# Stern's Pokémon Home Edition Arrives at Costco for $4,999
by [Colin Alsheimer](/author/colin) · August 13, 2026 · [News](/news/category/news)

> Stern's Pokémon Home Edition appeared on Costco sales floors today at $4,999 with no announcement, and it's the closest one of these has come to the Pro.

[Stern](https://www.kineticist.com/manufacturers/stern-pinball-inc)'s [home edition](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/pokemon-home-edition-2026) of [Pokémon](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/pokemon) started appearing in Costco warehouses today at $4,999, with nothing officially announced by Stern Pinball or Costco. The first photos went up on social media this morning. As of publication there's no listing on stern.com and none on costco.com.

![A Stern Pokemon Home Edition pinball machine set up on a Costco sales floor, showing the yellow cabinet art with Pikachu and the Pokemon logo, and the backbox artwork featuring Mewtwo, Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/a742767b-5a5a-4ee8-9ada-1494b60c596f.jpg?width=1320&height=1982)

*The Pokémon Home Edition on a Costco sales floor on the morning of August 12.*

A Pokémon home edition has been rumored most of the year. What nobody had until this morning was a price, a date, or a look at the playfield.

It lands two thousand dollars under a [Pokémon Pro](https://www.kineticist.com/news/stern-pinball-reveals-pokemon-pinball), which is $6,999. A Premium is $9,699, and the 750-unit LE went out at $12,999 and sold out quickly.

The buyer isn't the enthusiast. Stern already reaches that person through its distributor network, and nobody who reads Pinside is getting converted by a warehouse display. The person walking past this one and considering it is likely net new to pinball.

So far there's one hands-on account. [CoolToy](https://www.kineticist.com/pinball-promoters/cooltoy) played the machine at his local Costco this morning, and by his telling the game inside is a close approximation of the cornerstone version that released earlier this year. "Essentially it's the same game inside the machine," he says. The display is a 10-inch LCD instead of the 18.5-inch on the full-size games, running the same assets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8opT2VkagxM

The home model build has improved over the last few release cycles. CoolToy notes that the playfield is now commercial grade wood rather than the MDF of old, and that two speakers are standard where prior models shipped with one. Stern's retail box, visible in one of this morning's photos, advertises a "commercial grade wood playfield" in those words.

![The playfield of the Stern Pokemon Home Edition seen head on, with a Meowth toy at the centre, a Pikachu sculpt at the right and a flat Poke Ball at the upper left, and the machine's retail box standing alongside](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/c4a17d46-2bc8-4690-9c12-16808a0e2486.jpg?width=1222&height=2048)

*The playfield, with the retail box alongside carrying Stern's own "commercial grade wood playfield" claim.*

The savings come from elsewhere. There's no Town Scoop on the right. Wireforms are gone in favor of all-plastic ramps, banks of individual targets have become paddle targets, and the molded Poké Ball on the left is a flat plastic piece. Pikachu is a static sculpt, same as the Pro, but the up post beside him is gone. The Squirtle shot on the left has been reworked into a target that trickles the ball into a ramp underneath, where an up post holds it for the catch.

Meowth still moves. On the full-size games he's motorized; here he sits on a spring mechanism that raises and lowers him to block the middle shot. A simpler mech, but more than the previous home editions attempted.

Pokémon is now the third entry in the latest Stern and Costco partnership, and each has been a better machine than the one before it. [Star Wars](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/star-wars-home-edition-2019) and [Jurassic Park](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/jurassic-park-home-edition-2021) were reworked heavily enough to read as different machines, and cheaper ones. This one looks like (and appears to play like) a trimmed Pro.

What's great about these releases is that the games are typically playable on the floor, which puts pinball in front of a new mass-market audience. Presumably some of them go on to buy full-featured machines. CoolToy watched it happen while he played. "As I was playing this game there was a line of children huddled around watching me play," he said.

For now, all we have to go on are social media photos and CoolToy's video. Hopefully we'll get more official details soon.

## Related
- Game: [Pokémon](/games/pinball/pokemon-2026)

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