Limited Run Games - Putting digital games into your hands

Status
Not open for further replies.
otaku-asia said:
The best solution is to better gauge demand, but even that is probably not always easy. Contracts are likely signed months before release.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a big issue and unless they announce everything far in advance (which would not be smart because people could skip releases to save for later ones) it's hard to actually predict demand. It's just a matter of experience, we're still in the early stages :)

As a rule of thumb I'd say if it's Vita and/or a "japanese" genere (JRPG/shmup/VN), add at least 20% to whatever you planned already. Don't underestimate the demand from these fans. I don't think there has been a Vita release so far that has been available for a long time, but correct me if I'm wrong.
 
I don't think there has been a Vita release so far that has been available for a long time, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

I think the longest one was actually Breach & Clear. Simply because not too many people knew about it back then. :-D

Edit: Or maybe one of the bigger prints like Octodad or Oddworld.
 
Metroidvania in August?

kQbgLjo.png


Axiom Verge? Guacamelee?
 
YianGaruga said:
EDIT: Is Knytt Underground really that good? Have I been missing out?
Click to expand...

Apparently it's a love it or hate it game, though personally, I think the people who don't like it are crazy.

I love it because it's pretty much a pure exploration metroidvania. What little "combat" there is is purely for some puzzles, and traversing is super quick as the character moves quickly. I think a lot of people were put off by the tutorial, which was labeled as the first two chapters, so a lot of people might have had the wrong impression.
 
Ventara said:
Apparently it's a love it or hate it game, though personally, I think the people who don't like it are crazy.

I love it because it's pretty much a pure exploration metroidvania. What little "combat" there is is purely for some puzzles, and traversing is super quick as the character moves quickly. I think a lot of people were put off by the tutorial, which was labeled as the first two chapters, so a lot of people might have had the wrong impression.
Click to expand...

I absolutely love exploration. Gonna DL it right now
 
YianGaruga said:
People still complain about "cart problems", "saw stock but couldn't check out" and so on. So obviously not everyone knows. Everyone needs to be aware that you need to press "check out" ASAP to secure a copy.

It's true though
Click to expand...
20 seconds though? Or less with the bundle? I could not have checked out faster and it did not work. I don't believe I just 'missed out'.

It's really soured me on the whole thing since it seems completely unfair. It was not possible to get one for some reason and that was out of my control.

If anyone here did manage to get two copies please consider helping me out. I would be grateful.
 
dark10x said:
20 seconds though? Or less with the bundle? I could not have checked out faster and it did not work. I don't believe I just 'missed out'.
Click to expand...


Plus the bundle issue.

This was not business as usual, I'm sorry.

Like I said, not my first rodeo. And I'm a Mondo customer, too. I know how this goes.
 
dark10x said:
20 seconds though? Or less with the bundle? I could not have checked out faster and it did not work. I don't believe I just 'missed out'.

It's really soured me on the whole thing since it seems completely unfair. It was not possible to get one for some reason and that was out of my control.

If anyone here did manage to get two copies please consider helping me out. I would be grateful.
Click to expand...
What's your take on what happened? There's just no logical explanation for why this "issue" affects only a very small number of people, always with the same symptoms which are entirely explained by how shopify works. Why is no one reporting the issue with B&C Deadline copies?

You probably shouldn't wait 20 seconds next time. Adding to cart and checking out takes like 5. And the bundle issue sucks but that's why there will probably be another batch of copies

Once again, I'm sorry this happened but be reasonable here. The print run was too small and some people missed out. That's what happened. Its as unfair as missing out on any other limited item. If you want to stop being an LRG customer because of that it's your choice, but we're still in a stage with plenty of growing pains. Things will be smoother in the future.
 
YianGaruga said:
What's your take on what happened? There's just no logical explanation for why this "issue" affects only a very small number of people.

You probably shouldn't wait 20 seconds next time. Adding to cart and checking out takes like 5. And the bundle issue sucks but that's why there will probably be another batch of copies

Once again, I'm sorry this happened but be reasonable here. The print run was too small and some people missed out. That's what happened. Its as unfair as missing out on any other limited item. If you want to stop being an LRG customer because of that it's your choice, but we're still in a stage with plenty of growing pains. Things will be smoother in the future.
Click to expand...
20 seconds is an estimate. I did not wait. I refreshed until it appeared, added to cart and hit checkout. I could go no faster. I just feel like something wasn't working properly. Never had this issue before.

