FREE SHOW. Episode 1071: "Enough Reckless Rumors in Pinball"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·18m 47s·analyzed·Mar 31, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Kaneda condemns reckless rumors in pinball community, defends Stern and JJP leadership.

Summary

Kaneda criticizes the pinball community for spreading reckless rumors that harm companies and individuals, particularly referencing false Stern Pinball layoff speculation and inappropriate health commentary about Jersey Jack's Jack Guarneri. He defends Guarneri's Harry Potter announcement timing, confirms Stern is hiring (not laying off), and argues the community should focus on positive speculation about upcoming games rather than personal attacks and unfounded gossip.

Key Claims

There have been no layoffs at Stern Pinball; the company is actively hiring.
high confidence · Kaneda citing direct confirmation from George Gomez, Chief Creative Officer at Stern Pinball
Jack Guarneri's Harry Potter announcement was strategically timed because Avatar sales had already ended with no new orders coming.
medium confidence · Kaneda's analysis of Jack's decision and market timing; speculative but grounded in observable sales patterns
Stern Pinball hired a new Chief Marketing Officer with a focus on collectors and high-end buyers.
high confidence · Kaneda citing direct information from George Gomez
The rumor circulating was that Stern laid off 30% of staff; this is false.
high confidence · Kaneda debunking with George Gomez confirmation; Kaneda previously posted debunking this on his own platform
Current pricing models are not working and companies need to consider market adjustment.
medium confidence · Kaneda's opinion based on observable market signals (games losing value)
If Stern Pinball were to collapse, the pinball hobby would enter a 'Dark Age' with mass exodus of players.
medium confidence · Kaneda's speculation about industry structure and Stern's role as anchor manufacturer

Notable Quotes

“You shouldn't be talking about Jack's health. Any of you. Any of you.”
Kaneda @ ~5:30 — Direct rebuke of community speculation about Jack Guarneri's personal health; establishes ethical boundary
“The reason why these rumors are reckless is you don't know anything and nobody's even asking.”
Kaneda @ ~12:00 — Core thesis about epistemological irresponsibility in rumor-spreading
“That is Stern Pinball. If Stern Pinball collapses, you will see a mass exodus of people in this hobby and it will be the Dark Age of Pinball.”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Articulates Stern's structural importance to the pinball ecosystem
“A coward is somebody that doesn't show you who they are. You don't know their name.”
Kaneda @ ~28:00 — Critiques anonymous posters on Pinside as lacking accountability
“It's not that I want any of these companies to fail, but I do think these companies need to look at the market and adjust their pricing based on what the market wants.”
Kaneda @ ~8:00 — Balanced criticism of pricing without wholesale condemnation; Kaneda's stated position on market dynamics
“See, it's a lot more fun when we wake up and we have rumors like that. And it's not everybody, right? It's not everybody, but man, oh man, oh man, this Stern layoff rumor really caught a lot of momentum.”
Kaneda @ ~20:00 — Distinguishes between fun speculation (game themes) and harmful rumors (layoffs); addresses how false rumors spread
“Jersey Jack is like making one game every year and a half. How boring this hobby would be.”
Kaneda @ ~21:00 — Implicit criticism of JJP's production capacity while defending them as necessary to ecosystem
“Have you ever done anything special for people that have ordered a quarter million dollars in product from you?”
Kaneda — Quote from Kaneda's direct conversation with Stern leadership about collector relationship gaps

Entities

Jack GuarneripersonGeorge Gomezperson Jersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyKanedaperson Harry Pottergame Avatargame

Signals

?
industry_signal: Stern Pinball layoff rumor (30% of staff) circulated on Pinside and attributed to Kaneda despite his prior debunking. George Gomez confirmed no layoffs occurred; Stern is actively hiring. Possible manufacturing reduction from 5 to 4 days per week due to demand fluctuation, not staff reduction.
high · Direct confirmation from George Gomez; Kaneda's own prior posts debunking; Gomez explicitly addressed with Kaneda
?
personnel_signal: Stern Pinball hired new Chief Marketing Officer with mandate focused on collectors and high-end buyers rather than tournament players.
high · George Gomez told Kaneda directly about hire; Kaneda met with Stern leadership and assessed marketing department gap in collector focus
$
market_signal: Games losing secondary market value; Kaneda argues COVID pricing model not working and companies should consider price adjustment or risk sustained collector demand collapse.
medium · Kaneda's observation of game depreciation; community consensus on high prices; Kaneda's own affordability constraints ($15k purchase decision)
~
sentiment_shift: Increasing reckless rumors in pinball community; personal attacks on company leadership and health speculation; rooting against companies rather than supporting ecosystem; anonymous negativity on Pinside.
high · Kaneda's direct observation of community discourse; specific examples of health rumors about Jack Guarneri; Stern layoff rumor momentum on Pinside
?
business_signal: Stern Pinball restructuring marketing approach with new CMO; focus shift toward collector retention and high-value customer relationship management.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

