From what little I did listen to, I just wish he was willing to take accountability as a CEO. The first topic after the intro sizzle reel is explaining away the shipping latency with the open pre-order concept. The interviewer didn't press him about the fact that some games are produced in four months and some take over a year for standard editions, he just nodded and smiled. Then he said "Oh our issue was actually not communicating but now we have a Customer Service person." He wasn't pressed on why that took five plus years, why their updates still kinda suck and are hit-or-miss, or the quality of their CS person (who seems to largely only respond to positive feedback and provides the most generic, parrotable corporate responses possible).
I don't know if I can withstand an hour of this. In the past, it really didn't seem like he understood or empathized with customers' experiences and complaints. I remember him complaining about GI Joe or Star Wars releasing too many toys around Christmas at the same time LRG was releasing multiple games every week that month. His tone deafness knows no bounds. It seems like not much has changed.
Plus, the interviewer (Phoenix Resale) is kind of a douche. I only know him from the Gamecube saga (Google it if you're not familiar), but a dude with a channel about flipping games sure is an odd choice to interview LRG considering a lot of the flack they get/got for people reselling.
It feels very clickbaity to put the death threat quote in the thumbnail, but that's just 2024 YouTube for you. Nobody in their right mind is going to argue that death threats are acceptable, but there are just some unhinged people out there. I've gotten death threats for posting on Reddit, it's never a good time regardless of how numb you think you are to it. I don't wish that on Josh, regardless of how much I dislike modern day LRG.
I watched the entire thing and I frankly think the interviewer did Josh and LRG a disservice by emphasizing the death threats click bait line. From what I recall, Josh only really mentioned it once in the context of what prompted the switch from limited print runs in advance of sale to the current model of open pre-orders following the release of Night Trap for PS4. Oddly, Josh made it sound as if the death threats actually resulted in the change which I don't think was really his intent.
In looking at some of the responses to the video on social media, there still appear to be a lot of really unhinged gamers who are convinced that LRG owes them reprints of Shantae and a bunch of other games simply because the reseller prices are several times the original MSRP on the secondary market. I honestly don't get it. As a collector and gamer, there are lots of things I have missed out on over the years and I don't hold the publisher responsible for my inability to purchase something, especially if they have provided a reasonable pre-order window that I didn't use for whatever reason. The reality is that all of these games can be purchased for a fraction of the cost digitally and so there is no real restriction on anyone owning and playing these games if they feel so inclined.
As for the rest, I do agree that Josh still seems pretty out of touch with the reality of his business. I think it's pretty clear that delays aren't simply happening because of all the "really cool stuff" that LRG is putting into CEs as Josh seems to believe. Frankly, with the exception of the occasional steelbook or action figure, most of the content of their CEs is stuff that can be printed quickly at low cost . They still have very serious logistical issues and an inability to manage their inventory in a way that maximizes speed of fulfillment. While fulfillment speed has increased in recent months for older items and I am personally starting to see a lot of those orders arrive, I am also getting more and more damaged items which I assume is primarily because some of this stuff has been sitting in the warehouse for months or even years at a time while smaller orders or single item orders are fulfilled first.
Their customer service is generally fine, but they still seem very aggressive in their gate keeping in trying to avoid exchanges of damaged items. I'm not crazy picky like some of the people I have seen complain about damaged items, but I don't think I should be stuck with badly crushed or dented boxes or clearly broken items in CEs I have paid significant premiums to purchase and for which I have waited years in some cases.
I agree that Josh has done himself no favors by posting his own massive collection and regular video game acquisitions. Oddly, the head of PMStudios has started doing the same thing on his company's FUZE app and it's equally cringeworthy. Maybe there's something about collectors who become CEOs of game publishers that damages their judgment about how to appropriately share their own interests with their customers.
In any event, I do wish that LRG would put more emphasis on quality and less on just constantly cranking out junk for each individual release. A fully working copy of the game (yes, the publisher has the obligation to assure this is the case regardless of what the developer sent them and the publisher should step up and provide replacement media if something is broken), a more premium box and maybe a soundtrack and steelbook is all I would like to see from most collector's editions. Not sure what people do with all the plastic and paper junk LRG ships out and I sure don't understand why anyone is buying all the extra junk like skate decks or low quality vinyl pressings.
" or something legitimate and specific with some psycho messaging him that he's going to drive to his house, break down his door, beat him silly and crochet a doily out of his spleen?
