Episode 719: "Stern Pinball's - You Only Reveal Twice"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·13m 27s·analyzed·Sep 13, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

James Bond pinball leak drama: Stern blamed for poor security; Keith Elwin mystery game rumored.

Summary

Kaneda discusses the dramatic James Bond pinball reveal at UK's IAPA show, where leaked photos forced Stern to remove the machines from the floor. He alleges Eon Productions (James Bond license holder) demanded the pullout after images leaked, and reports an unverified rumor of a Keith Elwin-designed 60th anniversary James Bond game coming September 30th. Kaneda heavily criticizes Stern's marketing and booth security practices.

Key Claims

Stern identified the photo leaker by examining LCD screen reflections showing a bright yellow high-vis jacket worn by the person taking photos
medium confidence · Kaneda, reporting hearsay from 'behind the scenes' sources at Stern
Eon Productions demanded Stern remove the James Bond game from the IAPA show floor after the image leak
medium confidence · Kaneda, citing unverified hearsay: 'I'm hearing Eon like flipped out'
Eon Productions is 'one of the most difficult license holders' Stern has worked with
medium confidence · Kaneda, attributing claim to 'someone over at Stern Pinball'
A fourth mystery James Bond game designed by Keith Elwin will be unveiled September 30-October 2 at the British Film Institute's James Bond celebration
low confidence · Kaneda, reporting from 'a very good source' but acknowledging uncertainty and high stakes on credibility
The Keith Elwin Bond game will be made-to-order with dealer-set pricing, 'never done before' in Stern's model
low confidence · Kaneda, reporting unverified rumor with caveat 'I hope it's true'
Community feedback on James Bond game is universally positive on mechs but negative on artwork
high confidence · Kaneda, reporting his reading of community comments: 'I've been reading your comments'
Stern's marketing department consistently fails to execute proper product launches
high confidence · Kaneda's direct editorial criticism: 'your marketing department continues to mess this up every single launch'
The game reveal was delayed not primarily due to Queen's death, but due to the image leak angering the license holder
medium confidence · Kaneda's analysis: 'I think the real reason they delayed it is they pissed off the license holder'

Notable Quotes

“Stern (Stern Pinball) Pinball knows that all of these events were gonna be going on in terms of the national mourning of the Queen's passing away and they knew that when they were still setting up these games.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Establishes timeline context for why Stern should have anticipated complications during UK reveal
“Stern (Stern Pinball) doesn't own the images. Once these images have leaked, they have no legal power to tell you to take them down. There's absolutely nothing they can do.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Legal analysis of the leak situation; explains why Pinside's removal of images is voluntary
“This is really, really bad. And I hear that Stern (Stern Pinball) is so mad right now.”
Kaneda @ early-mid episode — Sets emotional tone for behind-the-scenes tension at Stern
“You are the world's number one pinball company. You have such great professionals at every level of your organization, but your marketing department continues to mess this up every single launch.”
Kaneda @ late-episode — Core criticism: marketing incompetence at a high-performing manufacturer
“It is not that hard to keep a pinball machine a secret until you're ready to show the world. It's actually so easy.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Emphasizes that Stern had simple operational options to prevent the leak
“Either Kaneda's Pinball Podcast is going to hit this rumor on the head or I am going to get made fun of. Now, I'm used to getting made fun of, but I hope you're entertained.”
Kaneda @ late-episode — Kaneda's meta-acknowledgment of reputational risk in reporting the Keith Elwin rumor
“Why didn't Stern (Stern Pinball) just set up some pipe and drapes, right? You could block off your entire area with drapes so nobody can see what you're doing in your booth area.”
Kaneda @ early-mid episode — Practical alternative booth security measures Stern could have used

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJames Bond (game)gameEon ProductionscompanyKanedaperson Keith Elwinperson George Gomezperson Zach Sharpeperson Jodyperson

