Stern Pinball conducting a limited US Costco stores Test

Stern Pinball conducting a limited US Costco stores Test

Stern Pinball Inc. is conducting a limited market test exclusively in 16 select Costco stores in 12 states. The test includes a total of 48 reduced feature, lower cost, custom designed Batman pinball machines with less complex playfields. Participating Costco stores have three games each. Stern is conducting this test to study products best suited for various segments of its market. These games are shipped from the factory set on free play and have only one fixed coin setting of five credits per one coin.

Stern plans to sell no more of this test Batman in this configuration in the U.S. If the test is successful, Stern will further simplify the game design for tested market segments, such redesign including a much more simplified cabinet, replacement of the current dot-matrix score display, and other features. Stern will continue to build its full line of traditional coin-op pinball games as well as collector models.

Costco store test locations are in: California (Carlsbad, Rancho Cucamonga, Simi Valley, and North Fresno), Nevada (Reno), Oregon (Tigard), Washington (Issaquah), Utah (St. George), Texas (San Antonio and Houston), Kansas (Overland Park), Ohio (Deerfield Township), Virginia (Chantilly), Georgia (Alpharetta), Florida (Pembroke Pines), and New York (Melville).