LIMITED RUN SHIPS CD-Rs: The Full Scam Summarized

I stream retro games on Twitch: / jankedjesus
Edited by Denis Parlov: www.denisparlov.com
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• Limited Run Games Sell...
• Limited Run Games Sell...
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:23 Context
2:46 The Issue
5:39 LRG's Statement
9:42 Final Thoughts
11:09 Outro
11:18 Rant
Janked Jesus
Jank Jesus

[@Enchurito]

Limited Run was a great company at first making physical copies of indie games that wouldn't originally sold 100,000+ copies. When they were selling 1 or 2 Vita games, and about 2-3 PS4 games per month, you would get your games in 2-4 months. But then after Octodad tons of other companies started flocking to them. It got to the point where they were making 4-7 games a week with extra stuff like CD and vinyl soundtracks, pins, statues, shirts, controlers, and even skateboards. Then collectors editions of many games. It's just way way way too much for a small company to take on. Leading to even regular games taking about a year to make. I thought when Embracer group bought them that they would hire a much better production and shipping line. But it just got worse. I really wish that other companies would step up and do the same thing so we can get back to a shorter time schedule. As far as CD-Rs I have no idea how they could consider it acceptable, let alone do it without telling people they were going to do it.

[@jankedjesus]

It does seem like a lot of their issues do come from mismanagement and an inability to scale at a proper rate. They constantly bite off more than they can chew, and its gotten them in hot water on several occasions.

[@sifayun6336]

Hello. I've heard horror stories whenever I would look into them to see if there was retro games I might have nostalgia for: - paying for stuff you don't get for a year out (which is one of the biggest reasons I wouldn't risk buy anything) - stuff being sold out if you aren't on top of it, due to... well, being limited - same stuff then going up on eBay with noticable price increase (scalping) - customer service nightmares (collectors paying premium prices for perfect condition products but getting something less, like the CD-R here you mention -- you can find a lot of interesting stories about them) - cancelling customer preorders for making a meme about Limited Run - firing of Kara Lynne for social media usage for personal opinions (wanting to play a certain game, following certain people) - they re-release series they've already printed, making collectors feel their originally bought stuff has been devalued ... maybe good for players and bad for collectors, but who is going to open their perfect condition, physiacl copy of collector's edition years after the game came out, just to play it?

[@ZeromasterReviews]

so just a heads up. some 3DO burned games don't work because modern DVD-RW Drives can only go as slow as 16x which is WAY too fast for the 3DO's slow speed drive. Some games will work, others will take multiple reboots to work or have weird issues and others won't work at all. so unless 3DO has access to slow speed 1x or 2x CD-RW Drives, they have to be professionally printed on super old hardware to make them work correctly

[@jankedjesus]

Absolutely valid point i.e. burning your own backups. 16x really is too fast to burn a disc for reading on a system like the 3DO.

[@ObscuraDeCapra]

Even back in the day you couldn't guarantee a CD would work in all drives, and that was especially true with game consoles. And that's one console made by one manufacturer. The 3DO was multiple consoles from several different manufacturers and even though the hardware SPEC was the same, the shipped hardware was from different manufacturers with different tolerances. There were four or five different lasers used in various 3DO consoles. So yeah, there's definitely a possibility that using CD-R instead of replicated CDs helped with compatibility. They're not physically the same process, and there could be any number of reasons why a particular drive would read one and not the other. This was something that was noticed even back in the day, where drives that supposedly had compatibility with various types of CD would only work with some of them... or even refuse to work with certain brands of CD. Burning games for Dreamcast was a media compatibility nightmare. Some brands just didn't want to work while others were flawless. Shit's weird.

[@jankedjesus]

It's true that the 3DO standard was a set of specifications that a number of companies made consoles for, but this idea that compatibility was an issue is baloney. If anything, a CD-R is going to be harder for the average 3DO to read than a proper pressed disc. And ultimately, if compatibility was a known concern for LRG, they shouldn't have tackled this release in the first place.

[@producerevan88]

@@jankedjesus the commenter wasted so much time on straight bs... wtf lol cd's are cd's

[@TKUltra971]

CD-R scams are huge. I even fell for one about 12 years back lol. That and getting a sega CD, where they basically sold me a 'sega' but forgot the CD.

[@almightyk11]

I once bought Budokai 3 black edition on eBay. They sent me the black edition box with the regular game in it

[@Yaered]

I've never ordered from limited run games but i have recieved games from them as gifts. It is very bad to resort to this for a finished product and their reputation is pretty terrible as it is already. They have shot themselves in their already fractured foot, and may never get back up again.

