Limited Run

[MrHealthy]

I know people were upset that Darius Vita has to download a patch, but the reason for that was legit, as including the patch on cart would have made DLC incompatible. Only other issues I can think of is Rainbow Moon Vita had incompatible DLC (but its just micro transactions to reduce grinding). And one of the PS4 games had some blank discs, which were replaced.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I will never buy another Vita Limited Run again, so it looks like I'll be pickin' up Origins on the PS4. Here's hoping I can actually get one Xp

What's wrong with LRG's vita games?

I don't know if it's just indie Vita games running like trash (I'm fairly sure that's the case with at least one of them) but both Vita games I've bought from them have been absolutely dire. Volume crashed constantly (like once every hour or so) and The Swindle had such a bad framerate it made it almost unplayable in some areas. It's more-so that I'm done buying indie games on Vita, not just LRG's ones.

[ElkinFencer10]

The only one of LRG's Vita games that I've actually played (despite owning all of them) is Breach and Clear, but that one ran flawlessly for me. That is, however, one out of like, what, 30?

[wclem]

Play Asia just announced another short run for those interested. Forget name, some sort of twin stick shooter with multiplayer

[ElkinFencer10]

Play Asia just announced another short run for those interested. Forget name, some sort of twin stick shooter with multiplayer

Yeah, it looked super cool. I pre-ordered for PS4 this morning.

[Segata]

Night Trap August 15th.

I am so getting this. Nope never played the game but I need it for culture reasons. Standard is 30 bucks. Special is $55.

[wclem]

Yeah seems like they are getting in on the collectors edition cash grab. Makes the Darius one seem lesser now that it seems they are going to push more of them. Also when are they going to do a name change, can you still call it limited run when you drop a game a week?

[MrHealthy]

Also when are they going to do a name change, can you still call it limited run when you drop a game a week?

? Yes? How does the number of games they publish change the fact that the print runs themselves are limited one time affairs?

[Segata]

A little Night Trap in my life,A little bit of Dana by my side,A little bit of LRG is all I need....
Order numba FIVE!

[wclem]

Also when are they going to do a name change, can you still call it limited run when you drop a game a week?

? Yes? How does the number of games they publish change the fact that the print runs themselves are limited one time affairs?

I will gladly answer this. From a business stand point they want to push as many as these as they can to maximize the ability to be profitable. Though you are correct with stating that the runs themselves are limited, there is an inherent problem with too many of them.

I have watched the sales of these over time and have noticed a trend of the games being available longer and longer. With the sheer quantity of games they are producing they are devaluing the "limited" aspect of these games. People are not buying them as the same fevered rate because they know there will be another one released in a week or two. The games themselves thus begin to not feel limited to people. You need to look at the overall amount of games out there. Add every run together and these games are most certainly not limited. If you want to split hairs and focus on one fraction of the whole "limited" run business model then you may. Looking at it as a whole and understanding what makes things limited and thus collectible you will begin to see why limited run is quickly losing the limited part of its business.

I will give you two things in comparison. Beany Babies were collectible at first because there was a small amount being released in only certain places. Once they mass marketed the collectible side of it died, and fast. Numbered trading card when first offered were worth hundreds of dollars and had great demand. (Donruss did it with a subset of baseball cards that were numbered to 10,000 ) These cards were hard to find and people wanted them. Then everyone slapped a numbering system on cards, called them limited and now most of them are worth nothing.

I hope looking at this from a sales and marketing point of view helps you to understand why the limited is quickly going out of limited run games. Though each individual game out there has a lower quantity of games made it is still very easy to go out and get yourself a limited run game by the sheer mass quantity of games available. Also, they have many games that consumers views as lesser desirable games. Games a small amount of people want. Thus diminishing the special part of owning these even more. To be able to call it limited run you also have to have a limited amount of runs.

I do want to plug Play-Asia with their new limited run system. They are giving out soundtracks and worthwhile coupons with their games. They are also numbering them, which is a nice bonus. This makes it much easier to prove actual run quantity. I have often wondered about limited runs stated issued amount of games. The games from Play Asia come in small boxes and are overall very nice. They are the same price as limited run but give you the soundtrack for free.

Lastly, I do not buy the LRG games for future value, I buy them because it is cool to get physical copies of these games, whether the are good or not. I want to support this as much as possible. Many other people are buying these because they are hoping for some immediate or future profit from them. With so many of the games being shoved out there these people will end up getting burned and not realizing their ultimate goal with buying them. Like it or not, LRG needs these people to keep buying games, though eventually they are going to run them off, creating a void in their customer base. Sadly, they are only doing damage to themselves by releasing so many games and releasing games that are of marginal quality in their customers eyes. They want to maximize sales, hopefully by losing the "limited" aspect they do not kill their company off.

Also, do not even get me started on their new offering of so many versions of the games. Not only are you forcing tons of games on people who want to collect these now you are making us either buy multiple versions or making us decide on one or the other. You are only going to burn people out who are collecting these for collectors sake such as the people here on Racketboy.