Remasters and a rash of short production runs?

[Niku-Sama]

OK

i think its pretty cool that theres been some recent remasters along with first time translations and releases with those in english speaking (and other) countries.
for better or for worse
but i dont know if its just me or not but it seems like production runs on these, for the most part, seem really short.

take for example Live a Live, it released on July 22, 2022, its now February 25, 2023 and it already seems to be disappearing. I had it wish listed on amazon and the US release produces a 404 now, game stop was sold out, frankly most places have been sold out. I got lucky and found the last copy at best buy online so i bought it last night and picked it up today.

i had another game in mind but i totally forgot what it was after i watched the shit show of a movie Babylon and it totally made me forget.

has any one else noticed this?

[kupomogli]

Well, I checked after you mentioned it and it may not have been available at Amazon the time that you checked but Live A Live is available now at Amazon.

Although, I have noticed physical releases don't seem to drop in price as often or as they used to. I've had a lot of games on my watch list for months and most of them are still hovering around the same cost. First party Sony titles seem to be holding the Nintendo model of never drop in price except for the rare sale. The sales are still more common than anything from Nintendo first and third party exclusives, but still.

The possibility could also be that publishers have just gotten more savy at how a lot of physical players purchase their games and just wait for price drops, possibly just printing few copies and then only printing more whenever those ones have sold so much forcing the prices to stay high and not have to drop them due to over stocked inventory. Tactics Ogre is now $35 on Amazon and when it initially dropped in price it was available nowhere, sold out for all consoles except PS5, but then it happened to come back in stock so it was likely reprinted. This is why I'm thinking this.

[Niku-Sama]

nope its still gone, i see digital and european, no US or Asian releases.
i'm 100 billion percent certain i got the US version on my amazon wish list

[Tron 2.0]

That's a problem with the physical release of metroid prime remaster for switch currently.Beside it being flipped on ebay for twice the amount.Since modern gaming,is heading towards a all digital future i guess publisher are cutting back more on physical print runs as of late.

[kupomogli]

nope its still gone, i see digital and european, no US or Asian releases.
i'm 100 billion percent certain i got the US version on my amazon wish list

Oh, you're right. Ships from Amazon, sold by Action Gear, I didn't even notice. Didn't notice the PAL version either.

That's a problem with the physical release of metroid prime remaster for switch currently.Beside it being flipped on ebay for twice the amount.Since modern gaming,is heading towards a all digital future i guess publisher are cutting back more on physical print runs as of late.

Which come to find out, Square Enix decided to fuck everyone who doesn't own a Switch. Of course it was an error made by Play-Asia, but Play-Asia was required to cancel all their preorders because despite removing the link two days ago, they didn't get back to any of the purchases until two days later about it being in error. Now I believe that they possibly responded to Square Enix about having x amount of preorders and Square-Enix was like "whatever, fuck 'em."

So not only did Square Enix announce Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection at about 1AM while 99.9% of the people in the US were sleeping, the version that they released on their US store, they released a total of two fucking copies, and despite all of the emails that you know they got and all the Twitter posts, Square Enix would rather just fuck people over than provide a wide release for a fucking game series that every RPG fan who's grown up and most people who haven't would buy day one. It's one thing not releasing a physical copy at all, it's another to release a physical copy and snub an entire group because they own one console instead of another. The fact that this is a AAA company being this way just makes it all that much worse.

It's ridiculous that indie publishers are more willing to take a risk on a wide release and major publishers couldn't give two shits.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster physical release was an utter disaster.

Everybody is trying to cash in on the FOMO style of selling games after witnessing Limited Run Games and all their copycats growing more and more successful under that model. It's sad to see. It was fine when we were talking games that just wouldn't have gotten a physical release at all otherwise, but there's no justifiable reason for the big developers/publishers to pull this, especially with well-known/regarded titles.

It's disappointing to hear that Live A Live has seemingly received a small print run. I was really happy that it was getting its first ever English localization, and I would've snatched it up right away if I had a Switch. But since Square Enix is keeping it exclusive to that, I figured I'd put it off until when and if I do get a Switch. I guess that might not be an option now, which just once again makes the game less accessible to Westerners. I'm thankful we have digital as another option, but I'd still like to see physical versions as widely available as reasonably possible. You never know when digital may cease to be an option with any particular game, and if a physical version doesn't exist or exists in such limited quantities that only extremely expensive secondhand copies are available, then there's little option but to turn to piracy, and there are plenty of people who don't want to do that.

[Spartacus]

The first COVID related? short run FOMO I had was with Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories. It's a PSVR compatible game, which I collect, and originally showed up on Amazon for $49. I decided I wouldn't pay a penny over $29 for the game and waited for the inevitable price drop. Well, it didn't drop in price, it just disappeared from inventory's entirely. I deduced that a niche game like Disaster Report might have gotten an extremely small print run, panicked, and bought the first copy I could find on eBay for $99. About a year later Disaster Report 4 reappears on Amazon for $19 or $29, I forget, but I will always remember my stupid panic purchase.
I can still believe that a game like Disaster Report could get a very small print run. It did not, but I could have understood if it did.
Now Metroid Prime Remastered? No way. This first run may have sold out, but that game will be reprinted ad nauseam. Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster strikes me the same way. There were plenty of Asian English versions to be had and Play Asia mentioned there would be a second print run for those. With all the North American customers squalling at Square Enix, I'm hedging that another NTSC print run will find it's way to Amazon eventually. And if it doesn't? Well weren't they kind of acknowledged as perhaps being some of the the worst versions of the games? I know the collectors won't care though. I think the Tales of Symphonia Remastered is getting panned as well. Makes me glad I've kept the original versions.

