Stern's Pokémon pinball machine is hitting arcades globally

Stern Pinball has released its May 2026 State of the Union address, confirming that its Pokémon pinball machine is now seeing widespread global distribution across arcades and private collections. The monthly update also detailed a new code patch for the recent Star Wars table and covered a festival appearance aimed at bringing the hobby to a broader audience.

The Pokémon machine is not a brand new announcement. Stern officially revealed the table back in February 2026. Built on the company's newer SPIKE 3 hardware platform, the game has a mechanical Poké Ball that players shoot to capture monsters across four different biomes. The playfield also includes an animatronic Pikachu and a Meowth hot air balloon toy.

I find it fascinating how the design team translated the RPG mechanics of catching and battling into a physical silverball layout. Players actually build a team and take on Gym Battles by hitting specific targets. It is a clever way to adapt the source material without just pasting artwork onto a generic layout.

A larger screen for the animated series

The SPIKE 3 platform driving the Pokémon table is Stern's current flagship hardware architecture. It supports an 18.5-inch high-definition display on the backbox. The Pokémon table uses this screen to show custom battle sequences and video clips from the original animated series. The system also handles upgraded audio. This allows the machine to play the original television theme song alongside custom voiceovers for characters like Pikachu and Giovanni.

New code for the Empire

The address also covered a software update for Star Wars: Fall of the Empire. This machine launched in September 2025 and focuses heavily on the original film trilogy. The physical layout includes a motorized AT-AT that players can trip up with a snowspeeder tow cable shot, along with a custom-sculpted Death Star II.

Fall of the Empire originally released in Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models. The LE was restricted to just 770 units to commemorate the 1977 release of the first film. The development team recently streamed a breakdown of the newest code patch. The developers explained how the ruleset has evolved and demonstrated the gameplay changes in real time. Code updates are a regular part of the modern pinball lifecycle. They often rebalance scoring and add new polish to the rules months after a table hits the market.

Jack Danger in Key West

A recent video follows Stern personality Jack Danger as he travels to Key West, Florida, for the Q West Festival. The comedy event was hosted by Brian Quinn from the television show Impractical Jokers.

Quinn is a known pinball enthusiast. Stern provided an arcade pop-up for the weekend. The company supplied tables like Uncanny X-Men, Jaws, Dungeons & Dragons, and Fall of the Empire. In the video, Danger walks through the festival grounds and shows off the row of machines set up right in the middle of the event traffic. Bringing a bank of modern machines to a comedy festival is a straightforward way to get pinball in front of people who might not regularly visit arcades.

The May update concluded with a push for the Insider Connected system.

The connected ecosystem has become a major part of Stern's business model over the last few years. It gives owners a reason to keep their machines connected to the internet, and it provides location players with a persistent progression system that carries over from one arcade to the next.