You know, I got to give Josh water for one extra round that he made. I think he won me an extra $50. So, you know, that's a decent amount of diapers. Ah, so there was a presence there. Because I made a mistake in that pool. I picked Josh to be one of my five players. Yeah, that didn't do very well for me. I picked myself. So if there's anyone who's more upset with my performance, I'm looking in the mirror. Listen, Zach, you don't need to pick yourself. I'll pick on you for you, all right? That's kind of my job here at Pinball Profile. But let's talk about, really, where you've been. And congratulations on the new baby Benson. Congratulations, your first child. Thank you. It is my first and probably last. But we're just going to enjoy the moment for right now. Probably last. Is this planned beforehand? Or was this like during labor? your wife's like never again you sleep in the other room you know what even going into this when we were doing our half ironman training last year we've always kind of been on the one or none train and after everything that we went through with uh this pregnancy i think we're on the one train don't quote me on that nothing's ever a hundred percent but if you ask me right now point blank. Benson is going to be more than enough for us. You just asked me not to quote you on that. This is an audio recording that will be timeless forever. Don't I get a chance to approve this before it goes live? No, no, no, no, no. If you are still in fact employed at Stern, that's a process where you have to get these approved. This is just, I don't even know if I'll mention Stern. Oh, wait a minute. I probably should. There's been a lot in the news lately. In fact, Stern had a baby. How is Little Deadpool? Little Deadpool has been doing fantastic. George and team really knocked it out of the park, and the game has been met with a lot of fanfare, and rightfully so. I mean, George really did a good job on it with limited time on it too, not to look into the past, but more looking into the future. He did an awesome job. I did notice that Deadpool has, more than I've ever recalled, several launch parties. Is that the highest number I've seen? Because I can't recall anything bigger than that. It is, I believe. And again, can't quote me on this because I am driving, but I think Iron Maiden had 63, which was a record, and Deadpool has 67. Take that, Elwin. Yesterday's news. so you know as the stern army grows the launch parties grow and hopefully if i do decide with my wife to have a second child he or she is not born right around a launch party because i have a lot of trophies to assemble and ship uh this week so that was fun to return to today on my first day back seeing you know 67 plaque trophies i need to assemble and uh ship out hold on a second here director of marketing for stern pinball is assembling trophies don't you have like assembly lines they're at stern you're the guy doing it you know they're busy actually making the games so roll up the sleeves and get dirty man wow all right quality control i like it what a one-two punch so far this year and we know that there's another game going to be coming out later in the year as the stern model is three per year and three different models correct that's always the goal you never know what i'm saying though the one-two punch here in 2018 with iron maiden and deadpool tough act to follow i thought iron maiden was a tough act to follow deadpool like you say the response has been fantastic i've already played the game a few times enjoy it very much by the way and again back-to-back games near full code and ready to ship as soon as it's launched Those are big, big pluses for Stern Pinball. Absolutely. I mean, I think we're really coming into our own as a company with a lot of the new blood on the software side of things. And you know I mean that is obviously the goal just to keep improving on that on all facets you know not just the programming but the design and quality you name it Even the marketing, I got to give myself some credit, but, you know, everything we want to just keep running like a smooth engine. So that being said, as we're getting these near full games being released and available immediately, we've heard Gary himself say the model is three per year, three different titles, three different variations in the pro, the premium and the LE. Because these games are coming so complete, if you were getting near the end of the calendar year and you've got a game that's maybe able to be manufactured, but maybe the code's not there or something's not complete. maybe it's all the different models which would weigh heavier getting that third game out in the calendar year or making sure the game came out complete um i mean obviously it's a case-by-case basis but at the end of the day we are a manufacturing company and we need to keep the line moving so if it's not building previous titles or we need to get the next game up and on the line i mean we need to keep the line moving to keep people employed myself included to keep the machine running. It's a private company, so we certainly don't want any kind of numbers or details, but can you maybe share how many games are being manufactured? Maybe not on a full assembly line, but the reason I ask is because when I go to Stern Pinball and I see the current titles that are still under that three or whatever your license that was originally set up, and then you see the archive section, am I to assume all those games that are still quote unquote current, whether they be vault games or some of the more recent titles, are those games