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Hardy Live: Jaws 50th Discussion

Cary Hardy YouTube Live Streams·video·46m 39s·analyzed·Jul 3, 2025
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Analysis

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TL;DR

Carrie Hardy critiques Jaws 50th as a lazy, overpriced cosmetic refresh with minimal innovation.

Summary

Carrie Hardy critically discusses Stern Pinball's Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition release, arguing that while the glitter playfield shimmer and brass powder-coated wire forms are nice touches, the overall design feels lazy and uninspired—essentially a recolored premium with minor cosmetic changes and a hologram sticker. Hardy criticizes the bold red trim as visually dominating and the art package (enlarged licensed assets) as uninspired 'Led Zeppelin-ification,' while noting Stern deliberately held back on making it better than existing LE/Premium versions to avoid angering current owners. The discussion includes community sentiment via a poll showing 85% of respondents would not trade their current Jaws for the 50th, and Hardy emphasizes the positive reception of new code updates (co-op mode and final wizard mode) while questioning whether the $9,700 price point justifies the cosmetic-only upgrades.

Key Claims

  • Stern deliberately constrained the Jaws 50th design to avoid angering existing LE purchasers with a superior product

    high confidence · Hardy explicitly states 'you can't make another le game that's better than what you've already sold to your customers you're gonna piss all of them off' and notes Stern learned this from past controversies with games like Elvira BRK.

  • The red trim on the 50th Anniversary dominates the visual design and draws all viewer attention away from other elements

    high confidence · Hardy: 'the red of the trim that's all over it it's like bathed in red essentially' and 'your eyes are just drawn to it' and poll results showing 55% mixed/negative response to the red.

  • Stern's art package approach was to enlarge already-licensed and approved assets rather than create new artwork

    high confidence · Hardy: 'they took assets that they already had licensed and approved that they don't have to resubmit and they've enlarged it they've led zeppelin this game'

  • Industry artists surveyed by Hardy objectively dislike the red trim design

    medium confidence · Hardy: 'I do talk to people in the industry, and some of those people in the industry are artists. And then I show them this, and I'm like, what are your thoughts? And every artist so far, objectively, does not like it.'

  • The Jaws license expires end of 2025, driving the year-limited availability window

    medium confidence · Hardy speculates: 'typically license run out runs out at the end of a year of the end of the year 2025 JAWS is more than likely gonna have to be ran out so unless the demand is there where they can justify re-upping the license'

  • The hologram sticker will be rapidly replicated by aftermarket vendors

    medium confidence · Hardy: 'I give it within a week, you're going to see somebody on the Pennside shop selling those damn things' and joked about making her own holographic sticker.

Notable Quotes

  • “It's basically a Led Zeppelin jukebox with flippers.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 3:25 — Hardy's metaphor comparing the enlarged art approach to Led Zeppelin's album cover style, criticizing the lazy design strategy of simply enlarging existing assets.

  • “I just feel like they didn't celebrate the anniversary to where I feel like they could have. They played it safe.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 21:50 — Core thesis: Stern deliberately constrained design quality to avoid LE owner backlash, resulting in a missed opportunity for a genuine celebratory release.

  • “This is a suppressed version of a 50th anniversary of Jaws.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 12:59 — Hardy's characterization that Stern intentionally held back on making the release special due to business constraints around existing product tiers.

  • “I looked at the LE the best so far and I've seen people do their own games where it's the white powder coating and like blood splatter on that and I think that looks a lot better.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 20:35 — Demonstrates that community customizations are outperforming Stern's official anniversary release aesthetically.

  • “It looks great, but I must say I'm pretty upset about another LE that will sell less than the LE. I'm out on future LE purchases.”

    Neil McRae (quoted from Pinside)@ 23:00 — Major community figure and Stern cheerleader expressing frustration with LE cannibalization strategy, signaling shifting collector sentiment.

  • “They held back the completion of this game for their 50th anniversary kind of thing.”

