I'm starting a new company called "My Little Games Can't Be This Limited".
(But seriously though, these company names just make me laugh.)
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Limited Run Games |OT2| Sweet XOXO for Digital to Physical Media
- Thread starter GodzillaDB
- Start date
I'm starting a new company called "My Little Games Can't Be This Limited".
(But seriously though, these company names just make me laugh.)
Joe Molotov
Member
Locally Sourced Artisanal Games
MrFortyFive
Member
I'm pretty sure this is actually a really good idea
brianmcdoogle
Member
Are your games fair trade and organically sustainable?
salaciousdrift
Member
I can see some of the chest-thumping folks who take joy in buying something only so someone else can't have fighting over Life of Black Tiger if it were as limited as I said. Although it may be that only way to inoculate physical game collecting for current gen consoles against this kind of thinking is $500 copies of Life of Black Tiger on Ebay. It's the future we need and the future we deserve. I think that will be my new company's slogan.
It's Come To This Games
It's the future we need and the future we deserve.
If they release something I want, I'll certainly try to get it.
Saoshyant
Member
I like the cut of your gib and wish to subscribe into all future updates of your company.
BakedTanooki
Member
Strictly Limited Games told me on Facebook that they got a very nice lineup, and possibly some japanese / Shmup games.
Really interested in what they might offer in the future.
Really interested in what they might offer in the future.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Thanks LRG for stocking a few brick and mortar shops with games. I had given up hopes of getting Night Trap for a reasonable price, but I got one from Game Realms today! The slightly higher price basically cancels out the shipping cost from ordering directly from LRG and keeps a cool little mom & pop shop in business. It's an awesome thing and I hope you guys keep doing it.
salaciousdrift
Member
Which can be achieved with pre-orders. But I see what you did there.
Lazlo Woodbine
Member
By living the joke.Yea, I went for the low hanging fruit
zenosparadox
Member
This pleases me.
Is there a list of shops LRG sells to?
Game Dude in California USA sells them
digita1alchemy
Member
zenosparadox
Member
Don't get my hopes up!
zeopower6
Member
Numbers announced for Ys on Twitter.
Success on PS4, not so much on Vita.
The final verdict: They will push for this in the future on certain titles and it is worth another shot. Up to the partners/devs they work with.
Success on PS4, not so much on Vita.
The final verdict: They will push for this in the future on certain titles and it is worth another shot. Up to the partners/devs they work with.
6,575 Vita, 8,400 PS4. This was a success on PS4 but not so much on Vita.
We already have 6,500 Vita copies en route and we have to reorder for those extra 75 - the minimum reorder quantity is MUCH higher than that
So until we sell the smattering of extra units that have to be ordered above that 75, it wasn't the best route for Vita.
Worth a try, for sure, and we'll certainly consider doing it again.
Ultimately, the decision to go this route in the future will be up to our partners. We'll push for it in some cases.
The easy reasoning with Vita is because it was bugged version. The only bad decision, I believe, was ordering a set amount as it was. If maybe they went thr route with only 2000 at first and then going from there, but I think that large order of expectations wasn't the bedt plan, while doing a test.
I'm glad that the numbers are still very high and they won't be done with a pre-order model
Crash55118
Member
Seems dumb to just copy LRG.
A game a month is enticing, but makes me wonder why not just copy a company like Vinyl Me Please and do a subscription service. It is what people wanted at the beginning from LRG, but is impossible due to their mission of signing anything/everything.
A game a month is enticing, but makes me wonder why not just copy a company like Vinyl Me Please and do a subscription service. It is what people wanted at the beginning from LRG, but is impossible due to their mission of signing anything/everything.
salaciousdrift
Member
The fun police are going to hate this.
blazeuk
Member
Ys seems like it was a success for them then, just a little annoying to have to place an additional order for the few extra copies on Vita. If the future titles end up being similar with CE's having a limited run and then preorders for the standard it sounds like they should just order what they need for the CE's and then place the order for the standard copies afterwards - that will probably cause a small delay on the standard release but I don't think too many will mind if it's made clear that it is a preorder and they haven't been manufactured yet. I guess it also adds a little something extra for those who buy the CE that they get it slightly sooner.
Hey, a reasonable read of the outcome by smart people!
Even the "bad"Vita outcome wouldn't be an issue in future scenarios, because the pre-order window wouldn't have had an order placed ahead of time for a certain number.
Looks like a win-win for the future, and the proof's in the pudding: They sold as expected, and no one has to go on eBay. End of the day, the only thing that changed is that the extra $30-$50 charged by the scalper for a slice of the copies evaporated. The copies were allocated directly to the end customer rather than middlemen making a buck.
Good news! Also a great example of why consumers voicing their concerns is necessary.
Sounds alright to me.
Put the extra Vita copies up on Black Friday until they sell out.
So compared to the approx. final numbers I had posted:
Ys Vita:
6,575 final compared to ~3,472 SE + 3,000 CE = ~6,472 (-103 difference)
Ys PS4:
Final: 8,400 final compared to ~4,299 SE + 3,000 CE (-1,101 difference)
That's a large PS4 discrepancy unless it's counting 1,000 PAX variants which is my guess. Though I thought it was 1,500.
Almost 15,000 sold for the single title is a job well done! Bigger than Half-Minute Hero sales x3...
brianmcdoogle
Member
I knew nobody cared about Vita except for weirdos!
Olengie
Member
It's coming.
Skullgirls Vita is still undergoing approval.
Skullgirls PS4 has been approved and is likely going to come September if everything turns out all right
salaciousdrift
Member
What you've bolded feels like a jab at some of their direct competitors.
