Five Minutes to Tilt #10 – Seth Davis on 15 Minutes of Pinball a Day at Stern

Dutch Pinball Museum·video·7m 18s·analyzed·Mar 18, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.008

TL;DR

Stern CPO Seth Davis discusses pinball development complexity and Pokémon machine European debut.

Summary

Seth Davis, Chief Product Officer of Stern Pinball, shares his career journey from Disney to Stern and discusses the complexity of pinball game development. He describes Stern's company culture, including a policy requiring employees to play 15 minutes daily, and announces a partnership to place a Pokémon pinball machine at the Dutch Pinball Museum as Europe's first location.

Key Claims

Seth Davis is Chief Product Officer of Stern Pinball
high confidence · Seth Davis self-identifies at the beginning of the interview
Stern has a company policy requiring all employees to play 15 minutes a day
high confidence · Seth Davis directly confirms this policy when asked and elaborates on its implementation
Stern has recently built a collection of 30-40 games in the front of their building for employee and visitor play
high confidence · Seth Davis describes this as a change implemented over the last few years to facilitate the 15-minute daily play requirement
Seth Davis previously worked at Disney before joining Stern
high confidence · Seth Davis mentions being at Disney for a long time before Stern called him
Pokémon pinball will be the first location in Europe where the machine can be played
high confidence · Seth Davis announces partnership with Dutch Pinball Museum and states 'we're going to be the first in Europe that you on location that you can actually Pokemon'
Developing a pinball machine requires licensing, physical development, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software, and creative work
high confidence · Seth Davis describes the complexity of bringing a pinball machine together
Gary Stern, as a salesman, historically sold off company games rather than keeping them in-house
high confidence · Seth Davis anecdotally describes finding limited games when he arrived and attributes this to Gary being 'a salesman at heart' who 'had sold all of the games he had lying around'
Millennials and younger employees at Stern dominate the games in the front collection, making it difficult for older staff to get playing time
high confidence · Seth Davis humorously notes that 30-somethings and millennials 'will not stop playing it long enough for me to actually get on it sometimes'

Notable Quotes

“These are the best games in the world, right? In all machines, there's nothing like, you know, there's no other product that is this much fun um that people enjoy.”
Seth Davis @ Early in interview — Expresses passion for pinball and contrasts it with other entertainment products; explains motivation for leaving Disney
“It's a miracle these games do come together every time, but it's kind of magic, right?”
Seth Davis @ Mid-interview — Captures the complexity and interdependence of teams required to create a pinball machine
“For me, um, part of what I love about it is there's almost no such thing as a normal day.”
Seth Davis @ Mid-interview — Describes the varied and dynamic nature of the CPO role at Stern
“We are we're very excited to partner with you guys to have a place to showcase a wonderful location to showcase our product in Europe and give Europe a chance to have sort of a debut location.”
Seth Davis @ End of interview — Announces Pokémon machine partnership with Dutch Pinball Museum
“Yes, we all do. We've uh one of the things that we've done a good job of... Are you obligated to play the the company policy that you have to play 15 minutes a day?”
Seth Davis (responding to host question) @ Mid-interview — Confirms and elaborates on unique Stern company culture policy

Entities

Seth DavispersonStern PinballcompanyGary Sternperson George GomezpersonDutch Pinball MuseumorganizationPokémongameDisneycompany

Signals

?
product_launch: Pokémon pinball machine will debut at Dutch Pinball Museum as the first playable location in Europe, representing strategic partnership and market expansion
high · Seth Davis announces 'we're going to be the first in Europe that you on location that you can actually Pokemon' and confirms partnership with museum to showcase the product
?
operational_signal: Stern maintains mandatory 15-minute daily play policy for all employees and has invested in building a 30-40 game collection on-site to support this culture
high · Seth Davis confirms 'Yes, we all do' regarding the policy and describes the recent infrastructure investment to facilitate compliance
?
operational_signal: Stern has recently transformed its facility by building a public-facing game collection in the front of the building to facilitate employee play, visitor engagement, and factory tours
high · Seth Davis describes this as a recent change: 'we've actually now we have, you know, 30 or 40 games out in the front of the building' and attributes this to making the 15-minute play requirement easier to achieve
?
design_philosophy: Stern views pinball development as requiring coordinated efforts across licensing, physical development, mechanical/electrical engineering, software, and creative teams
high · Seth Davis elaborates: 'you've got to have licensing, you've got to have physical development, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software, creative. It's just all these things that come together'
?
personnel_signal: Seth Davis was recruited from Disney to Stern in a senior product role, indicating strategic hiring to elevate product development capabilities

Topics

Stern Pinball company culture and internal operationsprimary15-minute daily play policy at SternprimaryPokémon pinball machine announcement and European debutprimaryComplexity of pinball game development and interdisciplinary requirementsprimarySeth Davis's career transition from Disney to SternsecondaryStern factory collection and visitor experiencesecondaryPinball industry history and nostalgiamentioned

