LRG says they're going less limited... By delaying.

[Anapan]

Just got this email:
At Limited Run, we believe everyone should have a chance at their favorite game, even when the runs are...well...limited, so we’ve shied away from first-come-first-serve limited sales in favor of manufacturing enough games to meet the fans' demand. Because of that, our items cannot go into manufacturing until after pre-orders end.
We want to ensure you know where your items are in that process at any given time, so we’ve committed to sending out updates 2, 5, and 8 months after your pre-orders close. We’re with you every step of the way on this fantastic journey, so let’s look at how your games are coming along!

meh... My carts aren't arriving any time soon. Better order some plush toys.

[Ziggy]

I've only ordered two things from LRG. Castlevania Requiem on PS4, which felt like it took forever to get. Now it might be even longer? Damn. I have Rendering Rangers on order, which feels like it's been several months already. This one I'm not especially eager to get, so I figure it'll be a nice surprise when it finally comes in. The only game I'm really eager to get once it becomes available is Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine. They said they will do it in English, but it's been a long time since the announcement. So I guess it takes forever to prepare everything, then forever to manufacture it. I'm not being snarky, but it just like seems instead of changing things to take longer they should be figuring out how to make things happen faster.

[ZRofel]

Just got this email:
At Limited Run, we believe everyone should have a chance at their favorite game, even when the runs are...well...limited, so we’ve shied away from first-come-first-serve limited sales in favor of manufacturing enough games to meet the fans' demand. Because of that, our items cannot go into manufacturing until after pre-orders end.
We want to ensure you know where your items are in that process at any given time, so we’ve committed to sending out updates 2, 5, and 8 months after your pre-orders close. We’re with you every step of the way on this fantastic journey, so let’s look at how your games are coming along!

meh... My carts aren't arriving any time soon. Better order some plush toys.

This actually isn't anything new. They've been doing things this way for a while now. They've just started making more of an effort to be transparent and communicate where the manufacturing/shipping process is for individual games. These are just template e-mails they've been sending out for the last six months or so if you have anything on preorder with them. I don't think anything is going to take longer than it has been. In fact, I feel like I've been getting my stuff that I order from them a little bit quicker these days. A while back, they said they were going to stop producing the trading cards that came along with the games, because printing the cards for each game was actually holding up shipping. That seemed a little strange to me, because printing is usually a lot faster than manufacturing. But I suppose depending on how their supply lines are arranged, it could be bottle-necking things. And like I said, their shipments have seemed a little faster now that they're not including the cards anymore. Plus, I don't think anyone actually cared about getting a silly trading card with their games anyways.

The reality is, anyplace that does open preorders (i.e. they don't send it to manufacturing until after the preorders close in order to ensure everyone who wants to preorder is able to get a copy), you're gonna have at least a six-month delay before shipping. That's just how long the manufacturing and freight shipping process takes, and that's only if they don't have to work out any quirks. I preorder games from other limited vendors like Premium Edition Games, Red Art Games, and Strictly Limited Games, and I preorder collectibles from other boutique vendors, and everything takes around the same amount of time to ship as Limited Run. The collectibles tend to take even longer, since they usually have to go through a series of sculpt and paint assessments first. The only other option for Limited Run would be to manufacture a specific number of games beforehand and put them up for order when the shipment comes in. They used to do it that way, and certain other vendors like Super Rare Games still do it that way, and it totally sucks. If you're not at their website, ready to grab the item in the first two or three minutes after things go up for sale, they sell out to scalpers, and you're stuck paying a 25-100% up-charge buying it from one of them on eBay. Personally, if it means I'm guaranteed to get what I want to purchase, I don't mind waiting a little bit longer for it to arrive.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Agreed. I am fine with this approach. It gives people a chance to own the games they want in physical form.

Also…remember a few years ago when we were all very concerned about the death of physical video games? Now, it seems like almost every indie game, regardless of quality, gets a physical print…

[Note]

Even with a longer shipping time, I do prefer the open pre-order system. It's too much of a pain to be online at a specific time and racing to put your order in to try to purchase something, then get stuck paying resale price later on. I'd rather have that window, be able to purchase at my leisure, and get the item at a reasonable price.

The only game we ordered directly from LRG is Streets of Rage 4 on Switch, which did take quite a while, but luckily it showed up without any issues. The one game I currently have on pre-order is Trip World on the Game Boy, and fingers crossed everything will be okay with that order as well.

[marurun]

This is the only way to do what they do without too much financial risk. They're taking on a number of niche products for physical release. Hard to blame them for Nintendo's extended process.

[bmoc]

I've got two pending orders with them. River City Girls 2 (PS5) and the new Castlevania Advance Collection. I forget when preorders closed for RCG2 but I ordered it last October. Other versions of RCG2 have shipped but the PS5 version has been delayed due to needing a patch (as of the last update provided by LRG). I expect it will take around a year to get Castlevania Advance Collection once preorders close.

It sucks to wait but I'm in agreement that it is better than having LRG guess what the demand will be then sell out.