all being made still currently? Yeah. If you go on our games page, if it's not in the archive, those are still in production. And to answer your question, obviously we're a private company and I can't disclose numbers, but we do have capacity to build up to 50 games a day. That's a great answer. That's interesting to know. And that's, again, reflects on the move that Stern made years ago to this bigger facility. I can't imagine what it was before. It's night and day, which is funny. Coming from myself, Josh and I would used to go to the old plant in Melrose Park to play games before they came out when we were doing reviews for PlayMeter Magazine. Rest in peace, by the way. PlayMeter Magazine, fantastic publication. We wish all the best to everyone who works there. And it is night and day. I mean, that was like a mom-and-pop small shop. and this is a behemoth. Do you think right now, here in 2018 and moving forward, we are in a new renaissance of pinball because we certainly remember the dark days and we remember the survival and the difficulty for pinball companies to be able to continue, but now we're just seeing popularity go through the roof as far as competitions, as far as ownership. We're still not maybe there with arcades, but maybe we're getting there, And I wonder what you think, again, without revealing any kind of certainly numbers or details, but is Stern Pinball noticing this big, big jump in pinball in general? Absolutely. I mean, just look at all the new hires and the more titles that we're pushing out. And I know it might not reach the same renaissance from the 70s, but I mean, just look at the barcades that are popping up all over the place. I mean, that was nowhere to be seen five, ten years ago. So I think everything's always cyclical. But I think with technology and, you know, you look at tournaments and streaming and just everything just keeps pointing up. I mean, there's just there's never been a dip in the IFPA stats for new players, more tournaments popping up. I mean, you look at Pember, you don't see the player counts every year going down. It's just, you know, increasing going up. it might be over a thousand players next year. So Stern is a part of that growth as well. Yeah, Pinberg might be growing, which makes what you did three years ago so difficult to repeat, unless your name's Keith Elwin, of course. But I did recently watch your victory in 2015 when I was talking to Kaylee George about the whodunit game he had against Carl and watching you in the finals with Raymond on Ironman. Some great memories. I'm sure that's one, when Benson gets older, you'll want to show, hey, this is what your dad did. That was a good day, Benson. The other years, not so much, but that was a good day. Back to the growth of pinball and just what you've done from a marketing standpoint. I don't really want to highlight it. I don't really want to mention any names or anything like that. But to me, it was disappointing a little while back when some potential games were leaked. Some images, we see the names come out all the time for any company and they might just be simply rumors, from a marketing standpoint, that's got to burn your butt because it just goes against everything you're trying to do, the timelines, working with the distributors, every aspect of it. It's got to be so frustrating on your end. I mean, for me personally, I wouldn't say it's frustrating. I've grown to live by the word pivot. So when things need to change or you know things aren't as originally planned I just learned to roll with the punches. I never get worked up about anything So I mean if anything when there's sensitive information leaked There two ways I look at it One is I feel for the people who are working on these projects if it in fact a true leap So now that Deb pulled out, I felt bad for George, Tanya, Tim, and the entire team when there's this picture of a whitewood released to the public. And this is coming from my personal art background. You never kind of want to show your artwork while you're working on it because there's stuff that you might not like or you're tweaking. and to have unfair criticism or praise even kind of sucks because for them, this is their livelihood. This is their passion. And to have it just sent to the public on the drop of a hat, I feel for them. So for me personally, I'll roll with it, but I feel for them. And the second thing is from an NDA perspective, you know, that's something that I hold dear to my heart. And, you know, I would say I learned from the best, which is my dad and knowing how he navigated those waters back in the day with sensitive information and, you know, materials. And people think I might be lying, but I don't even talk to Josh about anything. And he has an NDA. So until he knows, because he's in the building on that side of the building of future projects, like I won't talk to him actively about anything until he brings it up to me because he knows because he has been behind those doors. So, you know, if somebody wants to risk their potential employment status by sharing sensitive materials, regardless if it's being shared with people with NDAs, you know, that's on them. I can go to sleep at night extremely well because the only person that I tell sensitive information to is Benson. And I've got probably two years before he'll mimic whatever I say. So if you're trying to get any sensitive information from me, you'll have to talk to Benson. Mental note for you people who love leaks, maybe try to get hired as a babysitter. Wire Benson, and you'll know everything. I take diapers as currency.