# Drinks With Jack Featuring Gary Stern & Seth Davis (Part 3)

**Source:** Stern Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-12-22  
**Duration:** 8m 1s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE64Ke50l9U

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## Analysis

Gary Stern and Seth Davis discuss Stern Pinball's future strategy, emphasizing Insider Connected as a platform to bridge three distinct market segments (commercial operators, collectors/enthusiasts, and newcomers) through connectivity, data collection, and player feedback. They highlight the competitive necessity of connected products, the value of analytics for both players and designers, and Stern's investment in understanding player behavior across 100,000+ networked machines. The conversation positions Insider Connected as bringing pinball into the 21st century through bidirectional data flow and emphasizes listening to community feedback on prioritization (e.g., leaderboards launched ahead of other features).

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Insider Connected has enabled a 30-40% increase in play over last year — _Gary Stern directly stating verified statistic about IC impact on gameplay volume_
- [HIGH] Stern has invested millions of dollars in Insider Connected development — _Gary Stern explicitly mentions 'millions of dollars' investment with partner_
- [MEDIUM] Any product without connectivity in 5-10 years will fail — _Gary Stern's prediction based on market trend observation across lending/investor events_
- [HIGH] Stern Pinball is the only manufacturer with scale to connect 100,000+ games annually — _Gary Stern stating unique competitive advantage: 'Nobody will ever do this but us because nobody's got the scale'_
- [HIGH] Leaderboard was not the original planned feature but was added based on operator/homeowner feedback at shows — _Gary Stern explaining feature prioritization: 'we saw at this show and at IAAPA that both operators and homeowners wanted leaderboard. So we listen'_
- [MEDIUM] Advanced analytics for players showing flipper usage and shot preferences is in future development — _Seth Davis confirming analytics feature is 'something that we're looking at for the future'_
- [HIGH] Pinball has grown significantly over the past 4 years — _Gary Stern observing 'how big pinball's gotten, even over the four years that I've been here'_
- [HIGH] A theme survey will be conducted shortly to understand player preferences — _Gary Stern: 'You guys will get another survey here shortly for this year' and 'Theme survey. Themes—theme survey coming shortly'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Pinball is not just one group of people, right? We have, you know, this business started as a commercial business... And then we have enthusiasts and collectors... And then we have the new-to-pinball people which eventually become enthusiasts and collectors."
> — **Gary Stern**, early
> _Core statement of Stern's market segmentation strategy and acknowledgment of three distinct buyer groups with different priorities_

> "Any product that is not connected in five or ten years will fail... that's where we're going."
> — **Gary Stern**, middle
> _Bold strategic prediction positioning connectivity as existential to Stern's future and pinball industry viability_

> "Nobody will ever do this but us because nobody's got the scale. And that is the future."
> — **Gary Stern**, middle
> _Articulation of Stern's claimed unique competitive moat: scale in connected hardware and software_

> "Leaderboard was not the first thing early thing we were going to do. But we saw at this show and at IAAPA that both operators and homeowners wanted leaderboard. So we listen and so we change direction."
> — **Gary Stern**, middle
> _Demonstrates customer-driven product development and responsiveness to community demand for Insider Connected_

> "I would love to learn like I use the left flipper more than the right on Venom or I like really love to shoot this orbit for some reason... Some sort of analytics or like data graph that I can get from that."
> — **Jack Danger**, late
> _Example of feature players desire from connectivity: personal performance analytics tied to game design_

> "We've talked a bunch about advanced analytics. That's something that we're looking at for the future and doing that so players know, but also so designers know, right?"
> — **Seth Davis**, late
> _Confirmation of bidirectional data flow strategy: analytics benefit both players and designers_

> "That alone brings pinball into the 21st century. That's where we're going."
> — **Gary Stern**, late
> _Positioning Insider Connected as transformative technology modernizing the pinball industry_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Gary Stern | person | CEO/leadership of Stern Pinball; discussed company strategy, Insider Connected investment, and market positioning |
| Seth Davis | person | Stern Pinball executive/leadership; discussed Insider Connected development, player analytics, and product roadmap |
| Jack Danger | person | Pinball designer/content creator hosting 'Drinks With Jack' interview series; asked questions about Insider Connected analytics and future features |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern Pinball's connectivity and leaderboard platform; central to company's digital future strategy with 100,000+ connected machines and millions invested |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer discussing strategic direction, market segmentation, and technological roadmap |
| Spike 2 | product | Stern's pinball machine hardware platform compatible with Insider Connected infrastructure |
| Spike 3 | product | Stern's newer pinball machine hardware platform; implied as part of scalable connectivity strategy |
| Venom | game | Stern Pinball title used as example for potential player analytics features (flipper usage tracking) |
| IAAPA | event | Trade show where operators and homeowners provided feedback on desired Insider Connected features like leaderboards |
| Microsoft Live | product | Comparative example cited by Gary Stern for how platform services evolve based on customer feedback |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Insider Connected Platform Strategy, Market Segmentation (Operators, Collectors, New Players), Connectivity as Competitive Necessity, Player Analytics and Data Collection
- **Secondary:** Future Roadmap and Feature Development, Community Feedback and Surveys, Pinball Industry Growth
- **Mentioned:** Designer Access to Performance Data

