not even close to being finished and in some cases needing more than 10 software updates. Yeah who wants to spend a ton of money on a game that isn't even close to being finished. Not me.
Selling pro games with cheap photocopied unfinished manuals. This turned out to be a real PITA for me recently. Really Gary people spend 8K on a pinball and they don't even get a proper manual. Games really need a manual. Heck when I went to Stern's site to get schematic for a board in one of my games I found the online manual incomplete and yes you guessed it they didn't have the circuit board on their online manual either. Really Stern you mean I got to go on a treasure hunt to find this information?
Moving the on/off power switch to the bottom part of the head. This is really a PIA especially for shorter people, especially when you have a bunch of games all lined up. I was perfectly fine with where the switch was THANKYOU very much.
So with all these cost cutting measures why does it seem like everytime Stern releases a game their prices seem to go up.
Why do you think that is ...... c'mon you know.....profit is the bottom line. Yeah also keeping in mind most of their recent titles have been recycled versions of older titles, which you may have guessed are far cheaper to produce. Cha Ching!
Aside from Ghostbusters Stern hasn't really come up with anything new or innovative lately. Don't get me wrong they have been making a lot of great machines. They have a string of winners due in large part to the great game designers and brilliant software people. I think they have one if not the best software person in the business in Lyman Sheats. Yeah they have a lot of great games, but for the price point show me something new or something I haven't seen before. And although I've had limited time on the new Star Wars (Pro) pin I certainly won't be rushing out to buy this title anytime soon. However in fairness to Stern I did like the flow and the sounds. Not sure what the LE has to offer.
So in closing I am very reluctant to acquire any newer Sterns with a Spike board System. With their microelectronics I suspect these boards are even more prone to damage from vibrations and other abuse pinball's may endure. Well at least there are a lot of really good Stern titles without the Spike board system. Also Stern when you are considering cost cutting measures on you games you really should consider the people making your business so profitable. There's also a few other notable players on the field like Jersey Jack and Chicago Gaming/Planetary Pinball and I'll definitely be looking into present and future games they have to offer.
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