That was quite an exciting launch of Stern Pinball’s next cornerstone game yesterday. Today we get even more details on the game. First in the form of a great interview by Loserkids Pinball Podcast of the game’s designer and programmer Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan.
Next up, this evening we have the first official stream of Dungeons and Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye from Stern Pinball HQ. The stream kicks off at 8:00 PM Eastern on YouTube:
So there’s lots of D&D pinball content to keep us entertained today. You know me though, I always have one eye on the present and one eye on the future. So let’s break out my trusty old crystal ball that I jokingly use at my day job and take a look at what’s in store for us from Stern Pinball for the rest of 2025.
As I mentioned yesterday, Dungeons and Dragons will be on the production line at Stern in January and February.
At this point, I am pretty certain that 2025 Cornerstone #2 will be King Kong by Keith Elwin. It’s difficult to say exactly when we’ll see the game but I’d guess sometime around May.
I think that it is very likely that we will see Stern Pinball raise prices with the release of Kong and that it is also possible that it will be the first official game on its new Spike 3 board set.
There’s two other titles that I’ve heard rumors about in relation to Stern that I believe we will see in 2025. Back in early December I wrote about the first one…Star Wars. Not the original trilogy itself but after hearing rumors now on the subject from at least thee completely independent people I’m pretty sure that 2025 Cornerstone game #3 will be some sort of Star Wars IP.
In December I mentioned that I heard it would be based on the new Disney+ show Skeleton Crew or the second Star Wars movie trilogy, Episodes 1 through 3. I’m not sure that either of those are right, but I am pretty sure that the game will be some form of Star Wars.
After recently retiring a slew of titles for at least two years to its new “Vault,” there should be room on Stern’s production line to bring back other Vault titles or do more smaller runs of boutique games.
I expect that we will see one traditional Vault title in 2025 with the most likely candidates to be brought back being Ghostbusters or TRON. The most chatter has been centered around Ghostbusters lately. There has been a considerable amount of talk that it will see a late 2025 release.
As far as the boutique or “Studio” games with runs of 1,000 units or less go, the potential themes that I’ve heard rumblings about include Fallout and Call of Duty. I think that it is likely that we see one of those on the line as 2025 as well.
Are all of these predictions Stone Cold Steel Pipe locks as they used to say about game picks on ESPN? Of course not. I do expect to be right more often than not, but plans will change and some rumors may end up being wrong. Still, it sure is fun to talk about! This ends my disclaimer.
Have a great weekend everyone!
My trusty work crystal ball that has served me well in the world of competitive intelligence for several decades lol
Man that Star Wars game..... That machine I love to hate. Some days it is so brutal. Hopefully if they make it again it will be more forgiving. Thank god for ball saves!!!!!! (multiple ball saves after the plunge)
early 2026 prediction: Super Mario Bros (based on the movie)
Also agreed. More Star Wars is coming sooner than later. They vaulted their evergreen Star Wars machine for a reason. Hell they could redo that original trilogy and it would sell well. But I think it'll be something Clone Wars related.
I get people want a Tron remaster, but it ain't happening for a bunch of reasons. You might as well just be asking for a new Tron game or a Daft Punk game. (Which would be rad! I know there are people at Stern that want to do music acts like Daft Punk, Gorillaz, and dip their toes into the hip-hop water with things like Beastie Boys)
Might be a long shot, but I'm hoping for TRON, though I think that would be better as a remaster.