Subject: Thank you from Gary Stern
From: [email-masked] (Garys506)
Date: 10 Nov 1999 18:00:22 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

To the pinball community:

I would like to thank everyone that has written letters or posted messages
congratulating us and wishing us well with our pinball business.  You are an
important portion of our market, which we strive to serve.  We ask for and
appreciate your support.

I wish I had time currently to answer and thank individually each person we 
received messages from.  It has been a very busy time, preparing and
negotiating our acquisition, reacting to the acquisition which was just over a
month ago, and reacting to the announcement 2 weeks ago by WMS.  Please
understand our current work load and accept my apology.

Obviously pinball is important to me, as I continue to ply the trade of my
father before me.  I would like to see pinball continue, as I think it has a
place in our society as entertainment and a place in society's and my
personal history.

To many people pinball is a sport - a competitive sport.  Like any sport, to
exist it must have the equipment available.  There must be bats for baseball,
golf courses for golf, and balls for tennis.  Only if someone (a business)
can make money supplying the bats, the golf courses, and the tennis balls
will the equipment necessary for these activities be available.  That is
capitalism, the American way.  Only if SPI can operate effectively &
inexpensively as a business will there be continuing pinball game development
and production.  We intend pinball to continue.

To many people pinball is an art form - a collectible - much as an Early
American style antique chair is a collectible, or a 50 year old automobile is a
collectible.  Both these collectibles were designed and produced not as art
forms, but as useful items that a business created to earn money for its
support and continuance.  Again this is capitalism, the American way.  Only 
if SPI can operate effectively & inexpensively as a business will there be
continuing pinball game development and production.  We intend pinball to
continue.

Not only must SPI operate effectively & inexpensively to survive, it must
also make the product that the broad and worldwide marketplace desires.  Our
design philosophy is to make Mechanical Action Pinball, for the great player
surely to enjoy, but especially for the average or causal player to have FUN
playing.  We are not trying to bring video gamers back to pinball - often
they are at home gaming on the internet or what have you.  We believe that, 
worldwide, pinball and many coin-op games have reverted to their basics of
being ancillary entertainment in venues which are not primarily game
locations.  Our games are in pubs, bars, restaurants, and now movie theatres -
places people come to not primarily to play games but where they play games
waiting for a restaurant table, having a drink, waiting for a movie to start. 
Even many big arcades have games in them as ancillary entertainment, such as in
Dave & Busters (where games are less than 1/2 the business) and similarly
Gameworks.  Therefore, if we can't attract and entertain the casual player, 
pinball will not make enough money in locations to continue  --operators
won't buy and so we won't sell.  Capitalism working again.

We believe the average/casual player is attracted to and enjoys Mechanical
Action.  Harry Williams used to say, "The ball is wild".  The casual player 
sees that Wild Ball and the Mechanical things it does.  He does not see the 
light come on in front of a target when the ball hits it, but he sees the
drop target fall.  He sees the castle fall when he its it, or Dracula come
out of the coffin.  He sees Kenny fall over dead when hit, or the toilet open
and Mr. Hanky come out of the back.  (Toilet humor is enjoyed the world
over.)  Or he sees the Harley-Davidson do wheelies when the ball hits the
bike.  The player hits these once and he knows to hit them again; the game is
self-educating for the player.  And the player has FUN doing this because he
feels accomplishment instead of the frustration of some games.  Having FUN, 
the player does it again.  And maybe he then gets multiball, such as by
hitting the Harley and causing wheelies repeatedly.  Multiball for the causal
player must be the greatest accomplishment and the most FUN.  Add to all of 
this Mechanical Action some smooth ramp shots off the sweat spot of the
flipper, some spinning targets making visual and sound action, and 3 or 4
properly spaced pop bumpers to let the game play itself a little so the
causal player can dry his sweaty palms, and we with pinball can provide FUN 
to that larger player base needed to earn the income which will allow pinball
to continue.

We must operate SPI effectively & inexpensively, and we must provide
entertainment & FUN to the casual player as pinball did over the decades.
And we must realistically analyze the market size to service it properly.  In
the early 1990's there were probably 100,000 pinball machines a year made and
sold.  Today the worldwide market is 8% or 15% of that at best.  It may
fluctuate up a little, or down a little, but it will not exceed that 8,000 to
15,000 machine market very much nor for any extended period of time.  There 
are too many new types of entertainment, both coin-op and otherwise (like
internet, where you are reading this splitting your time between internet and
pinball playing), and there are reduced numbers of the locations for our
games.  There is room for one company in this small market, and we intend
pinball to continue.

Most of you know that my father owned Williams from 1947 until 1964.  He
remained there until 1976, with the exception of being at Bally for one year. 
Before and after he sold the company, I worked there.  I have a great place in
my heart for Williams and for Bally - especially for Williams.  WMS is a 
great company.  They have developed a great slot machine business.  They
invested very very heavily in pinball, to the tune according to their
published figures of having pinball losses of between $7 million and $8
million a year over the last few years.  They tried hard, but no one could or
should continue to sustain those kinds of losses.  They made what was the
right decision for their business and the future continuation of WMS.

SPI of course can't afford those kind of losses.  It must operate effectively &
inexpensively, making Mechanical Action Pinball to entertain the enthusiast
player and to provide FUN for the casual player, modeling itself to survive 
in the smaller marketplace.  Neither can nor should anyone else submit
themselves to the type of losses ($8 million a year) that WMS suffered in an
attempt to be in the pinball business.  This is to say nothing to the added 
millions of dollars it would cost anyone to start up today in pinball,
whether from scratch or even from buying and moving WMS pinball (for the
opportunity to continue losing $8 million a year).

SPI over the years has created a low budget environment and culture modeled 
to survive in this small pinball business.  WMS and MIDWAY, its sister
company, are high tech companies and so do not have an inexpensive culture
needed to survive in pinball.  No other company has been able to created this
inexpensive culture - not Alvin G nor Capcom nor Premier.  Those of you who 
have toured WMS in Waukegan and/or the Capcom plant and who have been to SPI
know what I mean about our inexpensive culture.  It cost a lot of time, money
and effort to develop SPI's unique systems (business computers, methodologies,
and so for the) allowing SPI to operate inexpensively.

I write to you all to thank you for your recent good wishes and to ask you
for your future support.  I feel it was therefore proper that I take the time
to explain our design philosophy - what we are trying to do.  And to explain
the marketplace as we see it - the player base and the magnitude.  To explain
to you that we must be a successful business to survive and that we are
uniquely qualified to be that successful business (we have an inexpensive
culture).  WMS made many great games, but their future was in other product. 
Others may dabble in pinball from time to time - that wouldn't surprise me -
others have and failed in the past when the market was much better and
larger.  As the only experienced company in a position to devote itself,
economically, to pinball, SPI is the hope for all of us - for your sport,
hobby or collectibles and for my lifelong business career - for the to the 
continuation of pinball.

We intend pinball to continue, and I would truly appreciate your support.

Thank you in advance.

Gary Stern

P.S.  This AOL address I am using is really part of my childrens' account.  I
rarely use it as normally I have to use our business internet/intranet. 
Therefore, if you reply to the AOL address I probably won't see it.