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Optimistic framing of Insider Connected as transformative platform; confident assertions about Stern's competitive advantage; appreciation expressed for community support. Tone is forward-looking and strategic rather than defensive. Light humor about Gary's future taxidermy presence maintains conversational warmth.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Stern Pinball explicitly addressing three distinct market segments (commercial operators, collectors/enthusiasts, newcomers) and committing to balanced product development across all three despite differing priorities (confidence: high) — Gary Stern: 'the challenge for us is balancing all of those things and doing right by every single one of those groups. And that's what we're aiming to do.'
- **[business_signal]** Stern Pinball positioning Insider Connected as strategic platform differentiator; claims unique manufacturing scale (100,000+ connected games) that competitors cannot match (confidence: high) — Gary Stern: 'Nobody will ever do this but us because nobody's got the scale. And that is the future.'
- **[business_signal]** Gary Stern reports 30-40% increase in play volume year-over-year on Insider Connected networked machines, indicating significant platform adoption and engagement growth (confidence: high) — Gary Stern: 'he can see—he can see the uh 30, 40% increase in play over last year'
- **[community_signal]** Stern conducting theme preference surveys and actively seeking player feedback to guide game design and IP selection decisions (confidence: high) — Gary Stern: 'You guys will get another survey here shortly for this year... Theme survey coming shortly'
- **[product_strategy]** Advanced analytics features for players showing flipper usage, shot preferences, and scoring patterns are in future development, planned to benefit both players and designers (confidence: high) — Seth Davis: 'We've talked a bunch about advanced analytics. That's something that we're looking at for the future' and Jack Danger's request for such analytics on Venom
- **[sentiment_shift]** Positive framing of pinball industry growth and community engagement; Gary Stern expressing gratitude for fan support and acknowledgment of booth/event scale expansion (confidence: high) — Gary Stern: 'it's just amazing how big this show has gotten, how big pinball's gotten, even over the four years that I've been here'
- **[business_signal]** Stern Pinball deliberately prioritizing feature development based on community feedback; leaderboards were not original IC priority but were added after operator and homeowner demand at shows (confidence: high) — Gary Stern: 'Leaderboard was not the first thing... But we saw at this show and at IAAPA that both operators and homeowners wanted leaderboard. So we listen and so we change direction'
- **[technology_signal]** Connectivity and bidirectional data flow framed as existential requirement for pinball products; any unconnected product will fail within 5-10 years according to Gary Stern's market analysis (confidence: medium) — Gary Stern: 'Any product that is not connected in five or ten years will fail' based on investor/lender trend observation

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## Transcript

Okay. What do you think the future looks like here at Stern Pinball?

I think elements of the future of pinball are just better understanding all the sort of groups of folks. Pinball is not just one group of people, right? We have, you know, this business started as a commercial business. A lot of the roots were in coin-op commercial operators and all that. And then we have those folks. We have enthusiasts and collectors like a lot of the folks that are here. And then we have the new-to-pinball people which eventually become enthusiasts and collectors. And you know, part of what we're doing with Insider Connected is we used to not really have a way to directly talk with all of you and talk with folks. And now we have a better way to, you know, understand what people are doing, understand how they're playing. You know, you guys will get another survey here shortly for this year. We surveyed you all last year to ask you what you wanted. We're going to survey you again.

Of themes, you mean?

Oh, themes.

Oh.

Theme survey. Themes—theme survey coming shortly. I need to I need to not be tied up here so I can help finish that out. So, but we want to know what you want, right? We want to hear from you about everything you want. We want to give you what you want, whether you be new to pinball, whether you be, you know, you've been in pinball for a long time, or you're just focused on commercial. And so, you know, as a company, we're working on making sure we work on all those three segments all at the same time and give them all the attention they're due. As you know, like their priorities are often the same, but they're not always the same. And so, you know, the challenge for us is balancing all of those things and doing right by every single one of those groups. And that's what we're aiming to do.

