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Stern Pinball's Next 6 Games!

Cary Hardy·video·22m 49s·analyzed·Aug 5, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Cary Hardy analyzes six rumored 2026 Stern titles, questioning design choices and theme directions.

Summary

Cary Hardy discusses six rumored upcoming Stern Pinball titles for 2026 (Star Wars, The Walking Dead, Pokemon, Transformers, Fallout, AC/DC remaster) sourced from Don Pinball's podcast. He analyzes the likelihood of each based on existing licensing, designer assignments, and Stern's pattern of revisiting proven IP. Hardy expresses concern that Stern is playing it safe with recognizable franchises rather than taking risks on niche properties.

Key Claims

  • Star Wars (upcoming Stern title) is likely Episodes IV-VI rather than I-III or VII-IX because Stern already has licensing approval for originals and new Expression Light toppers/art blades are available for those episodes

    high confidence · Cary Hardy cites existing licensing approvals, Expression Light topper artwork packages, and recently released art blades for Star Wars games on Stern website as evidence

  • John Borg is the designer for the upcoming Star Wars game

    medium confidence · Cary Hardy states 'allegedly, John Borg' as designer; Borg previously designed Data East Star Wars (1990s) and original Walking Dead

  • The Walking Dead remaster will likely be based on comic books rather than TV show due to simpler licensing and creative freedom

    medium confidence · Hardy speculates that comic book route avoids actor licensing complexity and references Metallica's black-and-white comic aesthetic as precedent

  • Pokemon will be Jack Danger's final design for Stern Pinball

    high confidence · Cary Hardy explicitly states 'This will be his final cornerstone or his design in general from Stern Pinball of Pokemon'

  • Transformers is being designed by Brian Eddy

    medium confidence · Hardy states 'Transformers is being done allegedly by Brian Eddy' and notes Eddy typically works with Dwight Sullivan

  • Fallout will likely be summer 2026 release with RPG mechanics familiar to designers from Dungeons & Dragons work

    medium confidence · Hardy speculates Dwight Sullivan and possibly Keith Elwin based on their D&D experience with code mechanics

  • AC/DC remaster is likely because bands are seeing Stern's new system capabilities and requesting it

    low confidence · Hardy speculates bands want remasters after seeing Stern's system improvements; not from confirmed source

  • Stern is prioritizing safe, recognizable licenses because they have large overhead and need to maximize machine sales

    medium confidence · Hardy's analysis of Stern's business model and licensing strategy; his opinion based on pattern observation

Notable Quotes

  • “is it really too hard to believe that it could be the originals four five and six again is it really that hard to believe”

    Cary Hardy@ 4:02 — Establishes reasoning for Star Wars being original trilogy rather than prequels/sequels

  • “I'm saying I'm leaning towards it being four five and six due to the fact for a couple of things one it would be the easy safe route they already got a licensing approval and everything cuz starting is gonna milk freaking Star Wars for as long as that cow is willing to disperse milk”

    Cary Hardy@ 5:27 — Characterizes Stern's approach as risk-averse and focused on known properties

  • “I don't know a lot of people that were asking for a remaster of this, but technically no one was really asking for a remaster of Metallica either. They just did it kind of thing, and it went over very well.”

    Cary Hardy@ 6:41 — Justifies Walking Dead remaster credibility by precedent with Metallica

  • “I feel like there's a lot more people into Pokemon than a lot of us realize. And that's because there's a lot of closeted Pokemon fanatics.”

    Cary Hardy@ 10:20 — Commentary on Pokemon's hidden market appeal

  • “I definitely have more interest. In Fallout, out of all of these themes, for me, Fallout is more interesting.”

    Cary Hardy@ 14:48 — Personal preference statement; indicates Fallout as standout from list

  • “I'm not exactly blown away with what 2026 is looking like when it comes to what Stern's working on at this point in time.”

    Cary Hardy — Overall sentiment about rumored lineup; reveals disappointment with safe approach

Entities

Cary HardypersonDon PinballpersonRoger SharppersonNeilpersonJohn BorgpersonJack DangerpersonBrian EddypersonDwight Sullivanperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's licensing and design strategy prioritizes safe, universally recognized IP over niche properties due to overhead requirements and need to maximize sales

    high · Cary's analysis: 'Everything that's turned has to be something that everyone recognizes because they need to sell the most machines. They have the most to lose.'

