Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games, Inc. is an American video game distributor based in Apex, North Carolina. The company specializes in the release of digital games on physical media, with the games being sold on their website. The company, founded by Douglas Bogart and Josh Fairhurst, was based on catering to players who prefer physical discs and cartridges as opposed to game downloads. Limited Run Games releases games exclusively on their website, and deliberately creates small print runs. With this, the team maintains a pledge to refuse creating reprints of past titles, even if there is high demand. The company name itself is a reference to this business model, as their games are available in a firm, limited printing for a short time.

History

Founded by Mighty Rabbit Studios CEO Josh Fairhurst, the company's first two releases were both in house productions, in order to test the market and see if there was demand for physical releases. However, the company did hint before release of their first game, ''Breach & Clear'' that their first official collaboration was in place (which would go on to be a printing of '' Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!''). Limited Run Games began expanding to projects with other developers following the success of these two in house test games.

In order to attract developers, Limited Run finances all costs of a game's print run, and handles all other necessary steps. In return, the developer is charged with the same fee asked by digital distributors. Additionally, titles are released exclusively through their website as mail order titles. Fairhurst says this is done in order to "minimize incurred costs and maximizes the end revenue for our developers."

In 2016, Limited Run Games primarily released games for the PlayStation family of systems. This was due to communication difficulties with Microsoft and Nintendo's minimum order quantities for games being "too high." However, according to an interview, Douglas Bogart expressed interest in publishing for the Nintendo Switch, saying "It's looking very positive and we hope to have our first title out this summer 017 fingers crossed!" In April 2018, Limited Run released '' Thimbleweed Park'' as their first physical release for the Switch.

The PlayStation Vita was the system Limited Run considered their most desired for physical games, citing a strong attachment between the console and their fans. Co-founder Douglas Bogart commented on this, saying "It seems like all of our Vita fans are probably the most diehard, so anything we can do to help them; they seem to be extremely supportive". As fans of the Vita themselves, Limited Run called the system "the Dreamcast of this generation" and "the underdog console of the eighth generation...it has a small library but there's not a lot of duds on it. What's coming out for it is really good." The company released their last vita game, '' Super Meat Boy'', on July 30, 2021, citing a wish to produce more but being unable to given Sony discontinuing manufacturing of new cartridges; the title sold out in less than one minute when it went up for pre-order.

Every title Limited Run Games released initially came with a complimentary sticker and post card, with colors of the sticker and design of the card being dependent on the specific game. Games also begun including instruction manuals, reversible cover art and other goodies (for example, '' Oddworld Stranger's Wrath HD'' included playing cards and a fold-out map along with reversible cover art and a limited variant cover). As more titles were released, the company became less consistent regarding the inclusion of manuals of other bonus, although complementary trading cards tailored to each release were produced, as was the occasional instruction manual. Beginning in June 2017, the company transitioned from post cards to complimentary trading cards, citing a drive to remain unique as other distributors had begun to offer post cards with orders as well, such as ''Signature Edition Games'', though they would continued to include the bonus sticker. In October 2018, Best Buy announced that they would stock select Limited Run releases including ''Golf Story'' and ''Yooka-Laylee''.

On March 15, 2019, Limited Run Games announced that it would finally release a physical copy of ''Axiom Verge'' for the Wii U - a release which had been delayed by several years. Limited Run Games informed '' GamesIndustry.biz'' that it had been in a long legal battle with the Spanish publisher BadLand Games. They claimed that BadLand owed the company $78,000, which was paid to BadLand to cover the cost of producing and delivering ''Axiom Verge'' to Limited Run. After failing to pay back the company or deliver the product, they decided to pursue legal action against BadLand and won their initial court case.

Limited Run was also involved in producing physical editions for the Japanese visual novel '' Sharin no Kuni'' for the PlayStation Vita, but production was canceled after Vita game manufacturing was ended in North America and Europe in February 2019. Other visual novels announced in 2017 and earlier include '' World End Economica'', ''Narcissu'' (both previously scheduled for Vita as well) and '' Fault Milestone One,'' all on PlayStation 4 and in collaboration with Sekai Project. Their production status is unknown as of July 2019.

During their showcase at E3 2019, Limited Run announced that they would distribute the "Collector's Edition" of the long-awaited Shenmue III in North America. At the same event, they also announced a partnership with LucasArts in order to release physical editions of some of their previous ''Star Wars'' and ''Monkey Island'' games, either on their original consoles (such as Game Boy and NES cartridges of the 1991 game ''Star Wars'') or on current ones (like a reissue of '' Star Wars: Bounty Hunter'' for the PlayStation 4).

In August 2022, Limited Run Games was acquired by Embracer Group under its Freemode operating division.

Games released

References

External links

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{{Embracer Group

2015 establishments in North Carolina
2022 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 2015
American subsidiaries of foreign companies
Companies based in Raleigh, North Carolina
Embracer Group
Video game companies established in 2015
Video game companies of the United States
Video game publishers