Entities

Carrie HardypersonStern PinballcompanyJaws 50th Anniversary EditiongameGeorge GomezpersonJaws Limited EditiongameNeil McRaepersonJaws Premium EditiongameJaws Pro Editiongame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Hardy conducts real-time poll with chat community to assess sentiment on 50th Anniversary design (red trim question showing 55% negative/mixed), demonstrating engagement-based content strategy and audience validation-seeking.

    high · Multiple polls conducted during stream; Hardy explicitly states 'I want this to be a discussion' and uses audience feedback to validate critical perspective.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Red armor kit on Jaws 50th dominates visual design and overshadows other elements; industry artists surveyed by Hardy uniformly criticize the color choice as aesthetically poor.

    medium · Hardy: 'red of the trim that's all over it it's like bathed in red essentially' and 'every artist so far, objectively, does not like it' and poll showing 55% mixed/negative on red trim.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern's art approach for Jaws 50th involved enlarging pre-approved licensed assets rather than commissioning new artwork; Hardy characterizes this as 'Led Zeppelin-ification' (oversized poster approach).

    high · Hardy: 'they took assets that they already had licensed and approved that they don't have to resubmit and they've enlarged it they've led zeppelin this game if you guys remember led zeppelin album covers'

  • $

    market_signal: George Gomez's official announcement emphasizes minor cosmetic elements (hologram sticker, glitter shimmer) as marquee features rather than substantive design innovations, indicating poor priority sequencing in marketing messaging.

    high · Hardy's criticism of Gomez focusing on 'a sticker' and glitter rather than meaningful design improvements; parallels previous criticism of Stern marketing approach in her earlier work.

  • $

Topics

Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition design and marketing strategyprimaryStern's three-tier pricing model and LE/Premium/Pro differentiation strategyprimaryCommunity sentiment on cosmetic-only anniversary releasesprimaryArt design, visual aesthetics, and playfield artwork approachprimaryCode updates and feature completeness (co-op, wizard modes)secondaryStern collector/LE owner backlash dynamicssecondaryAftermarket customization and community alternativessecondaryIP licensing constraints and renewal cyclesmentioned

Sentiment

negative(-0.72)— Hardy is critical and disappointed in the Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition, viewing it as lazy and uninspired, while acknowledging the game itself is solid and code updates are good. She views Stern's design conservatism as driven by business necessity (protecting existing LE owners) rather than vision. Community poll data (85% would not trade) aligns with Hardy's skepticism. However, she maintains respect for the underlying game and acknowledges the positive code updates, preventing the sentiment from being entirely hostile.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.140