0:00

Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Happy Monday morning. I want to do a show about rumors and how rumors are a lot of fun in pinball. They are. Like it's a lot of fun to speculate what's around the corner. It's a lot of fun to sort of ponder what is going to be put in the I've been reading these boxes, but I've noticed of late, and maybe this is because we're waiting for the big games to come out, but I've noticed there have been a sort of increase in reckless rumors in pinball. And I mean, there is a line between things we should talk about and discuss and content we should make and discuss and something that's either none of your business or something where I'm going to give a few examples of what I mean by that. So first and foremost I want to talk about Jersey Jack. Jersey Jack is really excited about Harry Potter. People are wondering whether or not he was supposed to announce the title at TPF, but hey man, the guy took three minutes and stole the entire show. Nobody's talking about anything else. And when Jack got up there and announced Harry Potter, he knew Avatar sales were over. They were over. And so yeah, you could be like, oh, what an idiot. Oh yeah, what a fool Jack was. He did this and he torpedoed the sales of Avatar. Maybe it wasn't the smartest move, but he knew what the Avatar orders have been for the last few months. Remember Avatar came out in October. There are no new orders happening for this game. It's just people who have played the CE waiting for their games to be built. He also knows how close Harry Potter is and I think he did everybody a solid. Just wait. He doesn't even probably want people to buy Avatar right now because he doesn't want someone to sink 15 grand into an avatar when he knows what Harry Potter is going to bring. Alright, so he did us a solid. Okay, so don't be mad at him for that. But that's not the rumor that's really hurtful. I'm really reckless. It's when I start hearing people talk about Jack's health and then making guesses on what's wrong with Jack. What are you doing? Seriously, is this what this pinball content creating hobby has turned into? People speculating on people's health? And I see this. And then once you start these rumors, even if there is something you notice, it's not your place to start diagnosing people. It's not your place. You know, there used to be a thing about respect for elderly and people's health. C In the of course Jack is older. He's been in this hobby for a really long time and I think everybody in this hobby should just be happy Jersey Jack decided to do this. Sometimes I read about these companies and I read people's like commentary and I'm like, do you even want these companies to be successful? Do you even like pinball? Like it's almost like there's these armies that have formed. We root for these companies like they're sports teams. They're not sports teams. This isn't like the Yankees and the Red Sox. It's JerseyJack and Stern. But people really have a lot of vitriol and a lot of anger. And I'm even talking to people on this community. And you know who you are. I see people in the chat every single day rooting against these companies. Rooting against them. Making content that just endlessly slams them. Now look, I always wanted to create a forum and a community of free speech. But boy does it get old real fast. It's a broken record. Now, yeah, I'm a broken record on things like prices. I don't like pinball high prices and guess what? Nobody does. It's not that I want any of these companies to fail, but I do think these companies need to look at the market and adjust their pricing based on what the market wants. And if we see all of their games losing so much value, then yeah, people over at these organizations should be looking at that and maybe saying, we need to roll back the pricing a little bit. This COVID pricing model isn't working, but I don't think personally attacking them is the way to go. And I obviously don't want to talk about people's health or mental health or stuff like that. It just not appropriate and it not worth it for what a few likes a few views Nobody making any money Nobody So there that you shouldn be talking about Jack health Any of you Any of you The next thing is and we seen this all over the place this despicable rumor which then gets attributed to me I tell you what happened I get hit up by George Gomez this weekend and he said, Chris, I hear you're spreading rumors that Stern Pinball had layoffs. Layoffs, right? I think someone had that meme from the Colts coach, right? Okay, so then I say, George, let me show you what I posted about this rumor. And it was me saying that I heard this rumor days ago, and I reached out to a friend at Stern that works there, and he told me it's not true. And then I made fun of Pinside for starting a thread about this. And now it's multiple pages long, and this is how these rumors grow. And George Gomez told me there have been no layoffs at Stern. In fact, we have open positions and we are hiring at Stern Pinball. And so when you've got these people and it's all over the place now, it's all over the place. You know what people were saying? The rumor that I was hearing from people, which I did not report because I knew it was a lie, was that Stern Pinball laid off 30 percent of its staff. Thirty percent. One out of every three people at Stern Pinball was fired. Talk about a reckless rumor. Talk about a hurtful rumor. Talk about something that