Limited Run Games Selling CD-Rs? Oof - Adam Koralik 

Thank you for covering this. Not going to name names, but quite a lot of RU-vidrs in this community don't ever say a single bad word about Limited Run because they wine and dine those with the bigger channels. They made FOMO a marketing strategy, intentionally exploiting collectors with the implication of "buy now or never get it", and using that as leverage to provide some shockingly bad customer service. Can't say I'm surprised at all the company that ships their games in bad packaging to upsell a box would sell CD-Rs without any disclosure.

The whole company is a joke. I don't know why people buy from them

If true this makes LRG look awful. HOWEVER, this goes to show what some people think game collecting has become. Buy it, store it & never touch it & perhaps flip it. People like myself actually open games & play them & I'd be LIVID if I bought a friggin CD-R 😡

If this is true it is outright a scam! Very profitable for them but a scam for all of us the consumers and it's unacceptable

The sun is allowed. On the 14th of August, between the hours of 14:23 to 14:33.

This is just sad that a company managed to get a legal license for a product and chose the path of destruction. Man was thinking about getting some of these now I’m definitely staying away.

Limited Rancid Garbage. and for people asking why people buy from them, it's because of the FOMO. God forbid you miss out on some 5-20 dollar indie game slapped on a disc, or a re-release of an older game you already own multiple times over. This company, Heritage Auctions, and people who look at games as a way to make money ruined the hobby of collecting and playing older titles. I'm glad I got most of my collection done years ago, cause otherwise there's no way I'd be paying a 100-200+ dollars for older PS1/PS2 titles.

"I love England, I'm going to get some Indian food now" 😂😂

I wish a better company with more money would enter the market and copy Limited Run’s business model but just do it competently.

D and Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties are both allegedly pressed on CD-R for the 3DO version. I’m fortunate enough to own an original copy of D on the Saturn. Sorry I’m also not selling it since it’s very nostalgic to me - it was the first ‘mature’ game I ever bought with my own cash

This must be specific to this 3DO release…because my Blood: Fresh Supply Collection I got a few months ago included a proper printed Windows CD version of the game (not a CD-R). 🤔 Either way, I hope they address the issue soon because I would be pissed too. These special editions aren’t cheap.

Limited run games just pooped all over the collectors sealed market. I mean everyone had already hypothesised that this could happen. But now it has collecting sealed games to keep them sealed you have no idea what you are buying. LRGs just gambled that no one would be opening their sealed copies 🥴

Thank you for speaking up, LRG has been f**kin up. Why is it fair, that I order the Ultra Collectors edition of TMNT Shredders Revenge, wait almost two years for it to arrive. FINALLY arrives, Then a few days later they announce a One Year Anniversary edition with all the DLC on disc/cart 😑 So I and many others instead of buying the standard forked the most money possible for the top tier edition, finally arriving only to have the vanilla version with a week later them announcing a better physical copy with the DLC included…. All that time I could of went with Signature Edition games instead. That was the last time I purchased anything from them, I would rather pay the re seller for LRG products if I want them, thats how bad I don’t wanna support LRG which is sad because I wanna live in a world with physical games but their operation flat out sucks. Now CD-R!!! classic LRG that is. Also being a fellow 🇬🇧 born and bred lad (Now living in 🇺🇸 NY) make sure you get a sausage roll from Greggs 🍻

Limited Run has always seemed shady to me.

I saw an unboxing video on RU-vid and it’s true. They literally put burned cd-r discs in fancy packaging

I just want to say, recording videos (even on the front-facing camera) on modern phones look and sound fantastic.

I honestly don't get the point of them releasing basically repros of games that already have a physical version as there no longer official licensed releases. I thought the whole point of Limited Run was to release physical versions of digital only games.

I hate Limited Run. It sucks to root against a company in my home state of NC, yet here I am.

Used to be a fun service. But now it's almost all pure, unnecessary FOMO. Growth changes people and companies.