It happened three times - the first time it went up, the second time, and then with the soundtrack bundle. Added it as soon as it went live, hit check out and was unable to checkout. Does that seem right?
 
dark10x said:
20 seconds is an estimate. I did not wait. I refreshed until it appeared, added to cart and hit checkout. I could go no faster. I just feel like something wasn't working properly. Never had this issue before.

It happened three times - the first time it went up, the second time, and then with the soundtrack bundle. Added it as soon as it went live, hit check out and was unable to checkout. Does that seem right?
Click to expand...
So what do you want? If it's actually a store bug (which I'm not at all convinced it is) it will be fixed eventually and stop happening as LRG have just said they will work on the store. If it's just too high demand it will happen again or print runs will have to be bigger.

Being all "LRG is shit screw you I'm out" because you missed out one one game just seems unreasonable.
 
YianGaruga said:
So what do you want? If it's actually a store bug (which I'm not at all convinced it is) it will be fixed eventually and stop happening as LRG have just said they will work on the store. If it's just too high demand it will happen again or print runs will have to be bigger.

Being all "LRG is shit screw you I'm out" because you missed out one one game just seems unreasonable.
Click to expand...
An issue between my ISP and Shopify? I dunno. It just seems unreasonable.

LRG are not shit. I don't blame them, I like what they're doing obviously, but it's clear that this time, I never had a chance and neither did other regulars here.

What do I want? A copy of the game. That's it.
 
dark10x said:
An issue between my ISP and Shopify? I dunno. It just seems unreasonable.

LRG are not shit. I don't blame them, I like what they're doing obviously, but it's clear that this time, I never had a chance and neither did other regulars here.

What do I want? A copy of the game. That's it.
Click to expand...

It's not like that's impossible. All the latest LRG releases seem to go for $40-$50 on ebay.com. More expensive, sure, but not impossible.
 
Just want to chime in on this, but there is indeed a store glitch that keeps telling you the item is sold out at checkout, even when it's not. I think you should drop it Yian, as it sounds like they encountered this glitch, which has been around for a long time, so it doesn't seem like it's getting fixed.

To those of you who encountered this glitch, I know your pain. The best advice is to take a breather and just buy it off of a scalper. The silver lining is that this glitch is pretty random and doesn't mean it'll happen again for your future purchasing attempts.
 
Ventara said:
Just want to chime in on this, but there is indeed a store glitch that keeps telling you the item is sold out at checkout, even when it's not. I think you should drop it Yian, as it sounds like they encountered this glitch, which has been around for a long time, so it doesn't seem like it's getting fixed.

To those of you who encountered this glitch, I know your pain. The best advice is to take a breather and just buy it off of a scalper. The silver lining is that this glitch is pretty random and doesn't mean it'll happen again for your future purchasing attempts.
Click to expand...
Any ideas what is causing this? That's concerning to hear.
 
dark10x said:
Any ideas what is causing this? That's concerning to hear.
Click to expand...

Sadly not. Honestly, before it happened to me, I thought other people were just doing something wrong. And who knows, maybe it is something caused on the user end, but I couldn't figure it out. Did everything I could within 5 minutes from resetting my internet to changing my web browser to no avail. Worst part was just watching the stock slowly dwindle, and people coming in saying they were 5 minutes late but were still glad to score a copy.
 
Ventara said:
Sadly not. Honestly, before it happened to me, I thought other people were just doing something wrong. And who knows, maybe it is something caused on the user end, but I couldn't figure it out. Did everything I could within 5 minutes from resetting my internet to changing my web browser to no avail. Worst part was just watching the stock slowly dwindle, and people coming in saying they were 5 minutes late but were still glad to score a copy.
Click to expand...
Yeah, reading those messages was indeed disheartening. What a strange thing.
 
Not sure if there are really store glitches but eventually it comes down to the demand being (much) higher than supply. Lets say there are 50 copies available but 500 people are attempting to complete their purchase at the same time, there's a lot that can go wrong. At that point you have to be fast, but also lucky.

There are a lot of things that come into play, such as which browser you use, your internet connection speed, ping to the server, browser cache, possibly ISP cache, etc.! It might even be shopify servers being out of sync because of the high demand.

To be honest, I doubt that there's a good solution. You could custom program a shop system but high demand will pretty much always lead to similar issues. Chances are your server won't even survive it if you don't use a third party provider.
 
