Limited Run Games Thread - We only promise our NES games will work, not your console

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TheKbob said:
It's pretty easy to see Steam reviews for most of what they print to get an ideal for something being worth the physical.
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I usually do this but my opinion doesn't always match up to the concensus so I can't trust it. A few games that stick out were Book of Demons, Disc Room, Astronite and Mutant Blob Attacks - all 9 out of 10 games that I absolutely detested (and god help me I beat Disc Room). The last one Blobs was an eshop purchase that saved me $30. It's just the way to go for me.
 
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byebye.man said:
I feel Josh is just a narcissist. All the slow down in sales he lists is due to everything else other then LRGs bad business practices. He can’t admit to any failure in his part. Someone mentioned earlier half the comments on LRGs social media posts are people wondering where their games are. This is true. I’d say the other half are people saying they aren’t going to order from them again.

I feel they grew their customer base with big games. New customers ordered those games, realized it’s gonna take more than a year to get their games, and those new costumers vowed never to come back. Then the previous customer base also got fed up with LRG.

I don’t believe for a minute they are slowing things down due to some new found appreciation for their customers over their greed. They are forced to slow down because sales have dramatically slowed down.

I’m betting Doug left cause he saw the writing on the wall, and wanted to get out before the shit hit the fan. I’m curious if Doug’s departure is the bellwether of things to come.
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It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t have a firm grasp of business. He got where he got by luck with a good idea at the right time, but didn’t protect that by putting a CFO in charge that keeps the business in line, by you know, not oversaturating the market. He probably got more of a ‘yes man’ in that position.
One of the things you learn in business school is that it takes more to get a new customer, and it takes a hell of a lot to try and win back a customer you have lost. I don’t think they have what it takes (or maybe even care to) win back those customers they have lost. And I don’t think there are enough new customers in the wings to get.

Times are changing and you don’t have a bunch of guys with easily gotten Bitcoin money burning in their pockets to spend on a relatively unknown indie title. They are just buying it cheap on Steam and not caring they don’t have a physical to preserve it.

 
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portnoyd said:
I usually do this but my opinion doesn't always match up to the concensus so I can't trust it. A few games that stick out were Book of Demons, Disc Room, Astronite and Mutant Blob Attacks - all 9 out of 10 games that I absolutely detested (and god help me I beat Disc Room). The last one Blobs was an eshop purchase that saved me $30. It's just the way to go for me.
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That's fair; there's been a lot of learning myself, but that's through NextFest demos. If you could, you could always buy them and refund them within two hours on Steam to see if you want the physical. I tend to wait for the game to be cheap digitally, try it, and then buy physical, unless I know its a game I want in my collection.

 
portnoyd said:
I usually do this but my opinion doesn't always match up to the concensus so I can't trust it. A few games that stick out were Book of Demons, Disc Room, Astronite and Mutant Blob Attacks - all 9 out of 10 games that I absolutely detested (and god help me I beat Disc Room). The last one Blobs was an eshop purchase that saved me $30. It's just the way to go for me.
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I think a lot of those positive reviews are coming from a place like "Wow, I paid $5 for this on a whim and it was pretty fun for awhile," and not "Wow, I paid $35 + shipping, waited a year, and this game is derivative and only a few hours long." I agree for the most part, though. Steam scores seem to generally be inflated. Every indie game I check is like an 8/10 or 9/10.

 
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falsedichotomies said:
I think a lot of those positive reviews are coming from a place like "Wow, I paid $5 for this on a whim and it was pretty fun for awhile," and not "Wow, I paid $35 + shipping, waited a year, and this game is derivative and only a few hours long." I agree for the most part, though. Steam scores seem to generally be inflated. Every indie game I check is like an 8/10 or 9/10.
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Or what about I got this for like a $1 since it was part of a Humble Bundle with the game I actually wanted.

I got a few games on Steam that I had considered getting on Switch but someone on another site was giving away codes that they had accumulated on Steam because of bundles.