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

At the Dutch Pinball Museum, we collect stories before they are lost. Because pinball history doesn't live only in machines. It lives in people. In stories that are often told once and then disappear. 5 minutes, one act timer. When it rings, the story ends. Hello everybody. New episode of uh our untold stories at Pimble at the beach. uh next to me. Uh I can announce him, but it's better that he can uh tell it himself. I'm going to set the egg timer and then we start off. So, hi. So, who are you? What are you doing in pinball? And can you tell us an amazing story? My name is Seth Davis. I am the CEO of Stern Pinball. Um so, that's what I'm doing here down at the beach with everybody. Uh we're having a great time down here in Florida. It's a little cold, but not too bad. Or else it's perfect. Yeah, yes, yes. Tell us a story. Oh, a story. Uh, let's see. What's a good one that um people would uh appreciate? Let me uh let me think of something something good. So, what ones have you heard so far? Yeah, it's I think I'm more a a people person than a people person. Yeah. Just tell the stories. How are you getting involved in Stern or what attracts you to pinball or Okay. All right. The people stories. Got it. So, um, I got to Stern because I had, uh, I had always been a big gamer. Um, I grew up in an 80s arcade like a lot of people did, um, that are pinball fans and playing pinball machines and arcade games and all of that. Um, and so people ask me a lot, why did you go from a big company like Disney to Stern? U, and I've been at Disney for a long time and Stern called and I said, oh my god, these are the best games in the world, right? in all machines, there's nothing like, you know, there's no other product that is this much fun um that people enjoy. And so that was what got me, you know, really interested. And then I came and met, you know, Gary and Dave and the leadership team, George and all the folks at uh Stern. Um and it was just a it's a great company. It was a great fit. Um they're the most amazing products and we make a lot of them and we make the best ones. um really uh amazed with what the company does and how it all comes together, right? When you when you think about all the things that have to happen for uh pinball machine to come together, right? You've got to have licensing, you've got to have physical development, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software, creative. It's just all these things that come together and it's, you know, it's a miracle these games do come together every time, but it's kind of magic, right? Um, and that was, you know, really exciting to me. We we we do a lot of different things at the company and uh it there's never a dull moment, right? There's always something new and there's always something new to invent, something new to do. Can you tell me what a regular day for you at the the office is? So, you start, you get a grab a coffee, then you have like several meetings a day, you talk to everybody. That's a normal day. It looks looks Yeah. So, for me, um, part of what I love about it is there's almost no such thing as a normal day. I mean, we do have a a set of standard check-ins and meetings like any company does on an ongoing basis throughout the week for certain touch points, but you know, my job from day to day could be, hey, there's a there's there's some sort of legal question and I'm talking to lawyers or there's a you know, creative question and I'm talking to George and the team and we're working out, you know, all the different trade-offs between, you know, finishing the game, the lensur, the creative what should we do? All of those kind of things. So, it could be anywhere from that to anywhere in between. Hey, we have a launch and let's talk about the marketing and how we're going to work with our dealers um on that. It, you know, it what's fun about it is it's varied every day. There's just there's so many things that that the company needs to do. Um or it could be, you know, software opportunities and software challenges, right? Any of these things. So, it's it's very varied. Um these are very They're shockingly complicated businesses for, you know, the size of the industry and everything. They have a complexity level that's on par with much much larger in terms of doing everything physical to digital products. Wow. Are you obligated to play the the company Ryan Policky that you have to play 15 minutes a day? Yes, we all do. We all do. We've uh one of the things that we've done a good job of Oh, you you guys will like the story, too. Uh when I got to the company, I was like, "Oh, we must have all of these games." And um you know, for all of you guys who know Gary, Gary's been a pinball guy for a long time, but Gary also is a salesman at heart. And so he uh he always looked at he had sold all of the games he had lying around. And so when I got there, we we only had some of the older games or we had, you know, playfields and boxes that we pull out, put in the cabinet. So, what we've done now is we've actually kind of made a collection in the front of the building of a lot of our games and a lot of what's there. So, if you come on the tour or you come visit the the factory or you come visit us, you get a chance to play a lot of those different games and enjoy a lot of those different games. So, um that's been a change in the last few years that we've actually now we have, you know, 30 or 40 games out in the front of the building for people to play. Um and so we have them there to look at and all that for the employees to play kind of all the time. So, that's made it um much much easier to get 15 minutes in than uh than before where we had to kind of get a play field into a cabinet and kind of put it all together. This is another This is another good one I I'll give you guys. Uh every time I go to play the game, I have a hard time doing it because the the 30somes, the millennials in our office will not stop playing it long enough for me to actually get on it sometimes. So whenever I go walk by the room where we have the game to play, there's always people banging away on them all the time. So uh it's it's very exciting. It's very exciting. Um already Gary for the camera, but also want to thank you for our So we're going to work together. Pokemon is going to be put on a plane and we're going to send to our museum and we're going to be the first in Europe that you on location that you can actually Pokemon. We are we're very excited to partner with you guys to have a place to showcase a wonderful location to showcase our product in Europe and give Europe a chance to have sort of a debut location. So come check it out, get your chance to play, come see the museum, and come see the game.