[@jankedjesus]

Their PR was already struggling before this, absolutely. This release might have been niche enough that it won't deter lots of customers, but I have to imagine they burned more bridges than just mine here.

[@MrCoffeeMrRadar]

LRG was great in the beginning but they got way to big and they kept trying to push how many they can produce to sell. It felt rare to get a LRG but now a days I personally can wait to find it used in some random mom & pop shop or Amazon.

[@jankedjesus]

It definitely feels like they're trying to push the limits of what their production schedule is capable of, and all they're doing is creating frustrated customers by doing so.

[@MrCoffeeMrRadar]

@@jankedjesus At this point is it LRG a rare game distributor or is it now just another Gamestop? They do have a brick and mortar store that sells games that you cant by from the site anymore. Couple people tell me that LRG games today arent worth the investment for game hunters.

[@ianswift3521]

i live in the same state as LRG and ordered a Sega Astrocity Mini V 6 months after it was for sale. (edit: so it had been off preorder for 6 months by the time I ordered it), it still took 4 months for them to mail it out lol. first and last time with those goobers

[@timmadone8930]

Once Limited Run has this all worked out, it would be nice if they do whatever needs to be done so that "D" can be released on PS4/PS5. This would be a good first stepping stone to get some of Kenji Eno's games exposed to a whole new generation of gamers that most likely never got to play them when they originally released. Games like "D" "D2" "Enemy Zero" "Short Warp" "Trip'D" "You, Me, & The Cubes", are just some of the games by Kenji Eno that need a new lease on life with physical releases on modern consoles.

[@jankedjesus]

Absolutely agree, it would be fantastic to see some of those games get a new lease on life by getting more exposure on modern platforms.

[@Z64bit]

I'd agree if it were Piko Interactive and not limited run or strictly limited. It shouldn't be a limited release imo to actually make an impact. Otherwise it'd just come and go so quick it wouldn't matter

[@JohnSmith-nj4zq]

3D0 came out 1993 while PS1 came out 1994. The technology for CD burners were available. But it was not cost effective as the burner and blank disc were extremely slow and expensive.

[@jankedjesus]

Precisely the point, for the average consumer and gamer back in the day, burning your own CDs was not viable or practical.

[@Fortefyre]

I decided to get the Loom Collectors Edition, it was the only game I ever got from them, it will be the last. Loom came with all the same feelies, and the only difference, was a stupid patch that I could put on a backpack. I paid a premium, for a patch that likely cost the company $1.00. Absolutely trash company, and after waiting almost a year and some change for it, it was not worth it.

[@jankedjesus]

Yeah, the long wait times + weak value for the money were already reasons I didn't like them. This was the final nail in the coffin.

[@Fortefyre]

@@jankedjesus If you ever want to do a collab conversation on this, I think it would be cool to get a few heavy collectors talking about it.

[@cackoocacho1629]

I like how they try and claim it's unacceptable because it won't work on every 3DO. I'm more concerned about the longevity of CD-Rs, as they are notorious for going bad in comically short periods of time. Even if it worked on every 3DO, CD-Rs are just grotesquely unreliable.

[@jankedjesus]

Absolutely, CD-Rs were never designed as a long-term storage medium. For a company that claims they're "for the collectors," you'd think they'd know that.

[@LonelyLoserDon]

I remember playing "D" YEARS AGO for Playstation. Scared the hell out of me back in the day. Nowadays it would be considered "cheesy" and "silly", but back in 1997, damn it was nightmare fuel.

[@jankedjesus]

Oh yeah, it was wild back when it released. Definitely less impactful now, but still a really unique and interesting game

[@LonelyLoserDon]

@@jankedjesus I honestly believe (in my opinion) those cheesy graphics and the bad voice acting, actually adds to the eeriness to this day.

[@mielthesquid6536]

CD-R discs can last 20 years but they also can go bad after only 10. Pressed discs on the other hands... well I never seen one which stopped working yet.

[@jankedjesus]

Precisely! LRG cheaped out big time.

[@JSledge825]

Me and a friend both pre ordered the Knights of the Old Republic Collectors editions. It took TWO YEARS! I just left it alone. Didn’t care much. It got delivered eventually.

[@jankedjesus]

Yep, all the excitement that's there when you go to pre-order is gone by the time it actually arrives in your mailbox. And I get they don't start production 'til after we order, but if they say 8-9 months, idk, maybe land somewhat close to that timeframe at least.

