6000 machines world wide for the ONLY main pinball maufacturer isnt a lot Brett... he has very little if any real competition. Thats why JJP started up producing machines and on the promise to make machines that are NOT like a Stern he sold 1200 pre sale... all he did was say he was making a machine based on quality as opposed to Stern and on that promise sold 25% of Sterns yearly worldwide market before any machine had even gone to production. The queue to play WOZ at PPE was huge.. far more interest in this than any Stern title. Its almost like the pinball community breathed a sigh of relief with JJP and embraced it for what its not.. now it will be embraced for what it is.
JJP has hit delays.. its to be expected when starting from scratch.. Gary inherited all his tooling.
Once up and running properly JJP will be a thorn in Gary's side.. he already is. I guarantee that gary sweats over JJP and would do anything he could to try and delay its release ( if he can).
Without JJP... Stern would have more Big Buck games..LOL. Since JJP's release of intention he has lifted his game.
ACDC at just under $6000 to an Australian market was a master stroke, but it cant be repeated, all it did was lift his profile and show to the world that he can make a good title when pushed.
4 new manufacturers emerging... oh yes.. Gary is sweating.
it should also be noted that when the repro King of Diamonds went onsite with a Stern.. it outperformed Stern in its takings every time... thats not good news for Stern as KOD was not embraced by the purists and many shunned it.
The POTENTIAL pinball market is far far bigger than Stern have been able to satisfy... presales for WOZ attest to the hunger in the community for something other than the Stern business code.
Stern have ALWAYS been lazy.. he copied everything right from the start and with little or no competition he has no real drive.
Next 3 years will see a lot more happening in the pinball market with the new manufacturers emerging... if these manufacturers didnt think that Sterns games lacked direction and met the market demand they wouldnt set up.. it aint cheap!
But no... money is on the table and convictions have been made... all because of the belief that Stern doesnt deliver to a POTENTIAL market... not an existing Stern market... but the thousands of others who havent bought NIB due to lack of innovation and imagination.
Stern now has shareholders that he has to keep happy... and with share holders its all profit.. more profit or close. This new investment in Stern could well be its own demise. I hope not as all innovations in pinball have come about with stiff competition for rival companies.
Maybe Stern will emerge as a GOOD pinball manufacturer.. its not a reputation it already enjoys.. apart from yourself that is...LOL
