Stern Pinball lays off all design staff

According to pinball designer Keith Johnson Stern Pinball, the last manufacture of pinball machines has laid off at the very least, nearly their entire design staff, including staff working on upcoming releases.

Here is Keith's post on rec.games.pinball today

Link to post


First of all, while it is true that both Pat and myself have worked on
CSI, to call it either of ours' game is not quite accurate. Pat laid
out the original playfield, and it underwent some modifications. I
was one of 5 programmers who worked on the game. To say I was "lead"
or even did the most on the project is not accurate.

And to say I will do anything further on the project will not be
accurate either. I, along with many many other people, got laid off
today, 9 years and 4 days after the last time it happened!

I wish everyone that remains behind nothing but the best of luck; I
think it'll be severely needed. And, please, don't worry about me;
I'll be fine. If anything maybe it just means I'll be a little more
vocal about some things now than before. ;) No trashing or drama on
my part, I just hope pinball survives. But I'm not entirely sure that
that will be the case, honestly. I'm definitely a lot less sure than
I was when I made this post:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/msg/16a6571ed04d963d

keith