  • ?

    community_signal: National Pinball Day celebration featuring Roger Sharp (age 77) on Cary Hardy's live stream, marking inaugural observance

    high · Cary hosted Roger Sharp on Friday Night Live stream to celebrate his birthday coinciding with National Pinball Day

  • ?

    product_concern: Industry concern about Stern's creative risk-aversion and over-reliance on established, recognizable franchises limiting innovation and differentiation

    medium · Cary's repeated characterization of approach as 'safe,' 'easy route,' and statement 'I'm not exactly blown away with what 2026 is looking like'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern considering both TV show and comic/game source material adaptations for Walking Dead, Transformers, and Fallout; preference for non-television versions due to creative freedom and licensing simplicity

    medium · Cary speculates comic books/games allow 'much more freedom' vs. actor licensing complications of TV adaptations; references Metallica black-and-white comic precedent

  • $

    market_signal: PinQuest software promotion indicates growing competition in location management software with free trial incentives (promo code hardy_pq)

    medium · Cary promoting first-month-free offer to encourage location adoption; describes PinQuest as 'very little known' and primarily Colorado-based

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.068

0:00
what's up guys and welcome back to the channel where am i talking to everything pinball so if that sounds interesting to you then hit the subscribe button down below we're going to go over a multitude of topics today the main one of course is stern pinball's next six titles rumored of course but i kind of went over this already and it was like very first discussed on my friday night live video this past friday i was there with uh don pinball's podcast because these are coming from him this these rumors and speculation are essentially coming from him and we are merely just kind of bouncing back and forth discussing our thoughts and opinions on the matter but if you didn't watch that live stream which i don't entirely i don't want to sit here and tell you that like oh it was a great show i highly recommend it mainly because i was having some sort of weird audio issue and it was software related to my assumption because i've never had that issue before but for whatever reason my audio kept ducking down whenever I was like speaking into it like too close to it evidently is auto ducking and I did not enable that and it had to do something with the whole interviewing process with people I'm guessing something was accessing an audio driver I don't know all I know is that I can sit here and make love to the microphone right now and nothing is changing so I don't know but during that hour and a half long stream and I know a lot of you don't watch that kind of content because you look at that run time and see an hour and a half or whatever and it's just no kind of thing so I'm going to give you some of the bullet points from that and the very thing that I was mainly excited about and happy about having on there was Roger Sharp to celebrate the very first National Pinball Day it was his 77th birthday so that coincided right there at the beginning of the stream got to go back and forth with him a couple of questions before I let him get back to enjoying his birthday. And I had a conversation with Neil from PinQuest. This month is my guest takeover for PinQuest. Now this is something I'm trying to get out there because mainly it's a very little known software. It's currently really only available in Colorado where Neil lives. He's got it on basically a lot of the locations there in colorado so we need a lot more locations in order for this thing to basically grow and all i'm asking here guys this is no money out of your pocket technically no money out of the locations pocket either it usually is a service for the locations there's a service fee every month but now there is a promo code hardy pq that the location can use and they get their very first month free no obligations no like they can cancel at any time if they feel like it's a service that isn't going to really be for them so all i'm asking is to reach out to your locations or if you are a location to look into getting pin quest on your site so by all means i'll put links in the description down below just check them out that's all i can really do can't twist your arm all i'm asking for you to do is just at least check it out and see if it's something that's for you so let's get into the meat and potatoes what I'm sure a lot of you are already wanting to know about and it's like you know what is Stern got cooking what are the what is coming next and let me just give you the list right now and then we're going to go down this list and discuss why I believe these rumors to be true I know for sure a couple of these are true but some of them I was like uh would they and if you think about it it kind of makes sense so the list is star wars the next remaster is going to be the walking dead then you have pokemon transformers fallout and then the next remaster for next year is acdc so to touch base on star wars which is what we're supposedly getting towards the end of this month and it's is it really too hard to believe that it could be the originals four five and six again is it really that hard to believe and it's not like should it be another set of star wars one two and three or seven eight nine like could they do it yeah but it's like they've already got all the licensing approvals already done for four five and six and that's where I'm like is it hard to believe that Stern would take this safe easy route on something that's already done four five and six where a lot of the nostalgia is that anyways the originals four five and six like yeah it's already been done by Steve Ritchie uh what was it seven eight years ago or whatever but hopefully with the alleged designer being John Borg on this one, I think John Borg is going to be doing it well. He's already done a Star Wars game. He did Data East back in 90... I don't know. I can't think off the top of my head of what year that was, but it was Data East, and he did the original Star Wars on that one. And arguably, you would be able to say that there might have been even more interesting toys on the Data East version versus what Stern gave us 2017 of Star Wars type of thing. so I'm saying I'm leaning towards it being four five and six due to the fact for a couple of things one it would be the easy safe route they already got a licensing approval and everything cuz starting is gonna milk freaking Star Wars for as long as that cow is willing to disperse milk And if you keep drinking it up they're going to just keep on milking it. But along with that, you have the fact that the only topper artwork available on their newest Expression Light topper, the only art package that's currently available is Star Wars.
@ 20:35

  • “Everything that's turned has to be something that everyone recognizes because they need to sell the most machines. They have the most to lose.”

