Gary Stern 75th Birthday Interview - Part 2
As Gary Stern, President of Stern Pinball, celebrates his 75th birthday, Martin Ayub of Pinball News and Jonathan Joosten of Pinball Magazine send our congratulations to him, and mark this milestone with a landmark inter
Kineticist’s take
Gary Stern traces Data East/Sega/Stern Pinball founding, licensing strategy, and market segmentation success.
Synopsis
Gary Stern discusses the founding and evolution of Data East Pinball (later Sega, then Stern Pinball) in a 2.5-hour retrospective interview. Key topics include Pinstar's formation with Steve Kirk, reverse-engineering Williams circuit boards while programming from scratch to avoid copyright infringement, the strategic shift to licensed titles beginning with Playboy, Data East USA Inc. financial struggles leading to Sega's acquisition in 1994, and the company's survival through 2008-2009. Stern emphasizes the importance of segmenting markets (commercial operators, enthusiast collectors, and casual rec-room buyers) and the evolution from operator-dominated to home-collector-significant business models.
Entities
- Data East Pinball· company
- Free Radical Technology· company
- Pinstar· company
- Sega Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams Electronics· company
- Bob Lloyd· person
- Dave Peterson· person
- David Schoenberg· person
- Frank Ballew· person
- Gary Stern· person
- George Lucas· person
- Joe Kaminkow· person
- Ladd· person
- Richard Denton· person
- Shelley Jones· person
- Steve Kirk· person
- T. Fukuda· person