Stern Pinball is connecting pinball machines to the internet.

How Stern Pinball is connecting pinball machines for the future

Stern Pinball is one of the biggest believers in pinball, and it has been making the machines for decades. When I went to the CES trade show in Las Vegas, I always met with CEO Gary Stern to talk about the latest machines that the company was working on.

I didn’t make it this year, but I was able to catch up with George Gomez, chief creative officer at Stern, to talk about the new Insider Connected feature that aims to keep players engaged with each other. The feature connects the machine to your smartphone and the internet, and it lets you upload your high score. And that makes pinball more social by letting you compete with your friends.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.