 
This is where I think as a gamer it's better to just go digital on most indie stuff when it's cheap and be extra selective to track down a physical copy later if something stands out as a timeless gem that you keep going back to over and over and over again.  Most games don't end up in that timeless camp... even ones I fully loved playing.  Like Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is a great example of a game I got either free on PS+ or paid a $1 or $2 for in the PS Store for VITA... played it, had a good time, and would recommend for a $1 or $2 as it's a solid platform/puzzler.   It doesn't really (IMO) need a $35+ physical release unless it was bundled with 9 other similarly decent games (and maybe something better) on the same cart/disc (with no downloads needed).  But even then I probably wouldn't buy it as I have the old digital version and can just play that if I ever want to replay it.

Which really this is what the whole Xbox Live Arcade thing was all about when this started... letting smaller developers make smaller games that fill a niche at lower prices so as to give some diversity in the gaming landscape.  Some rise above that scope and become big hits, but most are fine as digital only experiences.   Like those Kemco RPG's aren't all terrible.  For a few bucks.. .some are pretty good.  But they just aren't worth more than that a few bucks or need a physical release especially considering how short most of them are.  Which to me might be perfect to scratch an RPG itch without having to invest 100+ hours.  A 4 to 20 hour game may be more appealing at times.  Heck that's one of the main reasons (along with the diversity of stories and play styles) I bought Live A Live.  Nice smaller stories with some real inventiveness but it didn't eat my life to play but were all well crafted.  Which I also like the big games, but I need to be more selective about them (mostly DQ & Xenoblade).  That's not to say I think the kemco games are up to even the snuff of a single path in Live A Live... but I can see the appeal of the better ones of the bunch and the shorter playtime and they seem perfect for digital only.

 
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HaloGX said:
When the DLC and updates are finished, LRG should publish a physical release of HI-FI Rush since Microsoft seems unwilling to. I'd order that in a heartbeat.
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They have a working relationship with Bethesda so I could see this as a possibility. It would be a great game to announce during their LRG3 presentation. I would definitely consider purchasing. I loved it on gamepass and have been considering buying it to play on Steam Deck. Just waiting for it to go under $20.

 
Oh definitely it is hard to get through some of these 60+ games these days. Trails especially since those hover in the 70-100+ range.
 
nightc1 said:
This is where I think as a gamer it's better to just go digital on most indie stuff when it's cheap and be extra selective to track down a physical copy later if something stands out as a timeless gem that you keep going back to over and over and over again. Most games don't end up in that timeless camp... even ones I fully loved playing. Like Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is a great example of a game I got either free on PS+ or paid a $1 or $2 for in the PS Store for VITA... played it, had a good time, and would recommend for a $1 or $2 as it's a solid platform/puzzler. It doesn't really (IMO) need a $35+ physical release unless it was bundled with 9 other similarly decent games (and maybe something better) on the same cart/disc (with no downloads needed). But even then I probably wouldn't buy it as I have the old digital version and can just play that if I ever want to replay it.

Which really this is what the whole Xbox Live Arcade thing was all about when this started... letting smaller developers make smaller games that fill a niche at lower prices so as to give some diversity in the gaming landscape. Some rise above that scope and become big hits, but most are fine as digital only experiences. Like those Kemco RPG's aren't all terrible. For a few bucks.. .some are pretty good. But they just aren't worth more than that a few bucks or need a physical release especially considering how short most of them are. Which to me might be perfect to scratch an RPG itch without having to invest 100+ hours. A 4 to 20 hour game may be more appealing at times. Heck that's one of the main reasons (along with the diversity of stories and play styles) I bought Live A Live. Nice smaller stories with some real inventiveness but it didn't eat my life to play but were all well crafted. Which I also like the big games, but I need to be more selective about them (mostly DQ & Xenoblade). That's not to say I think the kemco games are up to even the snuff of a single path in Live A Live... but I can see the appeal of the better ones of the bunch and the shorter playtime and they seem perfect for digital only.
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I feel like people tend to ignore the fact that LRG games are a premium product for a premium price. A physical copy of a game and a digital copy of the game are the same experience. A standard edition LRG game is effectively just the lowest level collector's edition, as you pay a premium for an item that really only exists for collectors.

