Stern And FarSight Ink Deal For Cross-Channel Pinball Emulator Platform

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL -- Stern Pinball Inc. said it has expanded its partnership with FarSight Studios (Big Bear Lake, CA) for the purpose of virtualizing Stern's popular flipper games for play on a wide range of consumer devices. The agreement calls for FarSight to develop a new digital platform, the Stern Pinball Arcade, offering simulations of Stern's physical games.

FarSight Studios has been developing top videogame products across platforms for 20 years. These include movie-licensed strategy and hardcore sports games, along with "edutainment" games for kids and mass-market software. It has developed many best-selling franchises, such as Game Party, Sega Sports' NFL games for the Genesis (Megadrive) console, NCAA college football games for EA, Backyard Sports for Atari, PlayTV for Radica/Mattel and the Pinball Hall of Fame for Crave.

"At Stern, we're always looking for new ways to excite our existing fans and gain new ones," said Stern Pinball chief executive Gary Stern. "Expanding our partnership with FarSight Studios is helping us do just that. Both gamers and pinball enthusiasts of all stripes and abilities will love the new products we create together."

Jay Obernolte, FarSight Studios chief executive, added, "Anyone in the gaming world knows Stern Pinball, which is why we are so pleased about the renewal and expansion of this partnership."

FarSight Studios started developing pinball videogames in 2004, introducing the critically acclaimed Pinball Hall of Fame games. The G4 channel (G4TV) honored the Pinball Arcade as best mobile game of 2012. It features recreations of pinball tables from Williams, Bally, Stern Pinball and Gottlieb together in one game. A new table is added each month. According to FarSight, Pinball Arcade has been downloaded more than 12 million times across mobile, console and PC platforms, and has more than a million active players in any given month.

Stern's latest pinball model is Game of Thrones.