The The The The The Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. that's when you get the negative feedback because you don't agree with how they think. Turns out Stern was like, Gotcha, bitch! I just... I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Maybe they've learned something from every game, and this time, it'll be different. What? What the f... I gotta show everybody my wiener. Here's my wiener. I mean, it's basically a Led Zeppelin jukebox with flippers. The game is going to sell. He just did a mic drop and then walked the hell out of the room. That's big dick energy if I've ever seen it. It's pinball. It shouldn't be too serious. I mean, if you take pinball to a serious level, you get the Godfather. Lie back down. I know I'm going to get some hate from those of you out there that are probably doing it, but that's what it is. The back glass says Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right there at the top and four inches up. If that, the title's there again. That makes no sense. And I mean, what's concerning to me is that through the whole build process, no one brought it up that, hey, maybe we should make this a little bit better. No one mentioned it. We believe this idea to be the best course of action for us and for you. but mainly because it's going to cost us nothing. If he dies, he dies. We need to find out what these suckers will pay for a crappy product that your toddler drew for us. She draws on a first grade level. And the thing is, I know one of the people over social media has informed me that a lot of the times, at least as of three years ago, majority of the things that I would post or say to them was blocked. Why are you promoting and asking for deposits on a game that's still six months out? Alrighty, ladies and jelly spoons, welcome to the stream. I talk and do everything pinball, so if that sounds interesting to you, then hit that subscribe button down below in case you have not already. Who all do we have here in chat? Let me get caught up here, guys. Death Save Pinball coming in here. We've got Adam. We've got Thomas. We've got Ben, who's also a fellow Wiener Dog owner right there. Didn't mean to divulge too much information about you there, Ben. Deep Party, what's going on? all right so tonight's discussion i don't anticipate this being like a long stream um for a couple of reasons and i think one of the main reasons is because the main topic and hopefully i'm trying to stick to one topic is going to be going over the 50th anniversary edition of jaws and it i think that as of right now there's just a lot of people out there that kind of just don't care they're like yeah yeah so i don't i don't anticipate it being a very populated stream and um partially i kind of don't want to talk about it for a long time either so there's that what's going on adam again and uh gunlock 360 but i i first off i just want to say obviously i need to change that transition towards not doing that anymore because i don't like those long transitions between shots so So, by all means, a big congratulations to Stern Pinball on their official release of Jaws 50th. I think it's something that you've done is so great at not outperforming the other tiers that you've already created. That's my main statement right there. You've created something, a pinball machine, that aesthetically there's room for subjectivity there, and there's also room for objectivity, and we're going to be talking about all of that. But my main point is that I am glad that they didn't make something that was better that was already out there. And I'm sure there's part of you right now that are going, what? I like the red. I really like the red. Okay. hey, I'm glad that you like it. But after I saw the initial trailer, like it dropped, I watched it, and I was laughing. I busted out laughing because I've harped on Stern Pinball so many times before in regards to putting something together, just very lazy, just slap it together, put a sticker on there, change this little thing right there, throw it out there, print money. and this is a prime example of another thing that they've done in regards to that let's just put it together change a couple of things put it out there and it'll sell and it will that's the thing you're going to get a lot of people that are going to buy this game and they're happy with it that's good good for them so yeah the the aspect i think a lot of people choppy. Shouldn't be choppy, but by all means, well, maybe I am. Maybe it is coming a little choppy right there. I'm looking at the replay right now. My internet wants to crap out on me. The first time ever in doing a stream, my internet wants to go bad. It's Stern. They're doing it. They're like telling me to shut up. is it better getting better or worse what could be causing it better now i mean i really don't know what else to do other than just like uh hopefully it gets better because usually i have a solid fiber connection and i've never had issues before so repeat everything i just said so yeah let's make sure that uh it's all caught up here i'm hoping that we're okay there so let me do this again uh if i can remember what i said is that whenever the video first dropped this morning in regards to like them showing off the game like here's the game trailer the one with george gomez after watching it, I just, I started laughing. I was laughing during it because I was hoping that it was going to be something special. I was hoping it was going to be a true celebration of a theme, of a great game that a lot of people in this hobby really enjoy. And I do not feel that this is celebrating an anniversary of a theme to me. I look at this as something of like, we've changed a couple of things slap some different art on there and now we're wanting 9,700 bucks for it so audio video okay now or is everything worked out there let me bring up this real quick see where we're at I feel like this is definitely a I mean I don't I don't even want I say it's like right there on the cusp of being safe because the red to me stands out too much it's like that's all i your eyes see when you first look at this like is the red that's like the your eyes are just drawn to it not even the red of the word jaws the red of the trim that's all over it it's like bathed in red essentially and as far as the art package goes they took assets that they already had licensed and approved that they don't have to resubmit and they've enlarged it they've led zeppelin this game if you guys remember led zeppelin that's what they did album covers let's just make it real big throw it on the side of the cabinet so what should they have done here the thing guys and this is something i did a video for my Patreons earlier my Patreon members is that I know plenty of you out there There's plenty of people on Pinside, plenty of people on Facebook that have already put up their ideas, their