[@cougar-town]

It is possible that the clear white CD-R's have the wobble groove from the burn process as a pressed disc, however... it's not certain that this wobble groove will work on consoles they are ment for. That's the thing about this that leads to alot of worries. I wonder if anyone has tested the discs on their respective consoles, to see and confirm if the discs actually work on a legitimate console from their respective time periods. It's important to do that test to verify that the discs work. Although the original look of the discs with black paint is desirable, many of the production companies tend to do low cost production of the discs with clear white CD-R instead of black discs such as for the PS1 era as a example, this is just one of the problems I feel like. Aswell as the guarantee that that wobble groove data on the discs match with the laser disc reader of the console of PS1 let's hope it does at least. But there's many things that can go wrong there in integrity of the disc checking for each console.

[@digital_underground]

Did the 3DO use the wobble groove?

[@cougar-town]

@@digital_underground I don't personally play 3DO games, so I don't know that. But the PS1 definitely did.

[@digital_underground]

​@@cougar-town It did not have a wobble groove.

[@cougar-town]

@@digital_underground The PS1 did have wobble groove on the discs, if you say that the discs don't have that, then you're in the wrong here. The discs also had in many cases DRM protection for example Devil Dice had it and there's evidence of it. Lol. But sure, live in a dream world buddy.

[@digital_underground]

@@cougar-town This is not for the PSOne. This is for the 3DO.. You're talking about the wrong system.

[@GigaBoots]

Wish I could've made it for the livestream cause this situation is terrible!

[@jankedjesus]

Glad we got the video up for those that may have missed it live. I just couldn't stop myself from talking about it as soon as I found out.

[@BorfieKai]

The only reason ive ever had to order from LRG is because they got a hold of the physical releases of the Sam and Max remasters and god i hated everything about it. Took me a year and a half to get the second game after it was already launched, and it wasnt some insane collectors edition or anything... IT WAS JUST A SWITCH CASE AND CART

[@jankedjesus]

The wait times have gotten out of hand; they either need to scale back their release schedule or scale up their production pipeline if they want to hold on to the customers they have left.

[@DXKramer]

I've only ever ordered two things from them: Scott Pilgrim Regular Edition and Shredder's Revenge Classic Edition, both on Switch. Took three months for me to get Scott Pilgrim, and almost seven months for me to get TMNT.

[@jankedjesus]

Yeah I remembered Scott Pilgrim being pretty quick, which is partially why the long waits for everything else was a major bummer

[@trilbymctip4386]

I never heard of Limited Run until pretty recently but it seems par for the course with alot of these companies. They don't actually care about delivering a quality product, they'd rather grift and put the least amount of effort possible

[@jankedjesus]

I'd have more respect for them if they just admitted that was their motivation. But like a lot of these outfits, they try to save face and assure everyone that they're "by collectors, for collectors" or some nonsense. Actions speak louder than words though.

[@terrygreene5942]

Limited run didnt ship my ocean horn 2 for switch for real until A YEAR AND A HALF. Lol😅

[@jankedjesus]

Honestly seems to be the typical wait-time from my experiences as well as many people in this comments section. Very frustrating to say the least.

[@ianswift3521]

this video title is crazy

[@37Kilo2]

Well, this is the last straw for me. I've been cutting back on purchasing from LRG over the years, especially with the drop in quality and increase in prices. I think it was the Blood CE, which was $250, and had barely anything in it. That's when i really decided that LRG had jumped the shark.

[@jankedjesus]

"Jumping the shark" is a really great way of putting it. Feels like they've been trying to find new ways to shark jump constantly

[@seethransom]

I just bought a 3DO. Thanks for the warning. I have a color laser printer, and a cd burner. I could make my own cheaper! The CD players are the same across all the 3DOs because they're all made by the same specs dictated by the 3DO company.

[@jankedjesus]

Congrats on getting a 3DO! Its a fun little console, and you could absolutely make your own game backups for cheaper. Enjoy!

[@seethransom]

@@jankedjesus I don't mind buying the games. I'm just saying that a kid in kindergarten could make these discs. It's a crappy thing to do to charge people as much as they are. Then they receive $0.50 worth of material. Now if they were upfront about what you get in the package; a person can make their own decision whether or not the product is overpriced.

[@ALittleSnowFairySaga]

I want to play D2 for Dreamcast.

[@jankedjesus]

The sequel looks wild, still need to get to that myself. And Dreamcast exclusive!

