The intention of this thread is two-fold. Firstly, to be informative. Maybe you want a physical copy or limited edition of a game, but you weren't aware of how many publishers are in this space? Secondly, a collection of personal experiences (recommendations and/or warnings) from your fellow NL members with these assorted publishers.
Recommended
Super Rare Games - In my opinion, the gold standard for a boutique physical company. Preorders only open once stock is in-hand. The downside, only one print run and print runs are usually between 3k and 5k copies. Stock on popular games tend to sell through quickly. However, extremely niche games in their catalogue are available for a while.
Limited Run Games - It's a rollercoaster ride. LRG usually gets the highest profile releases (Doom Eternal, Alien Isolation, Scott Pilgrim, etc.), but at the same time their catalogue curation is the worst. They publish shovelware curios and mediocre games more often than any other company in the space. They are equal parts a blessing and a bane for every completionist Switch collector.
Special Reserve Games - Limited Editions for select Devolver Digital-published games. A good portion of DD-published games are only available through SRG's online store. They're high on my list because of personal bias. DD publishes many mature-rated games that I'm fond of.
iam8bit - If it weren't for the fact that iam8bit releases take five to seven months to deliver product (unlike Super Rare's ready-to-ship inventory), I'd rate them as highly as I would Super Rare. I can't fault a single iam8bit-published game for being average. The catalogue ranges from good to great (imo). Their catalogue curation is a step above most of the rest, mostly due to Annapurna Interactive being a leading publisher of top-shelf games in the indie space.
Fangamer - Of all the publishers in the space Fangamer might have the lowest output. They publish very few games. But those games they do publish are usually award-winning, multi-million selling bangers. So...yeah, no complaints.
Pix'N Love - Of all the companies in the space, these fine French folk serve up my favorite limited editions. Production times are slightly better than Red Art Games, but the product quality bar is also higher. They have a good working relationship with SNK who are my some of my personal favorite game developers so...I'm a little biased. Some of their catalogue trickles down to Limited Run.
Red Art Games - Easily the second highest output in the space. They don't publish as many physical releases as Limited Run. But you have to contend with the fact that most of the games they do publish are...good. Nothing great but also very few awful choices. And since they're based in France, their time-to-deliver is on the longer side.
EastAsiaSoft - The first of two publishing arms operated by Play-Asia. Their catalogue is super-diverse but also super-niche and are usually lower profile games. Print runs are low but usually take a while to sell through. Their standard editions often get reprints and aren't difficult to acquire.
Play-Asia - Play-Asia are (weirdly) doing the Ultra Games thing Konami did with the NES. They are now self-publishing games?! Same...yet different from their EastAsiaSoft branch...for some logistical reason I'm not aware of. Their catalogue is super-diverse but also super-niche and are usually lower profile games. Print runs are low but usually take a while to sell through.
VGNYsoft - More of a distributor. They provide easy access to games published by Tesura Games out of Spain, Pixelheart Games out of France, and are sort of a third arm of Play-Asia and their games. Their presence in the space is appreciated.
1Print Games - They have a low output much like Fangamer. But they are absent of award-winners in their catalogue. However, they did lock up physical rights for Paradise Killer, which is this company's biggest "get". Based out of Southeast Asia, their time-to-deliver is probably the longest of anyone in the space, but at least they deliver.
NGDev - Self-developer, self-publisher operation. Home of Gunlord and Razion EX. They're busy developing and porting the games they sell. Talented folks who love action games. Print runs are low. Subsequent prints have happened, but restock tends to sell through quickly as well.
VBlank - Self-developer, self-publisher operation. Home of Retro City Rampage and Shakedown: Hawaii. They're busy developing and porting the games they sell. Talented folks who love action games. Print runs are low. Subsequent prints have happened, but restock tends to sell through quickly as well.
Premium Edition Games - Their catalogue curation is...not the best. Of all the publishers in the space, I haven't been eager to put my money down on one of their games in a good while. The quality of their product (slipcover, manual, dog tag) increased with their third series of games. I just would like to see the quality of game they publish improve as well.
Nicalis - It's too easy to still dunk on this company considering their assorted past. But if you want a copy of Ikaruga it's still the place to go rather than double the cost from a second-hand seller.
Limited Edition Exclusivity
Iffystore - Limited Editions for select Idea Factory-published games. Signature Edition - Limited Editions for select Merge Games-published games. NIS Store - Limited Editions for select NIS America-published games. Koei Tecmo Store - Limited Editions for select Koei Tecmo-published games. Square-Enix Store - Limited Editions for select Square-Enix-published games. Bandai Namco Store - Limited Editions for select Bandai Namco-published games. Modus Store - Limited Editions for select Modus Games-published games. Funstock - Limited Editions for select PQube-published games. PM Studios Store - Limited Editions for select PM Studios-published games.
Exercise Caution
Strictly Limited Games - The limited edition arm of publisher ININ's business. Many of ININ's lower profile games are exclusive to the SLG online store. Their higher profile games are released at retail, but the store version will receive extra content not provided in the retail version. Based in Germany, their production times are on the longer side. However, their productions times are becoming worrying, and their production status page has not been updated in quite some time.