A company that makes scalpers all giddy inside. Never bought any of their products, just the name screams scalping..."limited run", so it's not for everybody, it's not "by gamers for gamers" to keep it cliché. Even if the whole thing with the CD-R's is not true, it's still shady as hell to sell an old game at a 60-70 price range, for what's basically some nicely printed paper. Bonus stuff, folios, etc were needed back in the day, because the the grapichs were poor, and all the stuff in the box was meant to help you get imersed in the game world. Today, all the pamphlets, figurines or whatnot are completly useless for a game, unless you're more interested to make money out of a fool's nostalgia. And in that case, you're a worm, not a gamer. I would rather have the scenario were it is the norm for the industry that all games are sold with an actual manual inside and real media (cd/dvd/bd/usb whatever) so I could play the damn game. Not some code for downloading, constant internet connection or a disc with incomplete files on it.

LRG did a bait and switch with Shiren the wanderer and gave a steam code instead of physical which is what it was stated to be in the description for the PC version. Even worse than getting a CD-R

Stopped ordering from them a year ago. Ironically I am still waiting for three different orders including this D “thing”. Can’t wait until these orders are finally delivered so I can finally announce I am fully done with this joke of a company.

Here in Russia and apparently a couple of places in Eastern Europe, after the Sony DADS plant that produced Blu-rays closed, all new Blu-ray film releases are now made on BD-Rs. The justification is that Blu-ray sales in Russia are miniscule because Russia doesn't buy physical media and foreign pressing plants can't justify taking a tiny order or the order is too expensive. Unfortunately the only people who care about the Blu-rays are cinephiles, anime fans and collectors and those are much pickier about their physical media than your average consumer. The worst thing about companies selling games on CD-R is that a lot of old consoles are not gonna be able to read those at all. Heck, my PS2 or my mum's car won't read certain makes of CD-Rs because of the low quality of the discs. Same with BD-Rs, some players struggle with those.

If it is officially licensed from the original devs/publishers it should be apart of the terms of the licensing deal that it should be on a pressed disc and not a CDR. Otherwise it should not be sold. I am not saying it is a binding part of the license agreement in general but it should be to protect customers and the actual licensed product.

If this is true shame on Limited Run Games. And they are charging $60 for a perhaps CD-R?

I've been calling LRG "Literally Ruining Games" for a while, because their mission goal of "producing physical copies so digital-download games can live forever" is about as accurate to their actions as to Google's erased mission statement of "Don't be evil." If 5000 copies of a game exists but the owners never open them, and/or refuse to sell them for less than the cost of a console with the game installed on it, they basically don't exist. Just like if film survives but only in the hands of a collector that refuses to have it scanned and digitised. It exists to be in a list until it ceases to function, with only a note on the packaging detailing what it once contained.

Always had a love/hate relationship with LRG. The concept is great, i want more physical games and they provide that. But long waits, high prices, little to no communication often leaves a sour taste in my mouth 😵‍💫 But i still do business with them because i still want physical copies of things 😮‍💨

As a person who's lived in England his whole life, it is true, it is illegal to see clear skies and the sun.

You can get great Pizza in the UK, but from proper Italian or Mediterranean restaurants (they still usually offer pizzas for takeaway too), rather than any sort of dedicated pizza chain.

Seeing a video of you in my home city of Bath is wild to me. Hope you enjoyed yourself amidst the shit weather, I promise it's more beautiful when the sun's out!

Aren't burned discs or CD-R's also more taxing for the consoles' lasers? Perhaps that was just a specific case or fib I heard and mistook for fact, but that's why I'm asking! I also feel excited that my comment has substance for a change instead of just saying anything to boost the Koralik ranking in the Almighty Algorithm, haha.

I liked LRG when they made physical copies of previously digital only games years ago. But I stopped when they only ever seemed to release random crappy indie stuff. But getting so bad as to release CD-Rs? What utter trash.

I almost bought there recent rerelease of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties on 3DO too... there's no reason to not believe that that's on a CDR as well. What a shame...

