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RePlay Magazine Podcast - Interview with Gary Stern
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RePlay Magazine Podcast - Interview with Gary Stern
You can’t talk about pinball today without starting with Gary Stern, the founder and executive chairman of Stern Pinball whose passion for the game has been demonstrated time and time again. In...
Highlights
- Gary Stern has been involved in pinball for 78 years, since age 2 when his father entered the business
- Stern Pinball operates in 230,000 square feet across two modern facilities (main building and woodworking building) in Elk Grove Village near O'Hare
- Stern has over 300,000 Insider Connected players and over 1,000 Stern Army members organizing monthly location events
- 70% of Stern's games are placed in homes, but 30% in street locations generate 70% of revenue
- Stern releases three new cornerstone games per year in Pro/Premium/Limited Edition tiers
- Stern's CEO Seth Davis is 47 years old, Wharton MBA, 10+ years at Disney in games/streaming, and 10 years at GE
- Stern invested millions in Insider Connected technology six years ago based on investor/lender feedback that connected products have future viability
- Sam Stern (Gary's father) sold Williams to Seabird in 1964; Stern Electronics closed in 1984/1985
Notable quotes
“Without Insider Connected, a pinball's a box on four legs. It's a little arrogant on my part. But I truly believe that we've got to have connectivity in products in our business.”
“If the product is not connected, it's not going to have a future. And I'm not talking just about games. I just mean in general. Everything is connected.”
“I'm just a businessman who needed a job, and that's why I'm here... I needed a job, so I had to create this company, which was in 1986, originally with Date East as an investor.”
“You should have it when it's – buy it anytime, but certainly buy it when it's first coming out because there's 300,000 people going to be looking for that game.”
“The dungeon changes every week. We send out contracts with John Wick. We have a level up where in Venom, and Venom earns great. In Venom, whatever level you got to on the game in Chicago, you go play in Germany, it knows where you were, and it picks you up at that level.”
“George Gomez was just inducted because he's in George's history. George is fascinating. George's family left Cuba when he was five. He is probably the only trained designer, degree designer, industrial... He's the only degree educated as a designer, designer probably in the business.”
“I'm just the guy who needed a job and to start a company to get a job... I may love games and pinball, but I'm a business guy, just a business guy. The creative people are the ones.”
“When we started this company, people thought, well, why do we need another pinball company? You know, you had Gottlieb and Williams and Valley... And why do you need another one? And once again, needed a job.”
Entities
- Data East Pinball· company
- Gottlieb· company
- Marvin Glass Toy Development Company· company
- Sega· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Valley· company
- Williams Manufacturing· company
- Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye· game
- Jaws· game
- John Wick· game
- King Kong· game
- Metallica· game
- Star Wars· game
- Uncanny X-Men· game
- Venom· game
- Stern Army· organization
- Gary Stern· person
- George Gomez· person
- Harry Williams· person
- Joe Kamenko· person
- Randy Shilton· person
- Sam Stern· person
- Seth Davis· person
- Shelly Sachs· person
- Insider Connected· product
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