will do nothing but cause agony and pain to all the people at Stern pinball. The reason why these rumors are reckless is you don't know anything and nobody's even asking. You know what I don't like about this hobby in this community at times is all these people that know people at these companies and a lot of you, you're friends with George Gomez, you're friends with the designers over there, How to win over the people who are hyper users. You have relationships with the people over at Stern. I didn't see people chiming in at all being like, this is false. This didn't happen. Now, maybe they cut back their manufacturing from five days a week to four days a week, just for a little bit of time because they don't have as much demand. That's normal. That's what a manufacturing company does. We've put people on furloughed employment at my company when the demand isn't there for work, but we don't want to get rid of you. We might need to reduce your work from five days to four. Better than no job at all. But it's not a layoff. We want to keep you. You know, and George is like laughing with me because he's like, see, you know, they blame you again. And here you are, the only person saying it's not true. Now, Stern Pinball hired a new chief marketing officer. Not a rumor. You know why I know this? Because I reached out to George Gomez and he told me who they hired. He's like, Chris, you're gonna like this guy and guess what? I'm excited to meet him. You know, look, I met with them and Stern Pinball is not gonna hire me. You know, look, I would love to work with Stern Pinball one day in some capacity for sure. But right now, as I told Seth, you need a CMO and you need someone who comes in here and makes the right decisions and is focused on the collectors. And I don't think his marketing department has ever been focused on the collectors and the high-end buyers of his product. I don't. I think they've been focused on tournament players. I don't think the marketing people at Stern have been focusing at all on the long-term customers of their games. And when I was in the room, I asked them, have you ever done anything special for people that have ordered a quarter million dollars in product from you? And they just looked at me and they realized in that moment our marketing has forgotten these people and these are our true customers. It's not just dealers and distros. Okay, so they've got a new guy. I'm excited because you know what that means change is coming. And if you work in marketing, you got to make decisions that make the market stronger for your product. So let's see what happens, but it's not a negative. So nobody was laid off at Stern Pinball. Then I wake up this morning to an email about Out certain individuals at Stern Pinball that either have quit or are unhappy at Stern Pinball. And this email arrives in this really cryptic way and it's written in a very cryptic way. All these spaces and it's like then one name. First it's the first name, then it's the last name. They've quit and then so and so who we all know is unhappy. So you want me to report that someone at Stern Pinball we all know is unhappy Okay so isn it that person right to tell you whether or not they happy with their employment at Stern pinball Why should I ever report that Why do you want to spread those rumors And why do you want to share emails like that? We're all grown adults Is this middle school? Are we little petty catty children now that just want to spread rumors? Where we know the only outcome of these rumors is to hurt these companies You heard it all then. And you get to know all the CS members and help make a good idea. Sound Rectangle Rectangle Rectangle clearing Case I'm going to come out. What are going to be the magical mechs in King Kong? Is Arnold going to be in Predator? When is Barrels of Fun going to release its new game? Is it Dune? Is it Goonies? What's it going to be? See, it's a lot more fun when we wake up and we have rumors like that. And it's not everybody, right? It's not everybody, but man, oh man, oh man, this Stern layoff rumor really caught a lot of momentum. And when I read between the lines on it, ** aquí está el Drama, esto me asfaltó porque es como si mi'o pasaron las horas f ways early y parece que para más of vuds que los PT tirean 38 añ 8 horas atrás vemos a Estern Pinball fail you know what's going to happen to it pinball if stern pinball does fail how bad it will companies going to show up there is turn him nutria vis para Qi they go away and all we're left with what students at Stoner Pinball, take my boy the is like a few boutiques and Jersey Jack f gives safety to everyiku and horse muf theo making one game every year and a half how what industry蓄j areamons Beach at Sp plastics much more boring this hobby would be small and teor technology care avis sowhaste ow fazio The pinball world and everybody else hitches a ride on its back. That is what Stern is. It's like that big whale in the ocean where certain creatures live by just eating the plankton that attaches to the whale. That is Stern Pinball. If Stern Pinball collapses, you will see a mass exodus of people in this hobby and it will The Dark Age of Pinball Trust me, it's not good for pinball if Stern goes away And so for those of you out there who wake up every day and you're rooting against Stern I think you need to ask yourself. What do you do? And maybe it's time you leave the hobby not stern and I know where a lot of this anger comes from I do

