Review of the Year

Pinball News Website·article·analyzed·Nov 1, 2000

Analysis

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TL;DR

Stern pivots to licensed themes in 2001; Austin Powers breakthrough; industry consolidation amid digital simulation rise.

Summary

Pinball News' year-end review for 2001 covers Stern Pinball's strategic shift to licensed themes (High Roller Casino, Austin Powers, Monopoly), industry challenges including the closure of Electrical Windings after 60 years, cost-cutting at Stern, and the emergence of digital pinball simulators (Visual Pinball, Visual PinMAME). The article establishes Stern's outsourcing design model and Pat Lawlor Design partnership as key business developments.

Key Claims

High Roller Casino showed continuing improvement over Striker Xtreme and Sharkey's Shootout in gameplay, construction and enjoyment
high confidence · Pinball News direct statement from their review
Electrical Windings closed after more than 60 years (founded in 1937) due to decline in game numbers
high confidence · Factual announcement of industry closure in March 2001
Austin Powers was Stern's breakthrough game that showed how a popular theme can boost sales and attract players
high confidence · Direct statement: 'This was Stern's breakthrough game'
Gary Stern stated intention to use long-term, classic licences rather than ones that come and go
high confidence · Direct quote from Gary Stern
Pat Lawlor Design agreed to make another pinball game for Stern with expected delivery around October 2002
high confidence · Direct announcement from Pat Lawlor at Expo
Visual Pinball and Visual PinMAME enabled players to make and download custom games for free
high confidence · Pinball News factual observation of digital simulation popularity
In July, three members of Stern's game design team left and twelve hourly-paid workers were made redundant
high confidence · Cost-cutting announcement at Stern's Melrose Park facility
Pinball is currently seen as uneconomic and unreliable by European operators due to gaming law changes
medium confidence · Industry observation about European market conditions

Notable Quotes

“Our strategy is to stick with long-term, classic licences, rather than ones that come and go.”
Gary Stern @ Not specified — Establishes Stern's strategic pivot toward licensed IP as core business model
“We will continue with outsourced designers.”
Gary Stern @ July 2001 — Confirms Stern's shift to outsourced design partnerships rather than in-house design team
“This was Stern's breakthrough game.”
Pinball News @ 2001 — Characterizes Austin Powers as transformative for Stern's commercial success
“The reputations and strategies of both PLD and Stern were riding on this.”
Pinball News @ 2001 — Establishes the high stakes of the Pat Lawlor Design partnership
“As ever in pinball, speculation as to the next game will be plentiful and some of it will be wrong.”
Pinball News @ December 28, 2001 — Reflects on the rumor-driven nature of pinball community discourse

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyPat Lawlor DesigncompanyGary Sternperson Pat Lawlorperson High Roller CasinogameAustin PowersgameMonopolygameStriker Xtremegame

Signals

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business_signal: Electrical Windings closure after 64 years signals industry consolidation and parts supply vulnerability
high · Founded 1937, closed March 2001; decline in game numbers cited as cause; provided coils, transformers, and sundry components
?
business_signal: Stern implementing cost-cutting and outsourced design model; three design team members left in July 2001 with twelve hourly workers made redundant
high · Direct reporting of July 2001 redundancies at Melrose Park facility; Gary Stern's stated intention to continue outsourced designers
?
licensing_signal: Stern pivoting to long-term licensed themes as core business strategy rather than original IP
high · Gary Stern quote: 'Our strategy is to stick with long-term, classic licences, rather than ones that come and go'
$
market_signal: European market conditions deteriorating; pinball seen as uneconomic and unreliable by operators due to gaming law changes
medium · Article notes 'pinball is unpopular with operators' and 'currently seen as an uneconomic and unreliable form of gaming' in Europe
?
announcement: Pat Lawlor Design contracted for second Stern game expected around October 2002
high · Direct announcement from Pat at Expo; rumored to be Simpsons game but unconfirmed
~

