Of course Limited Run is very different from Sega which decides to reprint more than ten year old games. I mentioned LRG because this is a company which represents to me an aspect of videogamecollecting today I heavily dislike: The hype about rarity and the attempts to cash in on that hype. Limited Run's business model is based on the hype of rarity: Get this game now before it is too late! Soon this game will be rare and pricey! And their business model works very well, I give them that! There is no question in my mind that a run of 5000 for these kind of games would never ever sell out within 24 hours if it weren't for the hysteria about the upcoming rarity AND -- this is the worst part -- the ebay and Amazon scalpers who profit from it.
I guess (and this is really just merely a guess) that one-third of the sales just go for eventual resales in the future and immediate resales for outrageous prices. A business model which is tailored towards the hype about rarity for collectors and the profit-greed of ebay scalpers? Thanks, but no thanks. I don't have one Limited Run game, and I do not need them!
There are great smaller publishers out there which release physical games from small developers -- companies like Soedesco, Rising Star, 505 games and so many others without the Limited Run-nonsense. Games like Lumo, Gianna Sisters, Toki Tori, Earthlock, Ziggurat (the DP thread about these games provides a long list) which are cheap, available, and not based on a questionable businessmodel which guarantess the sell-out of the entire production run. In particular I respect and love Soedesco, a company in the Netherlands (Rotterdam) which is run by two guys and brought us a lot of fantastic games.
The list of these games by smaller developers is so long, not hyped and provide such a variety that I heavily suspect that a couple of them will be in the upcoming 'rarity'-list because they are easily overlooked; and the LRG-games are already in the hands of guys who really truly absolutely want them!
Btw, there was today a very nice and important announcement for gamers who like these kind of modern 'retro'-games.
AXIOM VERGE, the little Metroid-like adventure that could and I'm really looking forward to play, will get a physical release by Badland Games for the PS4, PS Vita, and WiiU. Great, and all of that without the Limited Run-nonsense and without the ebay scalping greed.