12:22

You feel like Stern is greedy. You feel like they raised prices The price is that push a lot of you out of the hobby or your ability to buy new in box and as I've been saying for years gentlemen you don't need to buy new in box to enjoy the hobby you don't need to buy new in box to enjoy pinball and it look I Think it is wise for a lot of us to pause new in box pricing because it will force Stern pinball to lower prices or put so much more into the game and get much better Out in The game fun again I don't know what the outcome is supposed to be for some of you and it's just the internet right everybody brings themselves to the equation everybody's got an opinion so few people have any talent so few people add any value back into the world the reason why I do this podcast is at least I'm doing something and creating something that brings people To all the people entertainment and enjoyment and shows like this and there are many other shows out there we keep thousands of people engaged in pinball in a much more positive way than a lot of the trash on pin side We do We really do It a lot more fun to get your news on shows like this and Knapp Arcade than going to pin side And there so many cowards there when you think about it too because again to me a coward is somebody that doesn show you who they are You don know their I'm not gonna mention names, but his picture is a picture of a parrot and none of his photos are of him. And I'm just like, I'm just tired of this. You're always stirring the pot. You're always jabbing at me and I don't even know what you look like. And I've been having a conversation with this dude for years and it's a damn parrot. And it's like, come on now. And I was more mad at me than him. Why am I even bothering having a conversation with a bird and I know on the other end is a grown dude probably in his fifties who collects pinball machines. So here's my advice to everybody. We need to stop these reckless rumors. If you hear something, sure, there's one thing sharing it in private. If you hear something and it concerns like people or a company, just ask yourself, should I be spreading this rumor about this person? What will the outcome be? Why do I want to hurt this individual? Why do I want to hurt this company? And what do I really want to get out of pinball, this hobby and this community? Everybody, there's a lot of exciting stuff happening. A lot of us are optimistic these companies are gonna deliver magic. Everybody's skeptical about the pricing. Everybody. Nobody likes these prices. Nobody. But it just is what it is at this point. You know, I can't afford it right now. I can't. I can't afford to just drop $15,000 on a pinball machine because I know if I do, I won't enjoy it. I don't want to take that much money out of what I need to spend money on. www.uncommoner.com Outpinball Podcast You can order a game to have those intimate experiences, and if you order a game, please hit up Mike at Automated, because he'll help you get one, and he's a great guy. The older I get, man, the things I know bring me happiness, they get smaller and smaller. The amount of people that actually pick up the phone when I call, it gets smaller and smaller every single year. I had a really great phone conversation with Retro Ralph this weekend. He's an awesome guy. I really, really enjoyed our conversation. You know, when you make a lot of content the way he does and I do, you sort of have a common ground of respect. And I really want to say Ralph, I don't even know if he's a club member. I think he is. Ralph, it's awesome. And we were talking about how sometimes people formulate opinions about both of us and they don't even listen to our content. You know, it's hard. It's hard. Like one of my friends is Jason Knapp and he's always sometimes questioning how much credit I give him and I'm like, Jason, you don't listen to my show. It's not fair. I'm always giving you credit, but because you don't listen, you don't know that. You can't just go off of my Facebook page and I read everything he does. Look, I'm just happy that most people do the right thing most of the time, but man, a lot of negativity, a lot of reckless rumors lately, and I think they just need I'm going to stop here. Have a great Monday. We have a lot of exciting stuff to happen. Stuff is about to pop in April. So get on the train baby because we have got four weeks of who knows what's going to drop when in the world of pinball. Kaneda out.