Signals

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business_signal: Stern's marketing department organization and execution criticized as inadequate for world-leading pinball company
high · Kaneda directly addresses Stern leadership Zach Sharpe and Jody, recommends hiring external agency, calls execution 'arrogance'
?
community_signal: High-profile marketing failure by major manufacturer at international trade show; community divided on responsibility (Stern vs license holder)
high · Kaneda dedicates entire episode to 'weirdest and strangest and most dramatic weeks in Stern pinball history'; multiple alternative explanations discussed
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competitive_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball positioned as executing superior professional marketing/video production approach vs Stern's ad-hoc methods
medium · Kaneda praises JJP for 'hires a video production company to reveal the game to the world in the most polished professional way'
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event_signal: IAPA UK show became site of major industry incident; scheduled James Bond reveal became cancelled/delayed due to leak
high · Games removed from show floor; Stern personnel attendance disrupted; distributor expectations unmet
?
licensing_signal: Eon Productions described as exceptionally difficult licensing partner; demanded game removal after leak
medium · Kaneda reports hearsay that Eon 'flipped out' and removed game from show; characterized as 'one of the most difficult license holders'

Topics

James Bond pinball leak and reveal strategy failureprimaryStern marketing and booth security practicesprimaryEon Productions licensing demands and difficult partnershipsprimaryKeith Elwin mystery fourth James Bond game rumorprimaryCommunity sentiment on James Bond game (positive mechs, negative artwork)secondaryMake-to-order/dealer-priced game model innovationsecondaryIndustry competitor marketing approaches (Jersey Jack vs Stern)secondaryKaneda's podcast credibility and relationship with Pinsidementioned

Sentiment

negative(-0.75)— Kaneda is critical of Stern's marketing execution and security practices, though he acknowledges the quality of their individual team members. He is excited about the Keith Elwin rumor but expresses nervousness about credibility. Community sentiment on the game itself is mixed (positive on mechanics, negative on art). Overall tone is dramatic/scandal-focused rather than celebratory.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.040

