Sega pinball games1/22/2024 The decline of pinball is generally associated with the rise in interactive video games, and the relatively high maintenance costs that come with running mechanical entertainment machines. However, it remains to this day, the largest and most experienced of all pinball manufacturers. Williams ceased trading as a pinball company in 1999, leaving Stern as the sole remaining (big) manufacturer of pinball tables until 2013. Sega's own downscaling in the late 1990s saw the divison and its assets sold to Gary Stern, who formed Stern Pinball. While pinball had seen a resurgence in the early 1990s, the long-term trend was that of decline, and by 1997 Sega Pinball was one of only two pinball manufacturers remaining. When Sega bought the pinball division, Data East held roughly 25% of the pinball market, with most of the remaining 75% belonging to Williams Electronics Games. SEU would still market and distribute Sega Pinball's redemption offerings, however. In addition to producing pinball tables, Sega Pinball was tasked with producing arcade redemption games, the idea being that as both are, to some degree, mechanical, it made sense for Sega Pinball to manufacture these rpdocuts rather than Sega Enterprises USA. Aside from both producing pinball machines, the US-based Sega Pinball shared nothing with its older Japanese counterpart, and aside from a branding change, was essentially the same division it had been since the days of Stern Electronics, still being run by the Stern family (though Sam Stern's son, Gary was now in charge). Sega Pinball was not Sega's first foray in the pinball market the company had imported and produced its own pinball tables throughout the 1970s (predominantly for Japanese audiences), but had abandoned its ambitions in favour of the growing market of video games. Data East, itself engulfed in financial problems in the early 1990s, subsequently sold the division to Sega for ¥3,500,000,000, becoming Sega Pinball in 1994. The newly formed Stern Electronics continued in its place until 1987, where it was aquired by Data East and became Data East Pinball Inc. Trading as Chicago Coin, it produced pinball tables (and later video games) for 45 years until financial troubles caused the division to be sold to Sam Stern in 1977. Sega Pinball's roots can be traced back to the establishment of the Illinois-based Chicago Dynamic Industries in 1931.
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