How limited is limited?

[jajaja]

Is there a place to check how limited games/bundles etc. are?
I.g i have Donkey Kong Country 2 limited edition for SNES, but how limited was this?
Same with those GBA SP bundles with Zelda for example, how limited are they and where can you find this info if possible.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I hate it when they say something is Limited and it isn't... Dvd's are a prime example - Basically limited can mean hundreds of thousands of copies!


Those gold Zelda GBA's don't seem to be very limited at all... My Toys R Us has a fair few dozen, as do all the other shops in town, so I can't say they are limited to a few hundred, or even a few thousand... I'd say they probably produced about 50,000 - 100,000 of them at least, which in my eye's isn't limited...


Now my Red PS2 is limited. It is well documented how many were produced (666 in each territory - 2000 in total) and are all numbered (In a sense)


I think that if something is limited, it should have a number plus a total number produced...


I'd like to know the exact figures of production for games like Steel Battalion and Samba De Amigo box sets... People on eBay often make up numbers just to make it sound that much rarer!

[jajaja]

Ye.. that would be nice if it was stated how many who was made :)
Like the Zelda - Majora's Mask limitied edition set, only 1000 (i think) were made. It also says on the box which number it is, i.g "this is number 516".

I guess its possible to mail the publisher and ask how many where made.
But if you get an answer is another story and doing this for every game and movie would just sux :\

[Berty]

Alot of manufacturers don't like answering such questions. When i was doing my honors year, i was trying to find info on how many Ridge Racer 2 units were produced/distibuted in the UK and Australia. Namco Europe were very friendly and told me that i must sek approval from Namco Japan, who are a bunck off assholes as it turns out.

Anyway, when i was working in a video game store here i used to get alot of bizzare trade ins (we were an independant store). Before the Satin Silver PS2 was released the only way to get it was to buy a $2000 Sony Wega TV (for a limted time). Needless to say that they were scarce. However one day somone traded a mint boxed one in for an Xbox. Two months later they were available due to "overwhelimg demand". So my rare as console is not worth so much now. It does have a different box though to the regular retail ones.

To me, limited edition should be less than 5000 copies. I have the Pink Hello Kitty DC and there are 1500 of those but i still see them for sale all the time.

And the Gamestop "limted" edition RE4 limited to 48,000 Copies, what a joke.

In Australia the "limited edition" Majora's Mask is actually more common then the standard edition. we used to get tons of them traded in when i was working in the store.

[jajaja]

Alot of manufacturers don't like answering such questions. When i was doing my honors year, i was trying to find info on how many Ridge Racer 2 units were produced/distibuted in the UK and Australia. Namco Europe were very friendly and told me that i must sek approval from Namco Japan, who are a bunck off assholes as it turns out.

Hehe ye :( I dont understand why they cant give out this information. What damage could it do? Altho, its a good manufactor tho, who dont give out information without asking for approval from the producer(s).

[Berty]

It has something to do with share prices i suppose. Plus those figures are really hard to get. I am now doing my Ph.D and i wanted to subscribe to Media Create. To subsribe to get weekly updates costs $15,000 USD.

Information like this is closely guarded for some reason and most of hte time you have to pay alot of money to Law-Firms to independantly gather this information accurately. Not only this, but Media Creates info only goes back about 10 years which makes it near impossible to get info on older releases. The Japanese Arcade Machine Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) is a bit better with their sales data but it still will cost you an arm and a leg to obtain detailed production run info.

[jajaja]

In Australia the "limited edition" Majora's Mask is actually more common then the standard edition. we used to get tons of them traded in when i was working in the store.

Do you mean limited edition or collectors edition?
The limited edition had a big green box which contained a clock and a zelda pin i think. Not sure if this came out as NTSC, but atleast it came out as PAL.

[Berty]

Both, although we only got one limited edition and a TON of collectors editions.

EDIT... bad engrish

[jajaja]

ok hehe. I know the collectors edition aint that rare, atleasnt not the NTSC version. I saw the limited edition with the green box for sale not long ago, went for around $400 USD

[jajaja]

damn.. browser and forum going crazy hehe, sorry for this :\

[jajaja]

deleted

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I guess its possible to mail the publisher and ask how many where made.
But if you get an answer is another story and doing this for every game and movie would just sux :\

Indeed. The amount of times I have eMailed Capcom and Sega (With different eMails addy's) to find out the answer to my questions... They never want to give me a proper answer - Cos they simply do not know (Well, the people who answer the eMails don't have a clue anyway)

[crazyjackcsa]

I wouldn't mind seeing a precentage prctive put in place. Ie 1% of a particular game produced are the limited edition.