Hey bud. I really hope to God you see this message and get back to me. I want to personally confirm that this is true. I bought a copy a D from limited run and I opened it immediately when I got it. I bought it because original copies of D are really expensive and hard to find. All of the discs in this package are cd-r's. I can send you the entire thing so that you can look it over yourself and perhaps even make a video about it warning others of limited runs practices. I was already not buying much just because they went to purple dot services for payment. But now I don't think I'll buy anything anymore because these are just stupid cheap and shady. I'm a long time customer too so this is really disappointing. I would honestly dread if they started doing PC engine CDs because even companies like pce Works does better with pressed discs. Please get back to me if you're interested I'd really like you to talk about it.

Limited run already sent out an email saying all 3do production will be halted until pressed discs are made. Those with copies of D will be getting a pressed disc. It's already been discussed on the discord and could have been the "manufacturer" of the 3do games lying about their capabilities. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened

I just saw this on Twitter and was astounded that they are selling a product you could make yourself on your own computer instead of a pressed disc. Why even buy it then? For the pretty box?

If these rumors are true, this is extremely disappointing. That's all I have to say about this. Just very sad if true.

Adam! Welcome to England, I hope you have an enjoyable visit. Thanks for all your video's - always thought provoking and worthy of a full watch

Something tells me this is all true. LRG is a nightmare to deal with. The one time I bought from them was to buy that Virtual Boy book by Jeremy Parish it was only because it couldn’t be bought anywhere else. First and last time for me.

Welcome to England! Happy you're here

Great video. Little off topic but I kinda liked this style of video where it was just a short impromptu video and you filmed while wandering around. Safe travels.

Wow! And I thought they were bad before! I use CD-Rs to make demos of my original games but I wouldn’t sell them that way! What a crock!

Longevity problems of the disc itself, AND it makes the optical unit suffer.

Crazy just down the road from me

That Rugrats orange NES cart is still cool tho. I'd buy that.

Its not just this one CD-R. They've also been shipping out DVD-Rs for PC releases of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties and Monkey Island Anthology. Let alone their latter DVD-R doesn't even work. LRG has shown for years they don't respect the customer (Or even their employees), this is why I don't trust them.

You hit the nail on the head WHY that would be messed up if true, “you’re never gonna open it so why does it matter”. If that really was their logic behind it, that is wild. That’s like in anything. “Oh, the customer is never going to look behind this or under this so why does it matter?” It’s like, integrity you know. And in their case, assuming the customer doesn’t care. As a company, you always go the route in assuming the customer is expecting quality. That’s like in the automotive repair industry. If you replace a part, by default it is new. If it is not new, it must be stated it is remanufactured or used.

I'm still salty over the fact that they opted to split Trip World and Trip World DX into 2 different released on Gameboy rather than putting them both on a black Gameboy cartridge

"They still outlaw sunny skies here... that is a joke!" Yeah it is, we all know its actually because not enough people got their sunny day licenses renewed 😂

I despise LRG. I have so many issues with LRG that I have experienced first hand with them. And if this is true, this just solidifies the way I feel about them even more.

Hope you are having a good time in blighty, from 50miles away near Oxford !

I live somewhat close to the LRG retail store, and honestly I really like going there. That being said I stopped ordering crap from them a few years ago cause everything you order never comes in that 9 month window or whatever when you preorder, I have had stuff damaged in the mail then it was a pita to get it replaced. CDR thing does bother me in the fact if it is true and not disclosed then I really dont like being lied to by a company I spend money with. If was disclosed and I still bought it then that was my choice.

Bought a repro snes game from LRG which cost me around €110 with tax and shipping to europe. Waited for 1,5year. It arrived damaged in an undamaged shipping box. Damaged by other items or damaged before it was put in the box. They gave me 5% discount. Nothing else was possible then return it and pay for shipping myself. Not even a rebuy or a replacement box was an option because there was none available. Funny enough, the store still has multiple copies. Service is really bad.

Damn, that sucks if true. Personnaly I'm not a fan of their business model anyway. Instead of being a boutique alternative to the disapearance of mass produced video game physical media, they choose to be scavengers feeding of the scarcity through FOMO.

I haven't purchased LRG games in a while too. This news is definitely the last coffin in the nail with LRG.