Transcript

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Story dated 28th December, 2001 Welcome to this, our second annual review of the past year in pinball - and what a year it's been. We started with January's launch of Stern's third game - High Roller Casino. The game premiered at the IMA show in Neurenberg, Germany and appeared again a few days later at the ATEI show in London. Naturally, we had the first full review of the game. We were happy to report that the game shows a continuing improvement over the earlier Striker Xtreme and Sharkey's Shootout in terms of game play, construction and enjoyment. Although HRC was still at the prototype stage in January, when it started production some important and welcome changes were made to improve the rules and game operation. March saw the end of an era as Electrical Windings closed its doors after more than 60 years servicing the pinball industry. Donal Murphy's company supplied coils, transformers and sundry other parts but the decline in game numbers finally took its toll and the firm - founded in 1937 - shut up shop. In April we ran our first birthday competition with a bunch of prizes up for grabs. The lucky winners were Michael Burke from New Zealand and Peter Hall from Robert Englunds. Will there be another great giveaway in 2002? That would be telling! Gaming laws across Europe have been changing with a move away from gambling devices but sadly this has been at a time when pinball is unpopular with operators, leading to other types of amusement devices filling the void. Hopefully, Stern's newest games will help repair the reputation of pinball - currently seen as an uneconomic and unreliable form of gaming. In May, Illinois Pinball wrote an open letter to the pinball community in an attempt to clarify the status of spare parts orders and to outline the deal owner Gene Cunningham made with William's to buy certain rights and parts. Even now, the exact details of the deal remain obscured but the fact remains that parts are shipping, though you do have to order them through the old William's network of distributors. The second new game of the year appeared first in the US and then very soon after in the UK. Austin Powers was the first game to follow Gary Stern intention to use licensed themes for future games. "Our strategy is to stick with long-term, classic licences, rather than ones that come and go." he said. Based on the eponymous British spy created by Mike Myers, the game was well received by operators and players alike. This was Stern's breakthrough game. It showed how a popular theme can not only boost sales but attract the fickle player to a familiar and welcoming game. The game sold well and may yet reappear when the third movie in the series hits the screens in Summer 2002. While sales were good, they were not enough to stop a cost-cutting exercise at Stern's Melrose Park facility. In July, three members of the game design team left while Gary stern avowed his intention to work out more deals like the one with Pat Lawlor Design. "We will continue with outsourced designers." he said. Pinball News revealed that Gary had been in talks with Larry DeMar, former William's Head of Pinball Engineering about designing a game. So far those talks have come to naught but that may change in time. In the meantime, twelve hourly-paid workers - believed to be employed in game manufacture - were made redundant. So what was to become of that deal with Pat Lawlor Design? It was announced back in November 2000 that they would be producing a game for Stern and finally we received the first pictures of the resulting game. Monopoly made a big splash when it first appeared, and once again we had the first full review of the game. The game had to be popular for so many reasons. The reputations and strategies of both PLD and Stern were riding on this. Fortunately for all concerned the game proved very popular with many home sales adding to the order books. There was much anticipation when the PLD deal was announced, just as there was when Pat revealed at Expo that the company has agreed to make another pinball game for Stern. We can expect that around October 2002. But if real games were selling well, computer simulations were doing even better. Visual Pinball brought us the means to make our own games and download other people's. Visual PinMAME - when added to Visual Pinball - gave us the chance to play all our favourite games from the comfort of our keyboards. The popularity of these two packages rocketed and you can now play almost any game from recent years. Best of all - like Pinball News - it's totally free. For us here at Pinball News it's certainly been a busy year. We've reported in depth from the ATEI show, the Dutch Pinball Open and Pinball Expo and brought you the first and the fullest reviews of the new games from Stern. The size of the site has more than doubled in the last 12 months and we've introduced audio clips from the keynote speakers at Pinball Expo. What can we expect from 2002? For a start we should get Stern's latest game early in the year, possibly at IMA/ATEI but perhaps Monopoly is holding up the next game? Rumours suggest it will be a Playboy themed game and that the next game will be another Simpsons game. We should also get Pat Lawlor Design's new game. Will that be the Simpsons game? As ever in pinball, speculation as to the next game will be plentiful and some of it will be wrong. We'll continue to filter out the rumour and bring you the facts, the reviews and the reports. In the meantime, Pinball News wishes you a very happy and prosperous 2002. Back to the news index Back to the front page © Pinball News 2002