With so much drama in the LBC, it's kind of hard being Snoop D-O-double G. What a dramatic week for pinball launches. We're going to talk about it on this episode of Canada's Pinball Podcast. But first, we are at 544 club members. Welcome to the club, Leon, Josh, Adam, Vader, Miles, Glenn, Shanty, Ryan, Paul, David. This is so awesome. You know what's not awesome? Stern flying all the way to the UK to reveal James Bond pinball. And now we have, I think, one of the weirdest and strangest and most dramatic weeks in Stern pinball history. And I'm hearing more news from behind the scenes. I'm hearing about this fourth mystery game. I want to deconstruct everything going on and do a show about this because I've never seen anything like this before. I mean, a lot of planning went into getting these games over to the UK. So let's start there. If Stern is going to ship a pro and a premium of James Bond all the way to the UK, you have to do a lot of work to get these big pinball machines across the seas through custom, get them set up. And then the unthinkable happened for Stern. And I want to tell you what I'm hearing. Well, first and foremost, I am hearing that Stern Pinball is pissed. They are very pissed off that these photos leaked and they know who leaked all the photos. You know how they know who leaked these photos? If you look at them, you can see in the reflection of the LCD screen area, it almost acts as like a black mirror. You can see the person taking the photos is wearing some bright yellow high-vis jacket. And the moment they saw that, I'm hearing, they knew exactly who took all these photos. They knew who leaked this to the world. And I believe it's someone associated with the UK show and pinball. And Stern knows exactly who it is. and they are super pissed off. But I want to play devil's advocate. What did Stern think was going to happen when they unbox these games on a show floor in which people are walking around the show floor? And it's IAPA. Like these are all people that are associated with the amusement industry and people who can't wait to see new reveals of games. And everybody knew that James Bond was going to be at the show. Why didn't Stern just set up some pipe and drapes, right? You could block off your entire area with black drapes so nobody can see what you're doing in your booth area. And then you unbox the game. Or even better yet, Stern, if you know that the big reveal is happening Tuesday morning, why wouldn't you just wait until then to unbox the games? Like, I understand that they're mad. I understand that they trusted this individual. but come on Stern, you gotta know what you're doing. No one's under NDA. You're setting this up at a trade show. This was bound to happen. Here's where the drama starts because you gotta think about it like this. The Queen passed away a few days ago. Stern Pinball knew that all of these events were gonna be going on in terms of the national mourning of the Queen's passing away and they knew that when they were still setting up these games. So what I hearing happened was this I hearing that the reason why they delayed the reveal of the game wasn because of the Queen It was really because of the leaks of the images And here what I hearing happened. Eon, who's the license holder for James Bond, is really, really difficult to work with. I heard from someone over at Stern that this is one of the most difficult license holders they've ever worked with. And that's why you don't see much James Bond stuff out in the world and so when Stern broke the news to Eon that images of the game leaked I'm hearing Eon like flipped out and they basically said that's it nope we're not doing it and they probably were on the fence anyway about doing it because of all the mourning going on in the UK and I think this was just the straw that broke the camel's back and they were like get the games off the floor because they did they removed the games off the floor and that's it we're not showing the game And maybe this was a move by them to punish Stern because they feel like Stern burned them. Like, how did images get out, Stern? You were in charge of setting up your booth. You were in charge of keeping this thing a secret. And now the game has been revealed. No matter what happens next week, the entire game has been revealed. And here's what's funny about it all. Did you see Pinside? They took down the images. I mean, Pinside legitimately has removed the images from the internet. I mean, you can't control this anymore. I've got images up on my website. I've got images up on Facebook. Stern doesn't own the images. Once these images have leaked, they have no legal power to tell you to take them down. There's absolutely nothing they can do. It is out there. It was shared by people who were not under NDA. I'm not under NDA. Everybody's now looking at the game. Everybody now knows what's in the game. This is really, really bad. And I hear that Stern is so mad right now. And they are so upset. And obviously their vitriol is most likely pointed at the individual that leaked everything. And I just want to say this for once, for once, it wasn't Kaneda. It wasn't Kaneda. I did not hop on a plane and go to the UK and dress up like James Bond and sneak into this IAPA show and take photos of this machine. But I'm not going to take these photos down now. There's absolutely no reason why I would. Look, and I still think as mad as Stern is, I think they need to accept 100% blame here because I've launched products at trade shows. It is not that hard to keep a pinball machine a secret until you're ready to show the world. It's actually so easy. And the fact that they just did it this way, it just shows that Stern does not understand how to market their products in a modern world. They still don't get it. And this should be a wake-up call because their marketing department keeps letting them down. And it's painful for me to see such marketing mistakes because you have a product. You don't even need to create the demand. You need to make the launch special. The reason why you need to make the launch special is you need to make your license holders happy. That's the whole reason why you need to nail it. And they completely fumbled it. And this must be a really painful week for Stern because now they got all these people over there expecting to see James Bond at IAPA Like people flew in Distributors are there Now no one getting to see it I heard they might do an event tonight behind closed doors but for the most part now it a disappointing trip for them Think about all the money they spent bringing the product there. All the