I also disagree with the tend to correlate length to value. I'd much rather pay for a great but short experience than a long but tedious one.

 
skyborgman said:
I feel like people tend to ignore the fact that LRG games are a premium product for a premium price. A physical copy of a game and a digital copy of the game are the same experience. A standard edition LRG game is effectively just the lowest level collector's edition, as you pay a premium for an item that really only exists for collectors.
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Except that's not true. Many of their games, even numbered, are released outside of LRG either in Europe, Asia or even here in North America. Asian releases not only have English, but might have more than one game on the cart from the same series (Blaster Master, the Kemco games, No More Heroes). Same with Japanese releases that support English (River City Girls 1& 2, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 1 & 2) All their standard editions are, more often than not nowadays, are North American releases like any other retail release. Hell, most of their games don't even come with manuals anymore. That used to be a selling point.

 
HaloGX said:
Except that's not true. Many of their games, even numbered, are released outside of LRG either in Europe, Asia or even here in North America. Asian releases not only have English, but might have more than one game on the cart from the same series (Blaster Master, the Kemco games, No More Heroes). Same with Japanese releases that support English (River City Girls 1& 2, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 1 & 2) All their standard editions are, more often than not nowadays, are North American releases like any other retail release. Hell, most of their games don't even come with manuals anymore. That used to be a selling point.
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"Many" is a bit of a stretch. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of games they have released, maybe a few dozen have seen other physical releases. The point stands that their games are targeted to a very specific market and are luxury items that are sold at a premium when compared to the much cheaper digital versions. Ultimately, external economic forces are going to drive whether or not their model continues to be viable.

 
bojay1997 said:
"Many" is a bit of a stretch. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of games they have released, maybe a few dozen have seen other physical releases. The point stands that their games are targeted to a very specific market and are luxury items that are sold at a premium when compared to the much cheaper digital versions. Ultimately, external economic forces are going to drive whether or not their model continues to be viable.
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Exactly. This stands in contrast to games published by companies like Nintendo, where the digital version is sold at the same MSRP as the physical version.

 
My point is that I wouldn't call their standard editions premium products, when often times they fall short of comparable/the same game also released physically elsewhere.

 
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One other issue with recent LRG physicals: they aren't content complete physical versions. They're trying to cash in on recently released titles, which means they often miss out on latest patches and potentially added content. It's just a reality of them moving away from their original 'game preservation' focus

 
skyborgman said:
I also disagree with the tend to correlate length to value. I'd much rather pay for a great but short experience than a long but tedious one.
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Length + quality + charm + replayability + legacy would be closer to my full formula.

But the key word in your post there is "Great". And most of these smaller games aren't really great. Or aren't great past a certain price or are just so unknown when they go up for sale. It's definitely a premium to blind buy random indie games in physical form. But these aren't all the games LRG does and there are occasional games that have enough going for them to make it worth it to me. But shorter games aren't necessarily a bad value, unless it's a once and done kind of experience. Like I'm not paying $40+ (after tax and shipping) for a 2 hour game that I will never play again.

 
https://twitter.com/LimitedRunJosh/status/1678451792697335809

In case Twitter isn't working, per Josh: "The shipping team is working through about 35,000 orders right now. We recently transitioned to some new software that powers our fulfillment process. It wasn't set up to prioritize the oldest orders, which is being worked out and fixed now."

35k orders in-hand with more stuff arriving regularly sure seems like a mountain to dig out of. It'd be nice to have some gauge for incoming product, incoming orders, and outgoing orders to gauge whether the issue is truly being addressed.

 
As bad as that is, it's nice to get a  (seemingly honest) view into what's going on.  Hopefully as they dig out of the shipping nightmare we'll get more updates.  My best guess would be a couple of months minimum if the outflow is considerably higher than the inflow of produced unless they have hired on more reliable folks to sort and work on fulfillment.

 
Always fun for a periodic check in on this thread to see LRG have another public admission they don't test anything before implementing it.
 
