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Welcome to the \u201cdog days of summer\u201d, where as the weather starts to cool just slightly, we also enter a season with a little more arcade news. We do have a few stories that should<\/em> go live this month, but as of this moment, they still aren\u2019t ready to go yet, so let\u2019s fill the gap with a guest post. Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report<\/a> and the LBX Collective<\/a> is no stranger to the site, nor are his guest articles, as he\u2019s been contributing content since I first joined Arcade Heroes<\/a> back in 2007.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s post deals with something that I have discussed a fair bit here on the blog as well as on video, that of the changed nature of pinball in the present day and age. Just like old sentiments of how video games used to be 40 years ago, many can\u2019t shake how pinball was at its apex about half a century ago, but how consumers approach pinball has changed as much as the technology behind the games have. This puts pinball in a weird, almost limbo-like position within the commercial amusement industry, since the costs are driven by collectors, while earnings on location are all over the place.<\/p>\n Also, in the run up to my new arcade history & trivia book, I am working hard on finishing it up, but in self-funding this effort, it\u2019s a little tough right now to make ends meet (especially where business at the arcade has been terrible lately). To help things out so I can spend more time on finishing it, instead of crowdfunding, you can now purchase two chapters from the book: one about the first use of a CPU in arcade gaming (and pinball)<\/a><\/strong>, the other about how pinball ended up banned in much of the world<\/a><\/strong>, and how it was unbanned. In both cases I present original research, although I really have to give a strong nod to both Play Meter & Cash Box Magazine, which have provided historical anchors to many events.<\/p>\n Anyways, while I did contribute some minor edits to this article, Kevin will take his thoughts on the matter from here:<\/p>\n It is\u00a0one of the oldest aspects of the amusement trade, but one of the most challenging.\u00a0Today,\u00a0pinball is seen to be suffering\u00a0a schizophrenic\u00a0split between two\u00a0markets. On one side, the once profitable amusement trade has become a difficult and tempestuous sales market for the remaining amusement manufacturers, while on the other side there is the profitable and evolving consumer pinball collector and home gamer market.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a difficult tightrope to navigate, and with new entrants into the pinball business, some are leaning more one way than the other.<\/p>\n Upon recent contact with well placed distributors and operators, it was made clear that they had noticed a major shift in the business focus within STERN Pinball<\/strong>. These sources pointed to information that the pinball pioneer was now positioning the sales and market resources more towards the consumer and prosumer buyers and associated events, than considering the amusement trade. While still playing lip service to the operator, the reality is that the available business and margins in selling to the arcade or FEC, along with issues among established distributors, have made the business of pinball in our segment almost uneconomical.<\/p>\nPinball\u2019s True Business<\/h3>\n