There are a lot of things that come into play, such as which browser you use, your internet connection speed, ping to the server, browser cache, possibly ISP cache, etc.! It might even be shopify servers being out of sync because of the high demand.

To be honest, I doubt that there's a good solution.
Click to expand...
I suspect I was either hit by a Shopify bug or an ISP issue. The fact that I saw plenty of people coming to the store later than I and still getting copies makes me believe that had to be the case.

There is a good solution - increase the number of copies available. More people are learning about this service.

Increasing the copies available allows more people to get their hands on the game that actually WANT it. I know some people buy these just to resell them but I actually want it as part of my collection. Believe it or not, I've actually opened most of my LRG titles since I do not plan to resell them.
 
It's obviously to do with the demand on the store and for the most part I'm surprised it handles the rush so well but it's still a problem when you can't even checkout seconds after it's listed - again it's not something I've ever had an issue with until now and always figured it was the demand causing stock to go and it not being updated fast enough but having experienced it myself now it does seem very odd.

I refuse to pay scalper prices for these games though so the collection is over.
 
dark10x said:
There is a good solution - increase the number of copies available. More people are learning about this service.
Click to expand...

Definitely and I think LRG is trying their best to correctly gauge demand. You have to take into consideration that contracts are probably signed months before release, so actual demand isn't always easy to foresee. I definitely agree that Vita games could easily be upped by +1000 to 2000. :)
 
I'm kinda surprised I managed to get my copy of Soldner now reading the last couple of pages of this thread, I didn't check out absolutely immediately (every time I order I have to re-input my phone number, despite it being listed in my account already) yet I've had no problems *YET*.

Ventara said:
Apparently it's a love it or hate it game, though personally, I think the people who don't like it are crazy.

I love it because it's pretty much a pure exploration metroidvania. What little "combat" there is is purely for some puzzles, and traversing is super quick as the character moves quickly. I think a lot of people were put off by the tutorial, which was labeled as the first two chapters, so a lot of people might have had the wrong impression.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree with your points. It took me a couple of goes to get into the game but once you hit act III the game gets very fun. The music and backgrounds are really great in the game as well, its an incredibly relaxing game that was just really fun to explore. Its also one of the few games I've ever played where I'd say the trophy list makes the game more fun - as almost all of the trophies focussed around hidden areas/levels within the game that were really fun to explore as well, with some pretty tough challenge areas.
 
otaku-asia said:
Definitely and I think LRG is trying their best to correctly gauge demand. You have to take into consideration that contracts are probably signed months before release, so actual demand isn't always easy to foresee. I definitely agree that Vita games could easily be upped by +1000 to 2000. :)
Click to expand...

Don't forget that no independent seller likes having boatloads of unsold stock lying around. 1,000 unsold copies would be a mess for a small team, I'd imagine (not factoring the lost revenue in unsold items, just talking storage costs and storage space). I used to work with a small press and their whole basement was dedicated to books--most books only had a few hundred extras and the place was still a mess of boxes.
 
First of all I subscribe squarehead words,I haven't had a single problem with all LRG orders, but sad seeing so many people having problems in that second batch(always buy games on the first one).
About the game it has been said that it's a big game+metroidvania. So either axiom verge or the one I think Which is guacamelee, and I love the game and it's one of my most wanted games, so would love that.salt and sanctuary isn't considered a metroidvania right?
 
I wonder what the turnaround times are like for making physical copies. Presumably, they make a pre-order system logistically prohibitive.
 
dark10x said:
There is a good solution - increase the number of copies available. More people are learning about this service.

Increasing the copies available allows more people to get their hands on the game that actually WANT it. I know some people buy these just to resell them but I actually want it as part of my collection. Believe it or not, I've actually opened most of my LRG titles since I do not plan to resell them.
Click to expand...

Most of the recent LRG releases had plenty of copies available for hours and no complaints (also no reported store issues!), but Sölder was underestimated. You can't just increase copies across the board and then sit on 1000s of unsold games. It's a case by case decision.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Limited Run Games using Used Chips for GBA releases apparently
2
51
1K
Spukc replied
With the disappearance of physical games, are you ok with not owning your digital games?
2 3 4
154
3K
Alan Wake replied
Limited Run Games - What They Don't Want You To See.
Drama Rumor Business 
19
1K
kingwingin replied
Fatal Run 2089 - Gameplay Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games
1
162
thief183 replied
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Switch) & Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (PS5/XSX) physicals coming via Limited Run Games
News 
20
1K
Judge Magister replied
Top Bottom