mock-ups, their drawings, their Photoshop versions of what this game should, I'm going to quote, should have looked like. And I feel like I could go through that too and think of what it should have looked like. But I feel like they had to walk a fine line here because you have to put out a game that's going to obviously sell and bring in money, but you also don't want to piss off your already – the people that own the game, your LE purchasers or anything. So you have to make sure that it's not amazingly better kind of thing than another game. You can't do that because we've already got out the pitchforks and torches whenever they've done stuff like that before with bringing out new editions of games and everything like Elvira BRK, which is probably still one of their prettiest games that they've ever made. But I think it's tricky because I know that they could have done so much better on this. I know they could have. They could have been like, yeah, we're going to do this. We got this. This looks great. They could have done so much more. but they had to basically hold back i feel like this is a suppressed version of a 50th anniversary of jaws let me scroll up here and get caught up on chat guys i bet the glitter in the water will be awesome and will be the thing that everyone wants so yeah i think and this is kind of this is kind of i don't want to say sad but weird is it weird that we're excited about glitter the last time i think we saw glitter on a game was elvira's brk and now we're in a situation where it's like hey here's another game that's got some glitter on it and then we're like yay glitter time it's it's strange to highlight it but i get it to an extent if i mean we've only seen a little bit on the video and you can see how the shimmer is in the art but i think i'm only gonna really get a good good idea about this when i'm looking down at the play field i mean for all we know you're only going to be able to see it at particular angles or something and when it comes to what they've done with the wire forms it's it's a mixed bag it's not plated it's powder coating so let me get that straight uh there's people that are saying oh it's brass it's brass like no it's brass powder coating so it's going to look like you know brass when you when it comes to like being on your chest of drawers or the handles or cabinets and stuff like that it's not going to be pretty brass like you see like you saw on harry potter can uh yeah so let me show the game there's people out there that have probably not even seen the game i guess i should probably do that i guess that's my expectations that i think everyone's probably seen the game. So let me show the trailer for you guys right here real quick. Hey everybody, it's George Gomez here at Stern Pinball, and we're excited to share with you a special 50th anniversary edition of our Jaws pinball machine. To mark this golden anniversary, we've crafted this Jaws 50th anniversary premium edition that highlights some really special cosmetic features. The playfield integrates glitter enhanced artwork in addition to new brass powder coated wire form ramps that make it really pop. This collector's item also boasts a distinctive 50th anniversary hologram sticker to go along with a unique trans light and all new cabinet decals. The game is also outfitted with a bold red armor kit including matching legs, hinges, front molding, and side armor. While this 50th Anniversary Premium Edition of JAWS will only be available to purchase during this calendar year, we also have some exciting code updates across all of our JAWS pinball machines. Our new content enhancements have integrated team play and co-op modes into the game menu system so that players can play with their friends, share progress, and more. This new code also introduces brand new wizard modes, the Wheel Award Wizard Mode, and of course, the iconic Smile You Son of a Final Wizard Mode. You're going to need a bigger game room with the all-new Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium Edition. Get connected and learn more at StoryPinball.com. All right, so there you go. That is what the game looks like. So that is your first time seeing the game. That's what we're talking about. I meant to show that to you guys at the beginning of this discussion back and forth. So let me move this over here so I can get a better idea of who all we're talking to here. So it talks about the brass and what they're doing with the game on there. I think that the dull powder coating brass is more than likely going to look a lot better than a shiny brass plating that you would see on Harry Potter. So I think it fits well with the theme of an old orca boat with a little bit of the old kind of rustic looking brass. I think that theme fits well with it. From what I can tell on the videos, it looks pretty good. I think that's going to be a preference. But if you already own a premium, chances are if you're near a powder coater, you can get your game to look like that. You can do that. Now you're not going to get your glitter. but you're gonna get that you're gonna get that brass powder coating on there all right look at here let's see here i would rather them have stopped at the shimmer wire forms and maybe made the playfield have some 50th logos and that's the thing is that when it comes to this art like nowhere on the game on the playfield on the art the decals cabinet says 50th anniversary edition the only indicator of it being a 50th anniversary is right there is the the the uh sticker the i was on the fence until they showed that hologram sticker it's so i joked about this that i was like you know someone on pin side is going to make that exact sticker. It's not like it's that special kind of thing to where it's not going to be replicated. So if you already have a Jaws and you want that sticker just to go, I've got it. I give it within a week, you're going to see somebody on the Pennside shop selling those damn things. And if not, I'm already in talks with somebody of having my own holographic sticker and then you can put it on anything guys and it'll be a super wow legendary limited edition the name is still in the works can you put some glitter in your face just today for the time and i saw this meme earlier it might have been on pin side but i was thinking about this when it came to like people getting excited about the glitter and it was that, I can't think of it, was it Salt Bay or something like that, that does the whole sprinkle the salt on the steak or whatever like that. I'm like, that's basically them at the factory. Yeah, here's your little glitter on your playfield kind of thing. But that seems to be what a lot of people are gravitating to when about this is the glitter on the playfield. And I just think it's funny to an extent because I too, I'm not saying that, oh my God, the glitter is the make break but when you have a little