    Cary Hardy@ 19:32 — Analysis of Stern's business constraints and licensing strategy

  • “This is why we don't get told what games are this far in advance. because then you're able to plan out which games you're going to buy and not going to buy.”

    Cary Hardy@ 22:14 — Meta-commentary on why manufacturers limit pipeline transparency

    • Keith Elwinperson
    Elizabethperson
    George Gomezperson
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    PinQuestproduct
    Pokemongame
    Star Warsgame
    The Walking Deadgame
    Transformersgame
    Falloutgame
    AC/DCgame
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jack Danger's exit from Stern Pinball (final design with Pokemon) signals potential creative staff transition

    medium · Explicit reference to Pokemon as 'final design' raises questions about Danger's future role; speculates on whether he'll 'go out with a bang'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jack Danger's Pokemon machine is explicitly stated as his final Stern Pinball design, potentially signaling designer transition or departure

    high · Direct statement: 'This will be his final cornerstone or his design in general from Stern Pinball of Pokemon'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Six Stern Pinball games rumored for 2026-2027: Star Wars (end of 2025), Walking Dead remaster, Pokemon, Transformers, Fallout, AC/DC remaster

    medium · Sourced from Don Pinball's podcast; Cary acknowledges these are rumors and speculation but finds them plausible based on pattern analysis and existing licensing

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Cary's enthusiasm for 2026 Stern lineup is notably lower than for concurrent Spooky releases, indicating competitive concern about Stern's creative direction

    medium · Cary expresses relief about waiting for Spooky games: 'getting Spooky's next, and it looks like I should be good for a good long time'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern reuses previously licensed IP (Star Wars, Walking Dead, Transformers, AC/DC) rather than acquiring new licenses, indicating cost efficiency and reduced risk

    high · Four out of six games are franchises Stern has previously made; Cary explicitly states Star Wars benefits from already-approved licensing

