Some great insights here into Stern's philosophy and strategies for making pinball machines.

Key points for me were:

• the acknowledgement that the home market is a critical factor for Stern's survival
• having an investor on board to allow for continued viability, and 'right-sizing' the company to allow it to survive
• trying to broaden the player base by creating machines accessible to the casual player but still appealing to the enthusiast
• keeping costs down by simplifying design to one unique toy per machine
• an increased emphasis on marketing

Another thing I find very interesting was that Stern will buy up licences but may not get to use them - Avatar being a case in point. They actually had Steve Ritchie working on an Avatar design but when it became apparent that they would not be able to complete the machine before the movie was released they canned it.