extra shininess to it we're creatures us as like you know males biologically we are attracted to shiny things this goes back into a long long long time ago but i think that's why the majority of this hobby are males is because we like shiny things it's just we gravitate to them it's just part of our biology something weird about it so i think the extra little shininess to it does reach something back into our heads that we're just completely unaware of subconscious level kind of thing strippers and glitter make more in tips speaking of like strippers and pinball you think there would probably be a little more glitter on like you know uh dpx is a alice game or something you know it's red it's red the goddamn thing is red yeah pretty much i mean it's all it's that red smacks you when you look at this thing and i mean there's a lot of people out there that like it me personally i like the le the best so far and i've seen people do their own games where it's the white powder coating and like blood splatter on that and i think that looks a lot better the stripper dust i like calling it stripper dust compared to glitter we'll see if we can continue doing that molar medic shiny objects yes that that draws our attention you know i didn't think about this but maybe that's part of the reason why the strippers do put the glitter you know lotion stuff on them not that i know or anything but uh i mean uh that's gotta be why gotta have a little extra shine little stripper dust on there anyone ever heard of putting lipstick on a pig oh man you know and this that that works in more ways than one on this one right here because it's it's not a pig uh the game itself is great i mean that's that's the thing is that let's get this straight there's no argument that jaws is a great game it's a great shooter so what they're trying to do here is just give you another option which is what they've done so i've got no hate or anger towards what they're doing here guys this is more like hey we provided you another option i just feel like they didn't they didn't celebrate the anniversary to where i feel like they could have and but i feel like like i said earlier they have to scale back that i know they could have easily done something amazing and beautiful but you can't make another le game that's better than what you've already sold to your customers you're gonna piss all of them off but that art package though that they've done with this oh led zeppelin the f out of this damn thing guys yeah stern played it safe this is what they've got to do. It's like you can play it safe or you can piss off your current customer base that's paying for the money for these LEs out there. And to back up this point in regards to pissing off your current customer base, I stumbled across this on Pinside. I thought this was, I don't want to say funny, but for those of us out there that know Neil McRae, He's one of the biggest cheerleaders for Stern Pinball. And he's like, it looks great, but I must say I'm pretty upset about another LE that will sell less than the LE. I'm out on future LE purchases. It's not what was promised in the past. We'll pick up a premium from now on. And that speaks a little bit of volume right there When you got a guy like Neil that got a bunch of damn money and typically buys anything that stern makes and like i said cheerleads it he always been a proponent of like everything they do is great but something has changed on these last couple of releases and i think it's because maybe people are starting to realize that there's other options out there and yeah everybody's got their own reasons but i think that definitely does speak a little bit of volume right there when you got neil that's saying uh i think i'm out kind of thing and even william he's probably in the chat right here he's one of those guys he's a whale he buys a lot of things from stern he he helps keep them in business and even he said he was out on this now if it would have been like what i was speculating last week during my stream that it was like a true like different game like an old bond 60th with the old real styles that would kind of make more sense because it's the 50th anniversary let's take a pinball machine back 50 years and give them an old school version of that that would kind of make sense it'd be another limited edition but they'd have to charge like you know again 20k for it but i think for the collectors that definitely would have been something that a lot of people wanted right there so yeah a lot of people and there's no like secret here more than likely the people that are saying the le looks better are le owners let's just point that out right there but i'm not an le owner i'm not even a jaws owner and i can look at this and go i prefer the le kind of thing it's nutty that stern's le's do not include shooter rods topper and whole shebang and i think they really should for the amount of money that you're spending it should include that and i that's one of the reasons why they are making these lower tiered toppers this is definitely targeting the like other smaller boutique manufacturers like spooky for instance and This is something I think Stern should start doing. So I think they're taking a step in that direction by providing a lower tier topper. And then eventually releasing their typical $1,500, $2,000 topper kind of thing. But it's going to be nowhere near what Spooky provides for you kind of thing. But I'm not totally against their $400 topper thing. and but i just i cannot see me and i'm sure a lot of you out there spending 400 plus dollars on something to put on top of your game that merely shows off the manufacturer the person that built the game on top of your game like oh by the stern logo that you can put on top of your game it's got built-in expression lighting give us 400 more dollars to show off our brand no now once you do licensed artwork and everything like that that would make more sense but to go give us more money so you can show everybody that we made this game all right let me get caught up on the chat here guys i want to leave you my out because I want this to be a discussion. I don't want this to be like you guys listen to me talk. No, I want this to go back and forth. And I'm definitely curious about let's do this right here. I want to do a poll just to see where we're at on this. To get feedback and where we stand on how people think about this game. It's like, I don't know how to word this without, I don't want it to sound like, you know, I don't want to be a leading question. I want it to be legitimate. Like you guys, let me know what you think. So that's not going to work either. Okay. Let me just ask this one right here. Start a poll. Do you like... Here we go. This is just a simple... I'm just curious. Do you like the red trim on the 50th? It's like, you know, I'm just mainly completely curious about this. Because I've