    • 6:02
    That's the only one that they were showing off. And then the recently released art blades for Star Wars games are now on the Stern Pinball website. So you have that, and that's Star Wars 4, 5, and 6.
    6:16
    So it's not too far-fetched to say that the upcoming game is more than likely going to be 4, 5, and 6. If it's not, then I will be surprised, and obviously I always hope every game that gets released is good. Next up is The Walking Dead Remastered. Now, this is where I have to really question why.
    6:41
    I don't know a lot of people that were asking for a remaster of this, but technically no one was really asking for a remaster of Metallica either. They just did it kind of thing, and it went over very well. So this could be another one of those, no one's asking for it, but now that it's there, and hopefully it's a better offering than the original, then maybe it'll take off and be great. It's another Borg title because he did The Walking Dead years ago. And so now we're getting The Walking Dead remastered and it's like I wonder if they're going to still stay in the regards of licensing and on screen as it being the show. Will it be the show or will they go towards the comic book route? and that is this right here. You have all this type of material that they can work with, and this is just merely book one, guys. But I wonder if they go towards the Walking Dead comic book with that type of artwork, that type of on-screen, especially with the black and white like they did with Metallica. This is black and white right here. so i kind of wonder how that would look that might look pretty damn cool honestly and that also gives them much more freedom to do what they want kind of thing you don't have to worry about the whole getting separate licensing for each actor on screen and dealing with all that that's when you have to lean towards they're probably going to take the easy safer route and going towards the comic books, where they can create their own animations, where they can probably really kind of create their own story as well.
    8:33
    So I kind of lean towards it being that, even though I think most people that are interested in Walking Dead are the ones that watch the show, and that kind of correlates to what we're going to talk about here in a little bit, I think a lot of people were more interested in the show of The Walking Dead. now I kind of fell off and lost interest around when Negan was introduced I don't know I just kind of lost interest it wasn't for me I stopped watching kind of thing but I think with the comics this just kind of opens the door for a lot more possibilities and again it's going to be this safer route for them that gives them much more room to play in the sandbox that they're trying to create now they could go down the road of going with the show and getting all the assets and on-screen stuff for these actors and everything like that again? They could. I would be surprised, but they could do that. Now, next up at the beginning of the year, we are more than likely going to be getting Pokemon from Jack Danger. This will be his final cornerstone or his design in general from Star and Pinball of Pokemon. And this is one of those properties that is very famous. Everyone knows what Pokemon is, whether you're into it or not. You've heard of the word. You've probably played the mobile game back in the day. You're aware of it. And the thing is, I feel like I probably should be more into it or more knowledgeable on the topic of Pokemon, because I kind of grew up during that time where it was the whole Pokemon Red vs. Blue when it comes to the Game Boy. But I wasn't privileged enough to have a Game Boy whenever the Game Boy was considered edgy and cool. I got it a little bit later than that. So I honestly just never really got into Pokemon. It wasn't for me. And I feel like there's a lot more people into Pokemon than a lot of us realize. And that's because there's a lot of closeted Pokemon fanatics. They don't walk around advertising and telling people that they're into it. They just kind of are. And they have their own collection of cards that they kind of just hold on to. and they only geek out and talk about it and announce it whenever they kind of find someone else that's into it kind of thing or they go to these conventions and they're looking for these cards that they're just trying to collect kind of thing but regardless of that i think that pokemon is going to be the game that causes insider connected to just take the f off because there's so many possibilities that are going to be involved with insider connected i can see them going hey If you want this particular Pokemon, it's going to be at this location this week or whatever kind of thing. Accomplish this to get this particular Pokemon. You got to collect them all got to catch them all whatever I see them doing stuff like this where there being so many Pokemon I don even know how many there are I don But I know there's evidently a crap ton. But I do see the potential of this really gravitating towards the collector's market on this. And it's definitely going to be curious to see what Jack has done with the layout. He's done unique layouts with regards to Foo Fighters and X-Men. So I'm kind of curious, especially with the response from X-Men and how that went. Is his last design going to go out with a bang? Or it's still going to be nice and unique? Or is he going to end it on a note of, I'm going to just play it safe and what's known to work?
    12:03
    We'll have to wait and see on that. Now, next up is Transformers. And it's not confirmed whether it's the movie Transformers or Transformers G1 or anything like that. But when you go down this list, you've got to think four out of the six of these games are licenses that they've already done. They've already done a Transformers movie, and that was by George Gomez, and I forgot what year it was, but they did Transformers already. They've done The Walking Dead already. They've done Star Wars to death, and they've done ACDC a couple of times already also, including The Vault kind of thing. So, Transformers. Is this a time where they're going to go towards the movies again, or would they go towards the movie or something like that? But that's on their list. I never really got into Transformers, but I feel like if they want to reach out to the most of people and be more entertaining and interested, don't do the movies. I think the movies definitely went off somewhere crazy and started going to where people just stopped caring about it. So if you go towards more of the cartoon like G1, that's going to be much more interesting than going into the movies like you already have done. And Transformers is being done allegedly by Brian Eddy, and he typically works with Dwight, which I wonder – this is where I question this a little bit when it comes to who's on what game. Because I honestly, when I heard that Fallout was being created, my initial thoughts that it was going to be Brian, Eddie, and Dwight. Because Fallout is like an RPG. You kind of can create your own story, if you will, by making certain decisions throughout the game. You grow relationships with certain factions, and you can progress differently on the decisions that you make. Which kind of like segues side by side with Dungeons & Dragons. And I'm like, well, since they're already familiar with creating code like that, it would just kind of make sense for them to go, hey, now let's do Fallout because we're kind of familiar with that. So I'm definitely curious to see how Fallout, which is the next summer's title, how that's going to be kind of thing. It's like – I mean I'm not saying no one else can do the whole RPG aspect. It was just one of those things where it's just like, oh, it's a known thing that Dwight can do this. It just makes sense for him to go right into doing Fallout as well with Keith Elwin.
