Quote Originally Posted by lendelin View Post

Look, it is actually pretty easy, we don't need sideshows and distractions and questionable reasoning. Just answer this one Q:


Which of the following two businessmodels do you prefer as a gamer and collector? 1) the Limited Run model which gives gamers and collectors limited accessibilty (ten minutes to 24 hours) to get games for retail price, and later on to get these games as a rule for 50% to 600% the retail price on ebay. (Mind you, ebay scalping clearly is part of the businessmodel as LR itself demonstrated); 2) Let's call it the Soedesco-model of so many smaller publishers which publish games of smaller developers and/or so far only digital on physical disc like Limited Run and just sell it, no marketing with limited numbers and rarity hype, access for months and years for retail price and cheaper than the retail price as a rule.


You avoided answering the Q so far by pointing to LR or the other publishers individually, but never answered the Q about the comparison of the two models.


Limited Run could do it for PS4 games (and the Vita!) like the other small publishers do. No problem there. But their model is risk-minimizing at the cost of consumers. Why doesn't LR publish Vita games without this rarity nonsense?


That the second model works is obvious. It isn't an utopian model in an ideal fantasy world. The proof is in the pudding, otherwise Soedesco and many others would not publish more games than ever and would have gone bankrupt years ago. If you look at the DP-list of games of indie/small developers physical releases it is obvious that Limited Run aren't the holy knights in shiny armor who provide us with water in a desert. On the contrary, we are flooded with these games in the meantime.


Play Asia and Reserve Games (or whatever their name is) step in the same murky water in the meantime like LR. It is nonsense except for Limited Run itself. To euphemistically sell this nonsense as a service to gamers and collectors takes a lot of chuzpe.
It appears you didn't review any of his previous posts prior to generating your wall of text. He already explained that most of us would prefer unlimited retail runs of PS4 and Vita games. Unfortunately, there is no company out there willing to take the financial risk and potential bankruptcy that comes with pursuing that approach, especially when you consider how many games LRG has already released. Unless you work for Soedesco and have access to their financials, your claim that they are financially viable is pure speculation. Indeed, Soedesco is not a US company and may be receiving government subsidies or perhaps they are funded by individuals who don't care about profit. If the model is so viable, why hasn't Soedesco increased their release frequency or added Vita games to the US releases?

Bottom line, LRG is pursuing a particular business model that allows them to release a ton of games, many of which other publishers would never even consider because of their niche appeal, at generally reasonable prices. It does mean that collectors who care about obtaining the physical copies need to plan ahead a bit and actually spend a minute on their phone or computer every few weeks to order the games. If gamers miss the window, all of these games are available digitally, so there is no reason to claim that LRG is somehow preventing gamers and collectors from enjoying these games.

I have a coupl questions for you. Have you ever run a successful business? Do you have any understanding of the retail and physical games market in this age where digital is becoming dominant by the day? I suspect the answer to both questions is "no", but I remain curious as to your answers.