seen it being a mixed bag. And I think this is definitely a mixed bag. There's a lot, like I said, a lot of room for subjectivity, but I can tell you without naming names, I do talk to people in the industry, and some of those people in the industry are artists. And then I show them this, and I'm like, what are your thoughts? And every artist so far, objectively, does not like it. all right let's end the poll right there if i can so there we go only 34 votes but you know 55 say no it's pretty up there with a mixed bag like i was like i was stating i've seen people on my patreon or on on even on pin side there's people that think it's an eyesore there's people out there that love it kind of thing and i think that just kind of goes hand in hand with it's a good thing that to each their own when it comes to something like this like i said thankfully this is merely an option now if this was the only jaws game ever released i could definitely see the point and i'm looking at the wrong camera sorry guys i could definitely see the point in getting like you know amped up and angry they took your theme your dream theme and then they just like made it safe i mean they've already done a pretty damn good job of the jaws le and the premium and everything that's fine so this is merely an option so that's where i'm okay with it like i said if they've released like a a dream theme it's like look what you've done to my boy kind of thing then yeah i could see getting up in arms and a a little bit angry about it kind of thing yeah i get that the fact that it's red because of blood but i think it's just done in a in a easy fashion type of thing it like when you look at it from a certain angle and this is me not being in front of it guys i would probably have a much better opinion on it by standing in front of it to see what it looks like but in the video footage it makes it kind of look i don't know like a like a cheapish kind of homebrew style thing you know even with the art going in with it because the art is so damn simple it's just the logo the movie poster on every side every panel you've got merely a shark fin and a whole bunch of water on the backbox where they could have used like half of that as like other items like there could have been so much up there that they could have done but they didn't is it ai red trim no they kept the price down by not making the shark heed the ball yeah well okay i like that one right there foolish heartband let's uh let's ask that one i mean would you trade in your current jaws for this let's try that one for you jaws owners out there because i know there's got to be people out there that are going to they're like oh this is better kind of thing you know maybe they have a pro and they want a premium but they want a prettier version of premium it's almost like the costco edition of premium backbox side art is the only turn off to me yeah that seems like a bunch of wasted space they could have done so much more with that but they've covered up like what 75 percent of that backbox side panel with just ocean and then you got that fin that's swimming in whipped cream or something at the top right there all right so right there i'd say the majority of people out of 34 votes again 85 say no they would not trade in their current jaws for this one and so i wanted to go to their website and just kind of show people this because uh let me go to my main display here let me find some pictures i know they want to show off the um the stripper dust but i don't think we're going to get good images of that in these i think that's not going to really shine through on these pictures look at this so you mean to tell me guys the ones that love this art package you look at this and go beautiful. Amazing. Really. You see this and go, that looks amazing. I don't get it. that's all I'm saying it's like once it goes in your lineup you're not going to see it but I just feel like this representation of a 50th to celebrate a license this doesn't seem like a celebration to me this just feels like a let's change a few things throw a sticker on it and get people to buy it but I have low expectations for Stern. That's the best way to have it, man. Keep your expectations low and just be surprised whenever they do something really good. Call me she then, but I like it. I don't know. I mean, like I said, to each their own, but I want to, like I said, I've talked to a couple of different artists in the industry and they will tell me, they have told me that this is just not good kind of thing. But give me some quarters, baby. That the beauty of it guys is that you don have to buy this Stringer thank you very much for the man Very much appreciated at least the shark in the 50th eats the ball so yeah and that where we at on this this whole uh 50th anniversary edition i thought i had another thing to mention right here let's see do we go over oh yeah obviously the the big perk I guess to this announcement release for those of you that currently do own a Jaws is they now have completed the code. We have now reached 1.0 that includes co-op the final smile you son of a bitch wizard mode so that in itself is a good thing right there. They held back the completion of this game for their 50th anniversary kind of thing. So that's good for you Jaws owners out there. you guys do not see the magic in the sticker it's like you don't understand when you get to a certain angle it's multi-colored and from what i'm gathering from those who own the game and have played a little bit of it it's all positive when it comes to the code and what they've implemented and everything since I don't own the game and haven't played it deep enough to really experience the code I don't really have much to add to that but it's a good thing that you Jaws owners out there are happy with it so that's good news so it's a limited edition that is limited by time rather than number isn't this the same thing essentially as doing a JP anniversary edition uh not really because and see and this is what they said they're making it till the end of the year now why can anybody tell me why why would they limit it to the end of a fiscal year people on my patreon probably already know the answer to this whenever i posted my video today okay basically they need to keep they this when their their license is done at the end of the year well you got your FOMO they need to create the FOMO but typically license run out runs out at the end of a year of the end of the year 2025 December JAWS is more than likely gonna have to be ran out so unless the demand is there where they can justify re-upping the license for another 12 months i believe the limited they are referencing has to do with sales still like the le the best coming in from damon right there so that's the thing it's like this game can technically be more limited than the limited edition if not many people purchase it because