I believe Best Buy still sells Switch NTSC versions of Live A Live on eBay. Target sells this version too. Some are not happy with the English translation on the Switch version...
https://boundingintocomics.com/2022/...nd-censorship/

Of course the English fan translated SNES cart is still pretty easy to find. I heard a group called Aeon Genesis was responsible for that translation. Ali express will ship a boxed English cart of Live A Live for about $20, but I don't know about the translation origins.

[Gameguy]

Although, I have noticed physical releases don't seem to drop in price as often or as they used to.

This isn't exactly new, it's been a problem with most smaller releases for ages. I remember waiting for Rule of Rose to drop in price for PS2 as I felt $60 for a new/gutted copy at EB Games was too much, only it never got lowered in price and eventually all copies I remember seeing got sold. Guess I should have bought it back then. Same thing happened with Solatorobo for the DS. Most other games would be discounted to clear out much needed store space, only with smaller print runs today there's less space being taken up by these releases so discounts aren't given anymore.

I remember a few years ago i bought Retro Game Challenge for the DS from amazon as "new", it was less than $20. when i got it, it had been crappily resealed and there was a save file on the game already, it was in really good shape but it irritated me that it wasnt new so i sent them a message, they told me to send it back and when i did the only seller of the game must have been banned because it wasnt available for a long time. then people started scalping and well i never got another
i kinda wish i didnt do that

You're not alone. I remember buying a sealed new copy for I think $9.99 years ago back when EB Games was still selling copies, I ended up selling it cheap for around $15 as I changed my mind about the game and thought DS games wouldn't become collectible in the future as they had durable cases and were from a time when people already were actively collecting games. I was wrong about that, both about Retro Game Challenge and DS collecting as a whole. I never thought DS games were that rare or would be that sought after. I really just wanted to break even at the time.

[kupomogli]

This isn't exactly new, it's been a problem with most smaller releases for ages. I remember waiting for Rule of Rose to drop in price for PS2 as I felt $60 for a new/gutted copy at EB Games was too much, only it never got lowered in price and eventually all copies I remember seeing got sold. Guess I should have bought it back then. Same thing happened with Solatorobo for the DS. Most other games would be discounted to clear out much needed store space, only with smaller print runs today there's less space being taken up by these releases so discounts aren't given anymore.

I've never had this problem back then for smaller releases either, but I'm talking about major releases doing the same.

Most third and first party games from Sony are regularly $50+ now days and they are very rarely at any sort of reduced price. Coincidentally some of them are on sale at Amazon and Best Buy both right now, Demon's Souls is $30, while Miles Morales is $20 for the regular version, $40 for the ultimate edition which includes a digital only version of the PS4 Spiderman. You can tell when these are temporary sales so give it a week and they'll increase back in price.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on the PS5 can't even be found at any retailer right now, and I bought it for $40 back when it was still in stock as it went in and out of stock quite a bit and that's the lowest I ever saw it, I didn't want to risk having to pay more than MSRP to do so.

Even with this trend of having sales, but not only do you have to catch the week that the games are on sale to be able to take advantage of it, but Demon's Souls has never hit $20 and it's currently several years after the release of a lot of these games. The other thing is, is that many other companies do not follow this trend of often going on sale so either the games receive a permanent price drop or they just stay high priced without the price drops.

I've always had no problem waiting for games to drop in price and being able to find them for $20 at Amazon or any other store, but now days it's like nothing is hitting that price. It's like the amount of games printed are even lower as I've seen nothing in my watch lists for the last year hit $20.

[Aussie2B]

Chrono Cross is another I'd snap up right away if they broadened its availability. Not only is there no US physical release, but only the Switch version got a physical release (in English at least; I dunno what they did with it in Japan). I don't even personally care how they handled Chrono Cross itself, as I've already played through it on PS1 and never liked it that much outside of the music and art, but Radical Dreamers getting localized for the first time ever is what's got me excited about the release. But without a physical version for a console I currently own, I'm fine putting it off.

[kupomogli]

Arcade Paradise is another one that I was waiting on, should have just bought it since it only released at $24.99. You can still buy it for the Switch and PS4 version, but PS5 version is no longer available and is going for stupid prices on Ebay for the US version. Not like ridiculous, but double the price almost is stupid. I'm not paying that shit.

It's a lot of ripoff variations of classic games, and I mean early arcade classic rather than Retro Game Challenge being NES classic. But it's they look like well developed versions of the games with their own take on them. They even did a couple variations of the same games just as Retro Game Challenge did it where the new release was practically the same exact game as the previous with more levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9R8...nel=GameLootTV

*edit* Watching the video there are some that are NES era arcade looking games.