I got mine too. (No 32x cover for me)
bmcphail2008
Member
I think your summary glosses over a number of things that we just don't know yet. It will be several weeks until these copies ship meaning potential customer service and payment issues that don't normally exist. There is also the possibility that scalpers/resellers and collectors who didn't support the Ys preorder will go away completely meaning sales on the smaller niche titles that won't get a preorder will be impacted down the road. I personally like the idea of preorders, but I don't think they are necessarily something that can be deployed for most releases and that seems consistent with what LRG is saying.
For all the claims that people here and elsewhere have made that there was all this untapped business that LRG was missing out on by not doing preorders, the experiment pretty clearly showed that LRG was pretty accurate in their predictions all along and that there was little difference between the regular model and preorders. I do agree that getting copies directly into customer's hands is a big plus, but I do worry that scalpers/resellers probably require far less customer support and probably have far fewer payment issues than regular consumers. I also suspect that you probably had a lot more single orders with the preorders than the double or triple with CE orders I suspect most scalpers/resellers probably place meaning a lot more labor per copy sold for the same dollars.
Interesting analysis, although I am naïve enough to think a company can sometimes choose the way of slightly-less-profit in order to respect some values or please the customers ^^
I think LRG's position is well thought out : preorders could definitely happen again for bigger releases but not for the common ones. That seems fair.
Now, to know the exact print run, we need to know how many surplus Vita Ys they'll order. The minimum is probably 1500-2000 units ?
We know it's as little as 1500, as that's how many copies of Breach and Clear there were.
Played a ton of Mages of Mystaria this weekend, and a nice foldout or cloth map would be a great addition for the LRG edition.
Hope they do something special with this game, it's really good.
On other limited release news, Guacamelee arrived and it's kinda uneventful. No manual, no insert, just controls printed on the reversible cover.
This completely ignores that there is no scalper demand if there is no underlying demand from real customers, though. If there is no underlying demand, scalpers would disappear anyways after being burned a few times. If there is, customers will have the chance to buy directly. I also don't buy the argument that scalpers are better payers. They are in it to extract money from people with more income than time, that didn't manage to show up at 7AM. Who are these folks that are now complaining to LRG, but are otherwise good buyers on eBay?
At the end of the day, the economics of scalping only works in the long run if there's unmet demand. Otherwise, it's just a good old-fashioned bubble, and no one should bet their livelihoods on a bubble.
Hope they do something special with this game, it's really good.
On other limited release news, Guacamelee arrived and it's kinda uneventful. No manual, no insert, just controls printed on the reversible cover.
This completely ignores that there is no scalper demand if there is no underlying demand from real customers, though. If there is no underlying demand, scalpers would disappear anyways after being burned a few times. If there is, customers will have the chance to buy directly. I also don't buy the argument that scalpers are better payers. They are in it to extract money from people with more income than time, that didn't manage to show up at 7AM. Who are these folks that are now complaining to LRG, but are otherwise good buyers on eBay?
At the end of the day, the economics of scalping only works in the long run if there's unmet demand. Otherwise, it's just a good old-fashioned bubble, and no one should bet their livelihoods on a bubble.
how many copies were each originally set at? wasn't it 4K?
DaBargainHunta
Member
And the back case art looks cheap - the front art is nice - and the art itself doesn't seem to QUITE fit the case. LRG's cases/art seem more polished and professional, like something you'd get from a store. This is a hair off from that, IMO.
With that said, I wish LRG would copy a couple of things from these guys:
- Even though it was only one game, it was shipped in a box with much more secure packaging. Granted, they did charge more for shipping. With that said, the "garbage bag" packaging (dunno how else to describe it) LRG uses for single, non-LE games is not very secure and a pain to open. I realize you can order a box for a couple of bucks more, but I'd rather they switch from the "garbage bag" packaging to something better for single game shipments.
- I got e-mailed a delivery confirmation, which I thought was cool as hell.
Dead to Rights
Member
Anyone know if there is a problem with Night Trap? My order is still unfulfilled. My orders have never taken this long before.
It is what it is, but I kinda wonder what titles they'd push for with the preorder strategy.
PositronicMan
Member
Did you happen to order it along with the vinyl, the bunker or other extras? Mine hasn't shipped yet either and I think that may be why.
Dead to Rights
Member
I ordered Night Trap and the Night Trap 25 Years Later Blu-ray, but both were separate orders and I paid for shipping on each.
I'll buy Raizing / Cave / etc games from anyone. It can be Super Dooper Uncommon Games, don't care..
Green Card
Member
Just look at the CE prices on eBay. Some were listed as low as $70 and that's only $8 more than LRG. No one expects them to do this for every game but it will definitely help cut down the vitriol directed at them on twitter if they do it for the bigger titles.
I ordered a couple standard copies and they are still unfulfilled too.
bmcphail2008
Member
True, but you could also argue that when consumers see games popping up at multiples of retail within hours or days of something going up on LRG, that further drives consumer demand where there wasn't necessarily any for a particular game before. I don't think you can deny that part of the attraction of LRG games for some people, including some non-scalpers is that they disappear quickly and appear to be hard to get. For bigger titles it's not so much of a factor, but most LRG games are not "bigger titles" and are really niche indie games, many of which can be bought for a fraction of the LRG cost digitally. I just think it's a balancing act and LRG can't afford to lose too many scalpers or collectors that are concerned about rarity as those people make the smaller run niche releases viable for the rest of us that don't really care about rarity or return on investment. I suspect many of the first time buyers of Ys that got in because of the preorder won't be back on the 15th for whatever games pop up, even if they are in sufficient quantity to last a while.
Augemitbutter
Member
the preorder system is perfect for me. i hope they will continue.