they just don't want to kind of thing or maybe they're holding out for another game or something. Perpetual licensing. Any word with Stranger Things being redone to capitalize on the last season being released in the fall? This is something I mentioned in my stream last week there, Russell. I'm sure you were there for it, is that there's a couple of things that Stern could do to really capitalize on what's being released later this year. One of those is the new Tron movie. This will be the perfect time to do a Tron remastered, not a Walking Dead. And then you have Stranger Things, the final season that's going to be starting up later this year. So there's two things that they could really hop on top of to sell and move a lot of units out there. But it's like, I lost interest in The Walking Dead, what, season five? I just kind of didn't care about it kind of thing. I really didn't care. And it's not a game that I particularly look forward to kind of thing. But I could definitely get behind a new updated Tron. And then Springer's like, Superman? Well, you know, it's like, which Superman would you want? We don't know, not all of us know, if this new Superman is going to be something that we could really get behind. do we want the 70 was it 78 78 version of Superman isn't Harry Potter yeah Harry Potter is Warner Brothers people would tear the helicopter apart Jersey Jack Superman coming I do not know don't catch me lying on that one but yeah we're creeping up on the 40 minute mark like i said this was going to be primarily discussing everybody like what's your thoughts and opinions on this 50th anniversary edition for me it's a yeah doesn't affect me any i mean i don't have a current jaws but even if i had a current jaws seeing this would not move the needle for me either way i just see this and i go okay I'm fine I would be content with what I have but if you don't own a jaws and you've been wanting to get one and you want a prettier version that you perceived to be prettier at least then here you go here's your option for it right now or for those that are trading in their current jaws so they can get this one that you might want to keep an eye on the secondhand market to get you of jaws on the cheap a pin including every actor that played superman would be fantastic be like a like a doctor who a superman what this one is fine it is fine other ones are also fine continue on it's just just this is a safe like here you go kind of thing it doesn't move the needle for me all and i i'm just mainly wanting to get feedback from those of you that actually do care about this that actually have a jaws the ones that have an le or a premium is this something that is it disappointing do you wish they would have done more but like i said they could have done more you know they could have but they had to play it safe because they don't want to make the current owners upset i think this is an option although i really do wish that they would have made it a true like anniversary celebration type of thing i think you had a much more changes on the elvira and you had more changes on jp 30th and you had more changes on godzilla for damn sure a lot more changes on the godzilla safe equals red i guess yeah i would consider red to be safe but the art package is where they like play it safe it's it's jaws related to it's nostalgia it's like everyone knows what it's from that's what we're going to use that's where they played as safe as on the art package they led zeppelin the hell out of it the 50th art is at least iconic unlike the premium yeah i i could see that but it's like couldn't it be iconic by also being i don't know just a little bit more like i i understand completely that that's like what everyone sees that they go that's the movie poster and I feel like the bottom portion of it okay but the backbox portion why not have it's like what else could they have done back there reach out tell me what you think they could have put on that backbox made it more like the actual movie poster like having like um I don't know I don't even know I'm not a creative like when it comes to that kind of thing but I just know what I like and know what I don't like and when I see that backbox I go I don't like that now if I was more of a fan of Jaws and knew more about it then I could probably pop out a bunch of good ideas that would be better but I I've only seen the movie once I was honestly raring and ready to buy this one new in box for the first time if it was amazing and unique to the point of Godzilla 70th but it happens to not be my thing so gonna wait for sale premiums. Might be your best thing to do. If they do remake Tron, I would consider selling a couple of games to acquire that title. All I know is that John Borg would be on board for doing both of those games. I asked him about it, like, would you want to do a Tron? Would you want to do Walking Dead? He's like, oh, absolutely. So, he'd be down for it. It's just a matter of them getting the license to redo it and then moving things around. all right maybe it may get my kid a draw for stirring back boxes to earn the extra pin money but yeah for those that uh weren't able to catch this live by all means in the comment section down below let me know your thoughts and feelings on the jaws 50th anniversary edition is it special is it safe i'm curious what your thoughts are backbox should have been chunk missing a few teeth marks well there's an option right there so again congratulations turn on obviously releasing another game uh thankfully i don't feel it to be better than your current releases of jaws this is merely just a option for those of you out there i know i've repeated that plenty of times but a lot of people come and go throughout the stream so that's why i do that for the streams all right guys let's wrap this stream up i'm gonna get me some dinner but uh there we go like i said i wasn't anticipating this to be a very long stream uh we definitely had more viewers than i was anticipating because it seemed like this was kind of a meh to release so there we go well hopefully we'll get some better footage of this game to show off the glitter a little bit better because they didn't really give us a good idea how that looks i don't think they're going to do a gameplay because it's unless they're showing off i guess some of the new code maybe the co-op and everything but probably the next time we'll see this game is when it gets into people's hands over the next couple of weeks and expo probably all right guys have a happy fourth of july uh great weekend at all that stuff and junk burritos for dinner i don't know what i'm having for dinner just yet all i know is that it rained today and uh so that's gonna be good we shouldn't have to worry about too many fires this weekend trying to blow any fingers off you need those fingers for playing pinball guys have a good weekend love you long time