    14:35
    But maybe they've got other people on the team there. Maybe Elizabeth is one of those that's going to go, yeah, because she worked with Dungeons & Dragons, I believe, also. I could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure she did. She was there to tell me how horrible I was shooting. But, like, it's – I definitely have more interest. In Fallout, out of all of these themes, for me, Fallout is more interesting. And it's like, is it going to be the video game or is it going to be the show? And this is where, look, I enjoyed the show. I really did. I think they did a lot of justice to the property in the show. And season two comes out next year. I don't know the date, but I want to say it's April of next year. I kind of don't want them to do the show. I want them to do the video game. Because, again, that's going to give them much more freedom to do what they want. Because they've made so many Fallout games. And merely when it comes to Fallout and the different games, it's because they're going to a different vault. Vault 76. Vault whatever. because there's like I don't even know how many vaults because they can just basically go on and it's in a different area of the world whether it be Vegas or something like that I think that they can create their own world in Fallout and their own vault and have their own story that's where I feel like that's where they're going to really just take off with Fallout is creating their own story with that one and of course using a lot of the video game assets Whereas they're going to kind of like – or they could do the whole show where a lot of people recognize Fallout for the TV show. But I feel like a lot of people that watch the Fallout show, they were watching it because they were also fans of the video games.
    16:33
    And I haven't played all of the Fallout games, but I have played a lot of Part 4. That was the one that I really got into. But I hear great things about the other games like New Vegas and everything, and I've even played Fallout Shelter. It's a really good time killer on your mobile device and stuff like that too. But I'm definitely more curious about Fallout. That's my own personal preference when it comes to all six of the alleged games that are being created right now. So I'm curious to see where that goes. But I would definitely push towards them creating their own story instead of doing what people recognize as the tv show especially since it only on season two and that gives them plenty of time to screw stuff up for us fans of the video game i say them meaning the studio doing the show not you start so moving on to the final one on the list acdc as being the next remastered for next year
    17:31
    And it's like, okay, I mean, the whole point of a remastered is to take a game that they've already done and improve upon it. And it wouldn't surprise me if we're seeing bands that have seen what Stern's new system can do, and they want it as well kind of thing. So that's not a complete surprise that potentially ACDC is on the docket as being remastered kind of thing. everybody would prefer the remastered be something else the upcoming one like i said the walking dead a lot of people would prefer and think that it would be tron because tron's newest movie comes out this year towards the end of like around october around that same point in time and it's just like all right you know that's why i look at the list and i go is it really too hard to believe because we look at the list and we go no way no way and then if you think about it you're like you know is it really too far-fetched that they would do that no so the list although rumors it's not far-fetched it's like you know i i see it that's it's like it's like yeah it's all right now if i was to say that they had like fifth element or something on here you'd be like no i doubt it i doubt it but you see you see this list and although it could be disappointing It is for me. It's like, well, yeah, it's not completely out of the realm of what Stern is known for doing lately. And that is that they're wanting to play things safe, go towards areas that they've already visited because they've worked before. And there's only so many licenses out there that are basically cheap enough to obtain reasonably and that majority, like the masses, recognize. They can no longer get away with doing something niche. Everything that's turned has to be something that everyone recognizes because they need to sell the most machines. They have the most to lose. they have all that overhead every license needs to be something everyone knows and on this list star wars everyone knows it the walking dead well i don't know about everyone knowing it but definitely people are aware of it kind of thing pokemon a license everyone freaking knows transformers everyone's seen the movies or watched the cartoons they know what it is fallout is the one that is the most niche on the list in comparison to these other you know five and then of course acdc another title that they've already visited kind of thing so i'm definitely curious to see where 2026 goes but as time goes on i'm definitely gonna be monitoring this list to see how really true it is. But by all means, I'm not exactly blown away with what 2026 is looking like when it comes to what Stern's working on at this point in time. But, again, rumors could be completely wrong. But out of these six games, Star Wars, Walking Dead, Pokemon Transformers, Fallout, ACDC, which one interests you the most? and out of all of these which direction do you think they should go with? Like I'm talking about The Walking Dead. Should they go with the show or should they go with the comic books? When it comes to Transformers, should they go with the movies or should they go with the cartoon? Fallout, should it be the video game or should it go to the show? I mean, a lot of directions that they could go and including Star Wars. Is it going to be the 1, 2, 3? Getting all those new licenses? Getting all that new music? Or is it going to be the known true for five and six let me know in the comment section down below guys and of course a big shout out to all my patreon supporters out there your monthly contributions and support is greatly appreciated and i'll see you at the end of the video and flashing lights carries our guide through pinball nights connecting hearts in this hobby we love bringing all of us together like stars up above keep those flippers strong and true It's like when I see this list, I am even more excited about what is coming at the end of the year.
    22:05
    Because that just means that I'm not going to feel like, oh man, maybe I should have waited just a little bit longer because of this game. And this is why we don't get told what games are this far in advance. because then you're able to plan out which games you're going to buy and not going to buy. So, end of the year, getting Spooky's next, and it looks like I should be good for a good long time, at least when it comes to what Star and Pinball possibly could be releasing. Keep those flippers strong and true Carry these songs for you
    22:47
    you