Welcome to the UK, I'm in Scotland but it was a really nice sunny day. Hope you had the same

Imagine purchasing a game with its price intentionally jacked into titanic proportions due to FOMO, only for it to be a cheap CD-R. CD-Rs are more than acceptable if you've purchased from GOG and are choosing to preserve it phisically, in case the servers shut down. This, however, is just absolutely scummy.

CD games are the only games i will only buy at Retro Stores. Like you stated you can easily flip the CD & check the underside & see if it is a CD-R or not. This can easily be done in person. So with that said, i only purchase cartridge games online & my local gamer stores get all my money for PS1 to PS4. i had a buddy in the late 90s to early 2000's who would rent PS games & just burn them. So i knew then about MacGyver style games.

Bath is 1 of our nicer city's :)

We had a couple of days of sun in Manchester..wow. bath is a nice place

Tis a shame, I could have met you on a Uni day. Ah well, glad you enjoyed the local somerset weather!

I’m with you about the Rondo of Blood reissue. I was looking forward to that since that’s is one of the few Castlevania games in my collection. If they are burning these to CD-R, then I’m not interested in it since I would rather have a pressed disc myself. It also makes me wonder about the other disc games for the PS4, PS5 and Xbox. The Switch games are a different beast since we have opened some like the Atari Recharged games just because we want to play them. At least those Switch games appear to be fine.

Hope you enjoy/enjoyed your time in England! :)

Awesome video Adam! Wow that's messed up. I have that copy of D as well. Haven't opened it yet since I haven't done my pickup video yet. This is very disappointing 😞

Yeah that is strange of them to do that. I am not a fan of them as a company personally for other reasons, but even I would admit this is surprising if true. It would show a complete misunderstanding of the whole concept of their own business. EDIT: It is now confirmed. That is unbelievable. SO cheap.

Thank you for to admid that, Adam. People should to be aware of it before purchasing.

LRG is actually a local company to me and apparently even has a physical store. I’d been tempted to visit out of morbid curiosity. Now I’m even more morbidly curious. lol

Tbf, last night thunderstorms in England were crazy.

When I first heard about LRG, my first thought was that it was just a money grab. This news (if proven true) does nothing to improve their image in my mind. Honestly, if I am feeling nostalgic, I would rather go for the real thing rather than a knockoff anyway. Sometimes you can't afford the original...I get that. My question is how does one justify the cost of a Limited Run game when there are plenty of retro games out there that cost less?

Welcome to England, Adam :) I live in North-America now (sometimes I do miss the rain!) and you're correct, the pizza here is better! Did you have time to check out the Roman baths while you were in the city?

starts off the video with an amazing joke thank you Adam I smiled 10 seconds in you sure know how to captivate 😮

I have mixed feelings about companies selling CD-R projects for all the reasons you listed. Granted, I do purchase from Warner Archive Collection, and if I'm buying a DVD from them it's going to be a DVD-R. I'm not really happy about that, but considering the scarcity of their projects and most of the discs costing $12, I can sort of justify it. Paying $70 for a premium project only to get this is ridiculous though. Hopefully they fix this and restore their reputation.

im curious if they are going to make this right.

Keepin it real! Stay safe out there.

Like everything in the UK, you need a sunlight license lol, that's the secret

Wow crazy a professionally pressed disc will last a lot longer.

The only games I ever bought from them were of games I wanted a physical copy of(streets of rage 4 and river city girls). They seem to be so focused on making so physical copies of so many random games that don’t really need to be physical. Their outrageous shipping and slow trickle and long lead times are terrible as well. I get that folks sometimes want a physical thing on their shelf but if it’s a Cd-R game then you could have easily made the physical copy yourself

Welcome to sunny England! I don't like repros that don't clearly differentiate from originals. That's very disingenuous. Even worse is some sellers advertising these without clearly stating so. I think this was the case with Rondo of Blood though i haven't seen them both in person.

at least squenix used an actual Pressed CD for their PS1 final fantasy in the later years of releasing them, even if it wasn't dark purple(the tooling is basically gone so they couldn't really do it) using a CDr for an officially liscensed game is straight up shameful.