Is this another new fulfillment process/software, or the same one that lead to the no notification of shipped item debacle from a couple months ago?

 
podunk320 said:
yeah this is one game im hoping LRG will still do a physical for
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I am personally REALLY pushing for a physical release especially for the OST. It's an excellent collection of licensed music that will 100% be automatically removed via "Free update" sometime in the next 1-2 years and be lost forever.

And if you guys thought shipping problems were going to go away...just wait for July 31st when the UPS x Teamsters contract expires. Anyone who works in a warehouse knows that if UPS workers go on strike, it's going to be an absolute hellscape to get product/goods into warehouses (Roughly 25% of all packages are handled by UPS).

 
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Yea, I'm watching the UPS thing. If that takes hold, then don't expect to get much delivery of anything. Doesn't matter if your end product isn't shipped by UPS; it's so big, it will cause ripple effects on all other delivery services and stores.

As for LRG, I wonder what their overall thru put is for deliveries. Assuming they're not slave driving, six picks an hour (that's print labels, get games, get boxes, double check, pack, affirm, and ready for post), 8 hours a day, 5 days a well, 4 weeks; that's 960 shipped per worker. Eight workers is 7680 a month. It would take 4.5 months to dig out of a backlog of 35,000 titles.

Now I have no idea their average picking rate and order complexity. Single order standard releases go out fast and likely have a dedicated team. Complicated releases are likely much slower than six an hour since you have to triple check all the products, their condition, and pack with greater care (in theory).

All while assuming all standard shelf product (panstock in my world), such as boxes, tape, printer labels, etc. never run short and the distribution system has a 100% up time with a 0% error rate.

Many variables can also limit thru put, meaning it may not be so easy to throw bodies at it, such as the physical layout of the shipping area(s), how product is binned, how incomplete/pending orders are stored, and consistency of staff (ex. training status, turnover, etc.).

I just made up numbers, but a small operation like this churning through 35,000 unique deliveries is a big chunk, more so with only one distribution center.
 
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It's hilarious they have their whole video e3 like event later today and not a word on their website (at least no where I looked, not even on the events page). That should be the primary way to get info to customers with something like this at the top of the page. I know this is nothing new... but I feel like no one else is this bad about advertising their events.

EDIT: also nothing on the reddit sub.

LimitedRunDoug said:
Woof
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Meow

 
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SephirothWF said:
Thank you for getting the Guild 01 and 02 physical for 3DS signed.
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That would be awesome! Even if I did purchase them digitally already.

nightc1 said:
It's hilarious they have their whole video e3 like event later today and not a word on their website (at least no where I looked, not even on the events page). That should be the primary way to get info to customers with something like this at the top of the page. I know this is nothing new... but I feel like no one else is this bad about advertising their events.

EDIT: also nothing on the reddit sub.

Meow
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Yeah you'd think. I went to their website yesterday to see the exact time and platform only to find nothing. I ended up Googling it and finding the info on a gaming news website from the initial Twitter announcement.

 
You'd think with Twitter actively crapping the bed, any small business that uses it would be diverting traffic since, yeah know, it's highly unreliable right now.
 
Man, if they got the Guild games physically, they'd get me again.

Truly going to be lost to time, IMO.

Edit: Per the twitch stream, Josh said they'll be sending out an extra 10k-15k per month, which makes my WAG above fairly accurate in assumption. It'll take 3.5-4.5 months to clear a 35k backlog of orders.

Edit2: Doug is still listed as the COO... C'mon ...

https://limitedrungames.com/pages/press-info
 
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I can try to answer some stuff a bit more candid now. If its a real NDA thing I’ll say so. But feel free to ask me some stuff and I can try.
 
LimitedRunDoug said:
I can try to answer some stuff a bit more candid now. If its a real NDA thing I’ll say so. But feel free to ask me some stuff and I can try.
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Im not sure if you can answer this or not, but what is the status of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood? I believe it was announced years ago before the pandemic but i havent heard any news. Im hoping todays presentation gives update to this game(one of the few games i still want)

 
TheKbob said:
Man, if they got the Guild games physically, they'd get me again.

