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The Future Is Here – Stern Pinball Launches Insider Connected Online Platform

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The world’s largest pinball manufacturer, Stern Pinball, have launched their new online platform, Insider Connected!

According to their press release, Insider Connected is a comprehensive technology initiative to connect the universe of Stern pinball machines. The platform is designed to enhance and extend player engagement with the games across both home and commercial environments. It also presents operators of pinball machines with a robust set of tools to drive location play, build player loyalty, analyze performance, make adjustments remotely and maintain the machines.

Registration for Insider Connected is free; players can either scan a QR code at the games or go to the Stern Pinball website where they will need to enter an email address and create a password. Once players register for Insider Connected, they are issued a unique QR Code that can be used to identify that player at any connected Stern pinball machine, anywhere in the world. When a player logs into the machine, they can track their progress, earn new game specific achievements, engage with the player community and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests.

Challenge Quests can be issued by operators to drive play at their locations and build player loyalty or by Stern Pinball to highlight a game title or engage the community. When players complete quests, they receive loyalty rewards.

Key launch features of the Insider Connected platform include:

  • Gameplay up to 4+ players – friends or foes
  • Game achievements and promotions
  • Stern authorized Quests and Operator authorized Quests
  • Loads on loads of free play, pay to play games, rewards and treasure chests


source: Stern Pinball

All Stern Spike® 2 LCD games produced after the September 2021 launch will ship with the Insider Connected system installed; this includes new runs of previously released titles. Any existing Stern LCD game can be added to Insider Connected by installing a simple, inexpensive retrofit kit available from Stern distributors, dealers and the Stern Store® – we have asked Stern to provide more details about this kit. We will update this post once we receive their response.

By the end of the year, all 17 Stern Spike 2 LCD system titles will be added to Insider Connected, which means we’ll be able to connect our Star Wars Comic Art Premium machine! At launch seven titles will be supported, with the remaining Spike 2 LCD machines added over the next year.  with full system with added features will be rolled out. Once again, we have reached out to Stern to confirm the seven titles that be supported at launch – we will keep you posted!

We have written about internet connected pinball machines in the past, so it is great to see Stern Pinball finally enter this new age of online pinball play and cool tools to interact with pinball machines. This is a game changer for sure, so we will keep an eye out on the evolving feature set and will report back on what more we can find out from Stern Pinball about their Insider Connected platform – so stay tuned!



PS: We have reached out to Stern Pinball with a number of questions relating to their Insider Connected platform, so look out for a future update!

Internet Connected Pinball Machines – The Future Is (Almost) Here!

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*This article was nominated in the ‘Favourite Pinball Publication or Article‘ category for The 2020 TWIPY Annual Awards*

The future has caught up with pinball. No longer will this pop culture mechanical icon operate in the old world ways. The online reckoning is here!

The time for real pinball machines to be online has come. The current crop of pinball manufacturers like Stern Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball are surely tinkering away to have their machines internet ready and connected in the not too distant future. Actually, Jersey Jack Pinball have been beta testing hardware dongles to allow some of their back catalogue machines to connect to the internet via WiFi, but this is still fiddling around the edges of the true potential of pinball machines being online. Companies like Multimorphic have shown the big boys of the pinball world how it’s done by announcing head to head play on their P3 machines, as part of their campaign, so the precedent has been set.

image source: Multimorphic via Twitter

We published a speculative feature a few years ago regarding pinball innovation, specifically around the implementation and use of technologies, like utilising telemetry via IoT (Internet of Things), however, this particular editorial explores the possibilities of internet and online pinball and its applications and services manufacturers could potentially use to deliver their online capabilities for the player, collector and operator.

When it comes to online services, there are really two main options, free or paid subscriptions. No one likes to pay for an online subscription, but the precedent has already been set by Microsoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) with their respective XBox Live and PlayStation Network (PSN) subscription platforms. These platforms have a decade plus head start and provide a myriad of services for their subscribers, so the value proposition of having an annually paid membership is enticing. Pinball has a lot to learn and catch up on in this regard, so careful consideration must be given when creating an online service, ensuring it provides everything pinball players have been craving for, and more importantly, what players have been complaining about. Studying the two video game online service platforms from Microsoft and SIE will definitely give pinball manufacturers the edge in delivering an online platform rich with options and services for their subscribers straight off the bat, thus giving them value for money. But, things are never clear cut or that simple!

image source: pinballandmore

Pinball manufacturers implementing a paid subscription for their online service must tread carefully. When users pay for an online service, their expectations (of what is offered), must come close to being met, otherwise there will be a backlash which will be difficult to recover from. Meeting users’ expectations of an online service is no small feat and is quite unrealistic. If an online service is priced reasonably and competitively, then expectations will be tapered down, but users will still want to see value for money.

The flip side to the paid subscription is offering the online service for free. One thing we have all learned over the years is that nothing truly is for free. If pinball manufacturers (the providers) offer their online pinball services for free, then rest assured that you will be bombarded with online ads and the data collected (by the provider) will be sold to interested parties to recoup their costs in keeping the lights on and ensuring the service keeps running as expected – pretty much what Google does when you create an account to use their services, like Gmail. If you don’t like ads popping up while using an online service, then you are out of luck. Free (or freemium) services still cost money to run, so the provider will do what is required to ensure their services can keep running and investment being made for new and improved services.

Enough talk of free and paid online subscriptions, we want to throw around some ideas of what applications and services could potentially be offered by pinball manufacturers to home collectors, players and operators in connecting their silverball playing beasts to their online services.

We gazed into our crystal ball and came up with a few applications, but you be the judge if these will be of value to you when choosing to subscribe to an online pinball service (free or otherwise) to connect your pinball machine:

Underpinning all of this online connectivity is security, from secure login to ensuring users do not cheat or circumvent online services. How these online pinball service providers ensure that your data will be secure in transit and at rest? How will they ensure someone isn’t cheating in tournaments? This is fundamental to any online offering, as the implementation of the security construct needs to be at the heart of the online service and its many applications. A good start would be to use multi-factor authentication or one-time pin (OTP) services like LastPass’ Authenticator. As for ensuring a level playing field (pardon the pun) for tournament play, service providers could ‘push’ tournament settings with a checksum to ensure all participants are playing to the rules –  levelling the machine is another variable here, perhaps a digital level display on-screen could be used, ensuring everyone participating sets their level per the tournament rules, otherwise they will not be allowed to compete.

The one thing we do not want to see with an online pinball service is the enforcement of downloading the latest software code and updating your machine before you are able to play it – that would be the fastest way to lose subscribers and put the fan base offside. The online pinball service should allow freedom in how it is to be used and it’s interaction with the machine. A fine balance that should be tweaked and set right from the start.

There is precedent already set by video game providers in how and what to offer to their players when it comes to an online gaming service, so pinball manufacturers can learn from these providers to ensure they strike a good balance of offering services, be it free or otherwise. In an ideal world, an online pinball service would offer all users to register for free and provide a number of basic services free of charge, including software / code updates and social media integrations as a minimum. A paid or premium level service should be compelling and provide value to the target users, otherwise, they would not be worth pursuing.

The time has come for pinball to enter the 21st century and join the internet age. Pinball is in a unique position where it can definitely be fun in its current format or provide the means for its users and players to go online and unlock new ways of playing and interacting with their machine and others around the world. The future of internet pinball connectivity is now, so the silverball is in the pinball manufacturers court – make it happen!