Carrie Hardy@ 35:38 — Hardy notes Stern strategically withheld final wizard modes and co-op features until the anniversary release for marketing purposes.

  • “You can play it safe or you can piss off your current customer base that's paying for the money for these LEs out there.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 22:30 — Hardy articulating the core dilemma Stern faces in tiered product strategy and why design compromises were likely made.

  • Spooky Pinball
    company
    Pinsideorganization
    Elvira BRKgame
    Trongame
    Stranger Thingsgame
    The Walking Deadgame
    Harry Pottergame
    Supermangame

    market_signal: Jaws 50th priced at $9,700 despite being primarily cosmetic updates (red armor, glitter, hologram sticker) to existing Premium/LE tiers; community sentiment via poll shows majority skepticism about value proposition.

    high · Hardy: '$9,700 for what amounts to color changes and a sticker' and poll showing 85% wouldn't trade existing Jaws for 50th variant.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition positioned as time-limited (through end of 2025) rather than unit-limited, creating artificial scarcity tied to license expiration rather than intentional product strategy.

    medium · Hardy speculates license expires December 2025, making year-end cutoff driven by licensing necessity rather than product design vision; creates FOMO without actual scarcity.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Major Stern collector (Neil McRae) publicly stating frustration with LE cannibalization and declaring intention to shift from LE to Premium purchases going forward, signaling shifting collector sentiment.

    high · Neil McRae quote from Pinside: 'I'm pretty upset about another LE that will sell less than the LE. I'm out on future LE purchases.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern deliberately constrained Jaws 50th design quality to avoid angering LE/Premium owners with a superior product, resulting in intentionally 'suppressed' anniversary edition.

    high · Hardy: 'they had to basically hold back' and 'you can't make another le game that's better than what you've already sold to your customers you're gonna piss all of them off' and explicit acknowledgment of balancing act required.