Truly going to be lost to time, IMO.
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I think I ended up buying all of them. I'm very partial to Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale. That was one of the few games where I kept the 3d on the whole time.

While they might get lost to time in the retail space... I think anyone that wants to play them can grab them by other means.

Still, yeah, that would be mighty tempting. I can probably resist but totally would understand people being fully down for that.

 
LimitedRunDoug said:
I can try to answer some stuff a bit more candid now. If its a real NDA thing I’ll say so. But feel free to ask me some stuff and I can try.
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Are the rumors true that Josh had to choose between continuing to pay your salary and keep you on as an employee after the sale to Embracer, and buying a sealed limited edition copy of Shenmue that was signed by Yu Suzuki, and chose the latter?
 
Started late... Taking one for the team... not listing everything but the highlights so far...

Castlevania Advance Collection (July 28th Preorders Open)

Rise of The Triad Ludicrous Edition

Collection of shmups.. Tiger Heli / Twin Cobra

Shantae Advance - Risky Revolution (GBA version with link cable support on one cart)

... so far (~26min in)

Disney Gargoyles Remastered

Clock Tower (classic horror side scroller game being localized through carbon engine)

... so far (~32min in)

More carbon Engine stuff...

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection

.. (~35min in)

Tomba!

.... and one more thing...

Gex Trilogy

Sorry I didn't care to list everything.  Lots of stuff I didn't see the point in mentioning like an update on that Plumbers Wear Ties or whatever it's called.

 
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nightc1 said:
Started late... Taking one for the team... not listing everything but the highlights so far...

Castlevania Advance Collection (July 28th Preorders Open)

Rise of The Triad Ludicrous Edition

Collection of shmups.. Tiger Heli / Twin Cobra

Shantae Advance - Risky Revolution (GBA version with link cable support on one cart)

... so far (~26min in)
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Bless you good sir.

Shantae Advance, I had never heard of that before... looks pretty damn cool if it's a finished product.

 
Well that was a real...mixed bag. I do like the documentary approach with some of these releases (not Plumbers Wear Ties. Just why).

Ironically, I just finished the 'Gargoyles' show and was wondering where the remaster was. Now I'm a bit bummed because it'll take even longer to get. 'Shantae Advance' is neat, and I didn't see Gex coming.

 
Who the F cares about Gex other than Scott the Woz & Videogamedunkey? Fail. Also disappointed of no word about the LRG Romancelvania release I kickstarted. Thank goodness the devs gave everyone who paid at that level a digital copy.

At least there was some other good things in the show.

 
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Really should have had Tomba 2 there as well. Lots of stuff I'll get digital and never touch these physicals. Likely only will think of the Touhou game. Some stuff looks like shovelware garbage though (Plumbers obviously is and the slapping game are extremely short Flash games I played a while back).

 
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Kinda bummed they're getting M2 games now.  Much prefer SLG since they're actually limited and numbered, and they provide expected ship date when they launch pre-orders.  Still haven't gotten the Aleste Collection or Hishou Same! Same! Same! yet, probably won't hold off waiting for a LRG release though.

 
nightc1 said:
Started late... Taking one for the team... not listing everything but the highlights so far...

Castlevania Advance Collection (July 28th Preorders Open)

Rise of The Triad Ludicrous Edition

Collection of shmups.. Tiger Heli / Twin Cobra

Shantae Advance - Risky Revolution (GBA version with link cable support on one cart)

Disney Gargoyles Remastered

Clock Tower (classic horror side scroller game being localized)

... so far (~32min in)
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Castlevania Advance Collection and El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON HD Remaster are the highlights for me.

 
Man between Gex, Tomba, El Shadai,Clock Tower, and Castlevania Advance this was a pretty good show in my opinion.  Just wish that "last 3ds game was announced" and I do hope that lost Shantae game gets a console release as well and not just a GBA cartridge (I am sure it will down the line)

 
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