Limited Run Games (producing physical copies of digital games)

[lendelin]

If everyone waits to buy small publisher games until the price drops well below MSRP like you did, the small publishers will collapse. Businesses are in business to make money, not to sell you goods at a sharp discount so you can feel good about saving money. If you like to buy your games at a discount, that's fine. You just won't be able to do that with LRG or most of their competitors because selling games below MSRP in a small print run is not possible when the model depends on paying the developer up front and the printing and replication costs are basically fixed.

You and others stress always that LR is a business which tries (like every business since ancient times, and I always accepted that) to optimize their profit and are in it for the money, and now you demand from ME altruism? As a consumer I'm part of the business cycle, and I'm not allowed to be as egotistical as Limited Run? I'm for profit optimization and cost reduction too -- my own! They are not a charity organization, neither am I.

The games drop in price sometime after release, that's normal. I don't know the details of the contracts between smaller publishers and smaller developers, neither do you. It is not my task to do their cost calculation and deal with the eternal enemy of every business -- unpredictability. If Limited Run, Soedesco, Maximum Games and all the other small publishers can't get their cost calculation right afetr some years of experience, they should get and will get out of business. I can only evaluate their businessmodel and open my wallet accordingly.

Besides, I bought this console generation already a lot of games for new retail prices, for my taste too many. Overall, the game industry and smaller publishers earned a lot of money with my purchases since 1988, and also certainly in the last three years.

(PS: Never thought that I have to defend myself for getting games a bit cheaper on a gaming website.)