personnel from CERN who flew over there for this moment. Now it's not going to happen. And so now the rumor is we're going to see this game revealed for the second time next week. Now, speaking of delays, I'm also going to delay my Bond LE raffle until the following weekend. So September 24th now, because it would be silly to do the raffle now. We don't know what the game looks like. We don't know the price. So I'm going to hold off on it. And if I go to the coin taker tailgating party, I will do it live from there. So that'll be super fun. Okay, so here's the other thing, right? Is that Kaneda was told today that the mystery fourth game that is coming out from this franchise is going to be a Keith Elwin designed game. And this is just like mind blowing. And I will say this, I was nervous about reporting this because I know that my credibility is somewhat on the line. I would also argue that if you ask Pinside, I have no credibility left. But this is why this show is fun. This is why it's entertaining. It is fun to speculate about this stuff. But I'm hearing from a very good source that this is going to be what the mystery special pin is. It's going to be a 60th anniversary of James Bond designed by Keith Elwin. Now let's stop right there. How are they going to do that? Even as I report this rumor, I'm on the fence about how does this make sense because George Gomez is not going to want to be upstaged by Keith Elwin. So let's think about it. Let's say this is actually going to happen, which I think it is. Then what kind of game would Keith Elwin design? Is it going to be a full featured game? Is it going to feature George Gomez mechs, but just maybe laid out differently? Maybe it's a single level game that looks like it came out in the 1960s. But here's the thing. If it's based on the 60th anniversary of James Bond, maybe this version has some Roger Moore in it and maybe it has some Daniel Craig in it. That seems like really hard to do on a licensing standpoint. I don't know any other details other than I'm being told it's a Keith Elwin pin. I heard that it's not going to be limited and it's going to be more like made to order and dealers are going to set the price on it. This has never been done before. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before ever. It's crazy, absolutely crazy. And I hope it's true because if it is true, John over at Jack Bar promised me a day of free frozen margaritas. And he also said he would join the Canada Club if this rumor turns out to be correct. So there's a lot riding on this. And maybe my sixth twippy is riding on this as well. But here's another bit of news associated with this rumor. I am hearing that this Keith Elwin 60th anniversary Bond will be unveiled at the British Film Institute's celebration of James Bond, which is taking place September 30th through October 2nd. So that's just two weeks from now. So this is going to be a really, really interesting next two to three weeks for Stern Pinball. I think Stern is super pissed. I think they worked really hard on this game. I think they've been waiting to launch this game for like eight, nine months now. and this is not the return they wanted I think it a wake call for Stern I understand that they did not anticipate the Queen to pass away and they weren expecting this 10 mourning period of the Queen But here's the part that I still don't get. If they knew this was happening, then why were they setting the games up? This leads me to believe that it was the leaks of the images that pissed off the license holder and that is why they said pull the plug on it. I do think they might be using the Queen's mourning period as an alternative reason why they delayed the launch, but I think the real reason they delayed it is they pissed off the license holder and they didn't keep the reveal secret and now it's been spoiled. A week from now, nobody will care, but I will say this. I've been reading your comments on this game and I've been seeing the community's response to this game and I think the response is pretty universally this. Everybody loves the fun mechs in this game and I think almost everybody out there thinks the artwork is a letdown. And that is where we are at right now with these games. And we don't know anything about the code. We don't know who's coding it. It might be Dwight. We're seeing that multiplier and you're going to be mashing the button to increase your multiplier. I really hope it's not that. But this week has really turned out to be the week Stern Pinball really fumbled something they should have been tighter on. And I mean that. And I really do mean this. Stern Pinball, you know how to reach Canada. If you want to learn how to market these things a little bit better. You need to step up your game. You are the world's number one pinball company. You have such great professionals at every level of your organization, but your marketing department continues to mess this up every single launch. And I think you need to get Mr. Sharp in a room and Jody in a room and really think about this because maybe hire an agency, get more professional. Like Jersey Jack Pinball hires a video production company to reveal the game to the world in the most polished professional way. Why don't you do the same? This almost feels a little bit like arrogance, like we don't have to do it. And this is what happens. You really look silly launching a game like this. It's like you're just winging it. Like, I don't understand how they even let this leak happen. Like they could have ushered in the games in boxes on Tuesday and just did an unboxing video of James Bond for the first time ever. Like, why not do it that way, you could have put them in black boxes with 007 on it, and that would have been awesome. And then you could have leaked that to the world. Two black boxes with 007 written in gold, and you are going to unbox them live in front of everybody in the world come Tuesday to kick off IAPA. What were you thinking just having them on the floor with the glass off and like a leveler on the playfield, and people are walking around the show with cell phones, Stern? You really have nobody to blame but yourself. Everybody, I love doing this show. This is the craziest week. Like either Kaneda is going to hit this rumor on the head or I am going to get made fun of. Now, I'm used to getting made fun of, but I hope you're entertained. I hope you enjoy this show. And thank you so much. We are close to 550 club members. This is insane. It is driving the haters nuts that everyone continues to have so much fun hanging out in the canada club we'll talk to you soon