would williams pinball return?

[andypinboy]

Mike, what you are undertaking is mammoth, almost unfathomable (almost a pin pun) - to design & manufacture your own parts with an end goal of complete retail pins is huge. The patience, resources, skills, courage, vision & time required is more than most of us would even comprehend. I for one hope you do damn well. Cheers  

[4_amusement_only]

....all that top stuff AND still finds the time to lay down the law on forums 

[pinball god]

Ok williams comin back is like me winning tattslotto. But I'm still interested in people's thoughts re if they did re enter the market. Has stern progressed in quality, innovation, creativity to give williams a run for their money or would it be a given williams would lead the market again. Lets say some of the greats joined them, j pop, s ritchie and say lawlor and the rest remained with stern and Williams have a factory again. If stern keeps their stronghold how long before williams would be a real threat? The floor is open to you.

[pinnies4me]

Has stern progressed in quality, innovation, creativity .....

Creativity? Isn't the latest game a copy of a Bally from 1978? 

[Brunswick Brawler]

Perhaps to take a different line then: If Williams were still around today...


Williams would be exactly like Stern.  Stern is a mature business.  They are in the business of making money - so to were Williams.  With a smaller market in the mid 2000, Williams would have done what Stern did - cut back on the playfield.  With an growth market that is here now, including a new home market, Williams would gear up again - as Stern has.

...Have no doubt about it - if Williams continued they would be exactly like Stern.  They would both be mature experienced businesses, likely with the same mature approaches.  Williams would have cut back their playfields - after all, they took it one step further and shut down the business in 1999.

Design creativity cannot override management direction.  When all your focus is on creativity, and the business side is ignored such as JJPs crazy line "we are not designing with a calculator"... well you saw what happened there - the calculator eventually came out.  JJP eventually said that the 'no calculator' approach was wrong, and that one needs to know when to 'stop' the designers who have a creative tendency to never finish.

[Caveoftreasures]

If Williams reopened, unless the design and mechanical engineering staff from Stern were offered double salary and five year contracts, it would be too risky to leave Stern.
Even if the massive money and water tight contracts got them to leave, they run the risk of losing Gary Sterns trust and future loyalty since he has been good to all these guys since 1999.

Too much risk to leave Stern for most I think.
Also, it takes a massive team to pull off what Stern is currently doing, so u might get a third of a great great team, but u need every member to be great for it to work.
Maybe not enough pinball experienced people to go around and could the market handle another big operation like Stern. Maybe too many people eating out of the one pie.

Scale of economies, maybe it would mean no one makes a profit.

Just glad Stern has carried the torch.
Gary Stern has pulled off a miracle with his decades of business savy.
The man is a genius. Not many Gary Sterns around.

Who would be the Gary Stern of a new Williams ? Who could fill such a role. ?
Who is around today who could do that. JJP tried but they are only ten percent of Stern.

Big role to fill before Williams could launch regardless of $$.
Great thread.

[solar value]

Designing a particular pinball machine is only 5% of the picture as some other start-ups are finding and relying on outside suppliers is a recipe for disaster (as JJP found out early in the piece).

Very interesting comments, thanks Mike. It certainly seems that the outsourcing of parts has been a major stumbling block for both JJP and now Heighway whose production line has also been held up while they wait for parts which were not up to standard to be revised.  It will be very interesting to watch how your very different approach to pinball manufacturing develops in the second half of the year.

Thanks also for posting the updates on your facebook page, it's fascinating to get these behind-the-scenes glimpses of what is going on in the factory.