Fantastic. Uh, Gary, how do you feel about me taking over as the face of the company instead of you? Is that okay?

Yes. Yes, it is. You did.

You didn't. Exactly. Gary will be here forever. Uh, we're going to freeze him. He's going to be here with us the whole entire time. I can't wait.

He's not going to freeze me. This is a true story. I was at the bar I go to and they've got the business cards. One was the taxidermist. And truly, this is true. I called. I got a quotation. He knows, you know, where I am. They everybody knows—will me to him. You know, when they wheel me out of the factory, which is how they're going to get me out of there in a box, probably a cardboard box and not a wood box, take me to the taxidermist. He's going to taxiderm me up with moving eyes and he's going to put me in the conference room and I'm going to watch him forever.

I want you in a loincloth in like an attacking bear pose.

No, no, we're going to we're going to freeze him in carbonite.

Yeah. Right. Exactly.

Well, um, guys, this has been great. Do you have anything else you want to cover? I literally just assumed you were going to talk the whole time, so I was going to leave it up to you.

So, you didn't come prepared. You didn't come prepared. You didn't come prepared at all.

I knew you're going to push it around. You go for it.

So, Insider Connected gives us better rules, lets you earn better things, but gives him information to improve the product and the game for you. He can do surveys of what you want. He can get information of who's playing when. He can see—he can see the uh 30, 40% increase in play over last year. Any product that is not connected in five or ten years will fail. We went, my partner and I, the reason we invested millions of dollars in this Insider Connected is my partner and I went to a speed dating for lenders and investors and every product there that was interesting that anybody's interested in investing or lending money to had connectivity. I go, my again my uh—in vein when I go uh under my computer and I find my infinity hotspot if I don't choose it I'm choosing my neighbor's Samsung dryer because I don't know why but their dryer is talking to them. I start I start my car from here on my phone. Uh, I don't I don't want to do that right now because I'm not with it. Somebody will take it. I like it. But everything is connected and we have this scale to connect the 100,000 games and more, you know, added to it every year. Spike 2 and Spike 3. Nobody will ever do this but us because nobody's got the scale. And that is the future. Downloading of code is nice, all that, but the real information going both ways is so important. And that's the modern world. And that brings that that alone brings pinball into the 21st century. That's where we're going.

Heck yeah. I I'm excited for the ability to like take some of that information. I would love to learn like I use the left flipper more than the right on Venom or I like really love to shoot this orbit for some reason or I'm scoring really big over here versus over there. Some sort of analytics or like data graph that I can get from that.

Yeah, we've talked a bunch about advanced analytics. That's something that we're looking at for the future and doing that so players know, but also so designers know, right? So the designers have all that information and are able to make better games. That's part of the whole goal here, right?

Even from like an internal like testing standpoint, it would be great to have that information.

We've been trying to collect a lot of that, right? One of the one of the things you do is figure out how you're going to get that information. Then the other thing you've got to do is figure out how you make sense of it and make it easy for people to utilize that information. So, a lot of that we'll be working on over the next year um to make just all in service of making better product, better communicating, better product. It's good for everybody, right?

Everything in this world takes longer than you want it to take. Uh, you go try and make a deal, business deal, it takes longer. Writing your term paper in college, you're up all night because it took longer. Everything takes longer. There's so much to do. And so we have to prioritize what to do for Insider Connected. It's not unlike Microsoft and Microsoft Live that started out with this piece of you know of data and went and added to it and then went a different direction based on what the customers want. Leaderboard was not the first thing early thing we were going to do. But we saw at this show and at IAAPA that both operators and and uh and homeowners wanted leaderboard. So we listen and so we change direction, but everything takes longer and we've got great plans. They once in a while they tell me what they are and uh sometimes even understand it. But there's so much to do. There's so much more that can happen with this. You know, the only other thing I wanted to sort of say is that it's just amazing how big this show has gotten, how big pinball's gotten, even over the four years that I've been here. Um, and uh, you know, thank you all for showing up. Thank you all for being fans of pinball. The only reason we can do this, be in this place, have this big booth, is because you guys love the games that we're making. And so, uh, all we want to do is make great, great games for you.

Well, thank you, Seth. Thank you, Gary. Uh, internet, thank you. So, internet freaking everybody. Thank you for tuning in. Uh, and have a great expo. We'll see you on the next one tomorrow.

Thank you, Jack, for that great list of questions. A great job.

Okay, I get it. I'm in trouble. All right.

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 776f858d-daed-4d37-b9e6-a020a98632b5*