Their quality of service has been on the decline for a while. I’ve been a staunch fan of theirs for years and even I’ve been disappointed with them lately. It’s gotten to the point now where if it weren’t for the fact that they offer some exclusive stuff I can’t get anywhere else, I wouldn’t even buy from them. It’s not even always malicious, but rather more incompetence on their part. They burned me hard on two games alone just this year alone: shantae and the pirate’s curse for 3ds and arzette, and the solutions they offered me were lazy af. and that’s to say nothing of the whole Scott Pilgrim versus the world incident where they took almost 2 years and made it a huge pain in the ass for me to change my address. This CDR stuff though is definitely deliberate. Seriously, shame on them. Anyway, have fun in the UK!

As long as they haven't outlawed clear liquor and sunny dispositions.

I'm a supporter of physical media, but if the companies putting out physical editions are using the same recordable media that the consumer could and is using to make their own backups and archives, then what's the point?

The more they had partnership deal with these kind of games the more they find ways to cheap out on their customers. I know I wouldn't want to buy games on CD-R as the quality on those just isn't the same as on a real press disc.

There is so much scamming in retro collection business. I’m increasingly glad I just use repros and r4s. Real hardware is like chasing smoke now.

i've never really agreed with the prices of some of their limited run stuff but this is just nuts, i've never understood why people buy repros of burned games for stupid prices and even pressed discs of them i'm not super crazy about, if it's the only way to physically get that game then i can understand but other than that it's just not for me but if they're just straight up selling you a burned cd-r now for $60 when to do a cover and case etc is super cheap to produce (outside the work that may have went into the designs etc) then that's just an absolute rip off sorry.

I've bought two games from limited run, a re release of 6th gen game on switch and an independent NES game. Obviously these are a bit harder to just half ass since their not just discs but it this is the level of effort they put into their other games then that's incredibly disappointing.

This is true its currently sunny where I am up north and there are riots in the streets

I wanna trust what Todd Gill (Retro Frog) said here, but the photo he showed as "proof" doesn't even show what disc he examined. He could've been looking at any disc and saying it's a LRG disc. I even asked him on Twitter for a photo of the disc he looked at and he instead told me to just check Reddit and Discord, but wouldn't say where on Reddit or Discord, and when I figured out where to look on Reddit, I didn't see anymore proof there either. I know a lot of people don't like LRG, and I'll admit that I actually can't relate, but I'm surprised no one else found that suspicious. Until I see more substantial evidence, this is just gonna look like bandwagoning to me. If if really is true, though, then I'll grab a torch or pitchfork and join the pack, cause selling CD-Rs for a higher price than most AAA games is not cool. I won't cut LRG some slack for that just cause I've been a happy customer of theirs so far.

Great video and thank you for your take on this. I’m interested to see where the cards fall on LRG. If this is true, they are cooked

There is good pizza here Adam. But these delivery joints suck

Good video!

Do you have any plans to do a vid on the recent Microsoft studio closures?

I’ve only bought a few things from them and never had an issue, but I have to boycott. Way too many greedy companies out there now. Consumers need to put their feet down and demand quality. This goes for government too.

Adam, have you done a video on the new Atari vcs digital only system? If not could you do a video talking about that and the 2600 plus please

I had heard that story going around, messed up if true! I never really preordered any of these (since it would take several months to get here anyway) but yeah this is definitely not a good look for them.

LRG embodies the worst aspects of video game collecting. Just buy buy buy more crap for your shelf. They made a killing / business out of nostalgia and FOMO.

I have bought a few sets from Limited Run (Castlevania and Doom) and have enjoyed them, but I stopped because I just didn't want to deal with the crazy long wait times and little to no updates from them. I would be willing to order again if it was a title I really want (LSD Dream Emulator anyone?) However, if this is true, than I won't bother with them ever again because it's directly antithetical to what they say their mission is.

Well, I just don’t like them for a personal issue. They never got me the scalp pilgrim game I ordered for them. That’s why I don’t like them.

To be fair I've only ever bought switch games and one ps4 game from them. Only exception to cdsbeing purchased are slundtracks. If this is true to cd-rs being used for older systems, I'll at least pass on those but may still go for legitmate switch carts.

Hey! it was sunny on Wednesday!