Are Limited Editions actually becoming "Limited"?

[Deadman]

As a collector, if I'm going to buy a game, I like to buy the "best" version available, with the extra art book, the extra faceplate, the online codes, etc. After the Halo 3 Helmet "Limited" edition piling up in the corners of every conceivable game outlet for years (GameStops near me were told to just throw them out - and they did!) I lost faith in the concept of anything being truly limited.

I must also add that I'm not much for Pre-orders, mostly because I like to see reviews and some gameplay prior to dishing out $99 for something that's going to get zero playtime because the game sucks so bad. Anyway, last Tuesday I decided to go ahead and pick up Halo 4, and of course I wanted the Limited version. This was out of stock everywhere online (amazon, target, walmart, bestbuy, etc.) so I headed over to my SuperTarget at 8:30am to see if they had any left. They had 1 left and they told me that they had only received a total of 4, and that ALL SuperTarget's get 4, while regular Targets typically get 2 per store. I also stopped by two WalMarts and my BestBuy and they were all sold out of the "limited" Halo 4 edition.

So today, I repeat the same scenario with Black Ops II Hardened Edition for the 360. I wasn't even sure if I wanted one, but while at work I decided to go online and find it.... good luck. All sold out online again. Target.com showed me only two stores within 25 miles that had "Limitied stock" so I called them both. One said that their 2 copies were already gone, while the other had only one copy left and he held it for me so I could come get it. This was a "regular" Target and the employee also verified the "4 per SuperTarget / 2 per Target" allotment of these "limited" editions.

I guess this actually is bringing up my faith in the fact that some new limited editions might actually be limited in production. Anyone else noticing that upgraded versions of new releases are actually getting a little harder to find than in the past couple of years?

[Bojay1997]

As a collector, if I'm going to buy a game, I like to buy the "best" version available, with the extra art book, the extra faceplate, the online codes, etc. After the Halo 3 Helmet "Limited" edition piling up in the corners of every conceivable game outlet for years (GameStops near me were told to just throw them out - and they did!) I lost faith in the concept of anything being truly limited.

I must also add that I'm not much for Pre-orders, mostly because I like to see reviews and some gameplay prior to dishing out $99 for something that's going to get zero playtime because the game sucks so bad. Anyway, last Tuesday I decided to go ahead and pick up Halo 4, and of course I wanted the Limited version. This was out of stock everywhere online (amazon, target, walmart, bestbuy, etc.) so I headed over to my SuperTarget at 8:30am to see if they had any left. They had 1 left and they told me that they had only received a total of 4, and that ALL SuperTarget's get 4, while regular Targets typically get 2 per store. I also stopped by two WalMarts and my BestBuy and they were all sold out of the "limited" Halo 4 edition.

So today, I repeat the same scenario with Black Ops II Hardened Edition for the 360. I wasn't even sure if I wanted one, but while at work I decided to go online and find it.... good luck. All sold out online again. Target.com showed me only two stores within 25 miles that had "Limitied stock" so I called them both. One said that their 2 copies were already gone, while the other had only one copy left and he held it for me so I could come get it. This was a "regular" Target and the employee also verified the "4 per SuperTarget / 2 per Target" allotment of these "limited" editions.

I guess this actually is bringing up my faith in the fact that some new limited editions might actually be limited in production. Anyone else noticing that upgraded versions of new releases are actually getting a little harder to find than in the past couple of years?

Publishers have been getting a little more savvy about producing just enough copies so that they sell out just before release. In the past year or so, even wide release games like Witcher 2, Borderlands Loot Chest, Halo 4 LE and now BLOPS II Care Package and Hardened have all sold out before release. Of course, the collector's edition for ACIII is still widely available. All I can say is that have gotten better about anticipating demand overall.

[Collector_Gaming]

All I gotta say to this is some companies I like to believe they stay true to their words when saying Limited release

Others they say and then do the whole supply and demand thing just to see how many bucks they can squeeze out of consumers. Which I mean for buisness stand point is great but for collectors that want that assurance that they got something not all gamers have it just sucks.

[RCM]

I really don't understand the appeal of most special editions. The last few complimentary special editions I've received (SoulCalibur V, Street Fighter 25th Anniversary, Assassin's Creed III) are OK, but I wouldn't pay anything extra for most games. If I paid for 'em, that is, heh.

[otaku]

I think very few are but some are still nice for the extras and over time could become collectible due to people not caring much because of the fact they are not currently worth much etc.

[xelement5x]

Publishers have been getting a little more savvy about producing just enough copies so that they sell out just before release. In the past year or so, even wide release games like Witcher 2, Borderlands Loot Chest, Halo 4 LE and now BLOPS II Care Package and Hardened have all sold out before release. Of course, the collector's edition for ACIII is still widely available. All I can say is that have gotten better about anticipating demand overall.

That's the goal of course, to only make as few as you need to to satisfy the special edition needs so you can make the money off of it, but not be left with a ton of discounted stock 6 months later. You're right that a lot of them have gotten beatter at balancing the smaller releases, NISA and XSEED are very good at it and ATLUS and other seem to be much craftier about it as well.

[Nz17]

Regarding LE's, I only buy 'em if they are for games I really care for or can already tell in advance I'm going to care for them. Thus most PS/XB games are not ones I'm going to get in the pricier variants. However there are a lot of games which originate from Japan that, when they get localized, I'll pick up the LE for them. If I'm on the fence about buying a particular game I'm interested in, an LE sometimes is what tips my interest over the fence into the "must buy" side of things. After all, you gotta pick it up before you can't track down an LE anywhere or the price is asinine.

That said, if you are patient and can wait for the timing window for the product's sweet spot pricing, you can get many LE's, new or used, about 3 years after their original release for much cheaper than at launch and for much cheaper than they will be in another 3-5 years. That's how I've picked up many limited or pre-order exclusive goods, even those from the publisher's own (even more limited) online storefront, for cheap after launch. One example is the pre-order gachapon-like Disgaea figurines. These could originally only be acquired by importing them from Japan or by pre-ordering a limited edition Disgaea game from the NIS America online store. But a few years later, in an eBay auction, I was able to pick up one of the figurines for very cheap.

The key is, like with all collecting, to buy them when interest is at its lowest. If you try to buy at launch, it will be expensive; if you wait until, say, 6-10 years after the launch, it will be VERY expensive (due to the power of demand, nostalgia, and no additional product being manufactured, all being mixed at once). But if you buy during the pricing "slump," you can get the nice low prices during the low-point of the pricing curve.

Personally, I prefer the bonus goods be included not with pricier limited editions, but with the first print run of games when all copies contain them. Sometimes these are even included in subsequent print runs. This way, you get the premium extras, but the cost of them is spread out over thousands of copies of the game. Thus everyone only pays perhaps $5 more per copy compared to if the runs didn't include any physical extras, but much less than there being LE's which run $10-$50 per copy depending on the extras. It also works out as this way there are many more copies of the bonus materials available in the aftermarket.

[The 1 2 P]

It all depends. The first Bioshock's 360 Limited edition, the first Dead Space's Ultra Limited edition and Crysis 2's Nano edition were all very limited. Those weren't the only one's but those are the first three I thought of because I had searched for each at one point in time. But of course you have all the other "limited" editions that were never really limited. As already mentioned this seems to be changing a bit but there will most likely still be some limited/collector's editions that hang around on the shelves long after a game's release.