[@kloroformd]

The ring can absolutely be on a pressed disc. But nah that color that's CD-R

[@jankedjesus]

Valid, rings can happen on pressed discs, but yeah, like you said, the ring PLUS the color is a dead giveaway.

[@SwannyTheMike]

Wow, Limited Run puts in slightly more effort than I do for my English patched backups! Then again, I'm not trying to sell them or the originals. (You'll have to pry Sakura Wars from my cold, dead hands!) So glad I never ordered from these guys. Came real close to getting the Cosmic Fantasy Collection and, for once, I'm grateful I opted for digital instead. Retro game collecting is hard enough without even the legal repros being scams.

[@jankedjesus]

Yeah, the labels at least looked semi-profesh, but otherwise coulda done the same thing at home. What a joke.

[@hughmc1133]

I hate this scummy company

[@jankedjesus]

I used to think some of the hate was unwarranted, but after this, I was seeing red. They're a sham.

[@thaMANSTA]

BOO THIS COMPANY! Claiming CD-Rs are used for compatibility, rather than cost savings, seems disingenuous, Pressed CDs have better contrast and are easier to read. I bet glass mastering was a lot for 5x discs and they cut corners. At least they are owning it though. I've had companies give the run around when you get a defective product.

[@jankedjesus]

I mean, they kinda did give us the runaround with such a lame and factually wrong excuse. Would've had more respect if they just admitted that it was a cost-cutting measure.

[@thaMANSTA]

@@jankedjesus 💯 but corporate honesty is a rare commodity in the corporate world

[@goodall1bay]

I would still prefer a cd-r instead of a code in box but yes, they should have informed the customer.

[@jankedjesus]

They should have been transparent with the customer, exactly

[@zaccds]

I figured something was up with them when thier Switch games didn't taste like the regular ones.

[@Dragon_Slayer_Ornstein]

That's funny, I got pirated PS1 games backin the day and they were pressed discs, not CD-Rs. So people pirating games in 1998 had better quality than these guys, LOL.

[@Sillyzombie666]

shitty company, tried to rip me off and blocked me when i asked for a refund and refused to give me tracking. told me it was shipped but could not give me any tracking and it was impossible to contact them

[@jankedjesus]

I personally did manage to get a refund for my purchase yesterday after contacting support. Sorry to hear they didn't resolve your issue; companies should do everything in their power to do right by their customers, especially when its them in the wrong.

[@KrGsMrNKusinagi0]

is it a scam.. if the game comes with extras etc.? they said they will replace the non working games.. But to expect an original disc? I only buy switch games from LRG

[@jankedjesus]

I wasn't expecting an original disc, that would be ridiculous. But for $65 plus shipping, I was expecting a professionally produced product. A run-of-the-mill CD-R with a fancy looking label to fool unsuspecting customers is not what they should be selling at that price-point.

[@DevMeloy]

That is a brilliant comment by Gina, either she gets a job or makes Disney look bad.

[@user-wg3wj6ur9z]

Who cares how they press the discs? DOES THE GAME WORK? YES!!! IT DOES!!!!!Awesome.

[@jankedjesus]

Bruh, they AREN'T pressed, that's the whole problem.

[@ianswift3521]

get a haircut

[@jankedjesus]

Says the bald man 😂

[@poohbear01x48]

So - the complaints are a bit disingenuous or misleading. Do I buy the excuse? No. But i also don’t believe these were slapped together cheaply. They have a legit label, so these weren’t just blanks they printed labels for. Those labels ARE the top layer. I think this complaint is only valid if you could peel off the label to expose a bulk CD-R label like all bulk consumer grade disks had. They could’ve been misinformed on the difference between pressed and burnt disks. Why attribute to malice what is more easily attributed to stupidity?

[@triumphant39]

It does matter though. They feel cheaper. They’re less durable. They will be less collectible, and therefor are less valuable.

[@triumphant39]

Furthermore cd-r doesn’t work in some players (this isn’t as applicable to 3do games, but still some cd console games were also playable as audio cds). I don’t see how you can think it’s okay, honestly. 😂

[@captain3186]

Custom Printed Blank CDR’s has been a thing since like Forever. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they are run of the mill printable CDR's underneath

[@jankedjesus]

If this can be attributed to "stupidity," they don't deserve to be in the business at all, simple as that.

[@CJinMono]

As explained in the video, CD-Rs aren't as reliable for use in older hardware, which is definitely what the 3DO is nowadays. Presentation is irrelevant if the product doesn't even work 🙄