First Press Games - The product they do deliver is of high quality. Because of the slipcover and manuals each game receive, maybe the highest quality of boutique releases in the space. But there's a major issue. Games have been on preorder...for...years. FPG are caught in a Dispatch Games-like predicament where preorders on newer inventory is required to produce and ship older inventory.
Online Retailers - (You could conduct a purchase here, but these games are available at retail.)
Funbox Media
VGPlus
PNP Games Online
Numskull Games
Unknown Commodity
Pikii Store - The Japan arm of Nicalis. Or maybe it's vice versa? Not sure.
Pixelheart - Self-developer, self-publisher out of France. I have no experience with them.
Forever Limited - Limited Editions of select Forever Entertainment-published games.
Ultra Collectors - I've never placed an order from them. No experience.
Wired Production - I've never placed an order from them. No experience.
Super Deluxe Games - The Japan arm of Limited Run. I've never placed an order from them.
Quiet, defunct, or on hiatus?
Arcsystemworks - Originally opened for the BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle LE, no other Switch software has been made available through this storefront.
Aspyr - Originally opened for the Stubbs the Zombie LE, no other Switch software has been made available through this storefront.
B-Side Games - Closed up shop shortly after opening.
Gamefairy.io - Haven't opened preorders for something new in a long time.
AVOID
Dispatch Games - Continually promise they're still solvent. Their last social media post talked about shipping product back in August but they didn't. My recommendation is to avoid their storefront all together and only purchase their games (Psyvariar Delta and Penguin Wars) if you find them at retail or out in the wild.
Warned Collectors - Infamously stole customers' money and ran.
I would put Play Asia on the avoid list. They are a bunch of crooks and scam artists. They take your money and never deliver the product. Then when you ask for a replacement or refund they say that they are not responsible the mail service is.
Never have I dealt with a more scummy company. Avoid them at all cost unless you don't care that you lose your money.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
@Tasuki
That's strangely contrary to my experiences with them.
They're super supportive when it comes to modifying my orders or sorting out any issues, everything is in-place in my orders, estimated delivery dates are accurate, and so on.
I've not had a case involving missing mail with them though.
@RupeeClock The only thing I can think of is that you are getting your companies mixed up because that was nothing like how Play Asia handled business.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
@Tasuki You've been beating that anti-Play Asia drum for quite a while - how many orders have you lost from them?
I think I've had at least 3 orders (multiple games each time) fulfilled without issue.
@Magician Great Post, thanks for continuing to share your experience of this sphere. I think I've only ordered from Play Asia, Fangamer, and LRG (though picked up one or two others via ebay). No issues as of yet but the fulfilment time on a LRG order is certainly frustrating - I forget what I've actually ordered and when.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
"Risk of loss and damage of Product(s) passes to the Customer on the date when the Product(s) is/are despatched [sic] by Seller to the carrier.
Inquiry about lost parcels should be reported after the estimated delivery time depending from the date of dispatch in the tracking site, otherwise, the parcel will be considered lost and no refund/replacement will be given. This is in compliance with our partner service's restriction in terms of delivery investigations. e.g., Economy Mail should be reported within 14-21 business days"
Further:
"If an order shipment is un-deliverable/returned, the Product(s) ordered by the Customer will be returned to the Seller at the Customer’s expense which includes delivery charges. The returned Product(s) can be sold to other customers and the Seller shall have no obligation to reserve or re-deliver the returned Product(s) to the Customer."
Yikes!
So, yes, the "lost in the post" problem is very real. Watch that tracking number like a hawk and if it doesn't arrive in two weeks, report it immediately or they'll probably stiff you.
@gcunit I have only from them once, I don't have money to throw away on scam artists. Nor the time to fight with them.
@Matt_Barber That's the thing, I was watching the tracking and it never even made it to my country. It left China or where those crooks are located and just disappeared. Called my post service called FedEx or whoever was the shipping company and I was told that I had to contact Play Asia for a refund or replacement.
I have ordered countless other things from online and everytime I had a shipment get lost or something of that nature the company always either refunded the money or replaced the item, to be quite honest it's against the law not to. But not with Play Asia they wanted to blame the postal service and give me the run around, I don't even think they shipped the damn thing. They just took my money and that was that.
So, yeah they are a bunch of crooks. If people want to do business with them that's their business but don't complain when you get ripped off by them after being told about their shady business. I am honestly quite surprised that they are still in business.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
I'm always on the hunt for physical versions if possible (not only do the boxes look nice for decoration/collection purposes, they're also just really handy for saving storage for larger games) so I very much appreciate this kind of list myself! Definitely going to look into the recommended sites you showed like Super Rare Games (who I hadn't heard of prior to today!).
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On the 15th of March 2023 Limited Run announced plans for a European branch and website.*
I'm guessing these are on the backburner due to the Embracer connection...
*"LRG Europe - Coming 2023. Finally, the most exciting change we’re making is implementing our European shipping branch to better serve our customers across the Atlantic. We’re partnering with GOE (Game Outlet Europe) out of Karlstad, Sweden, which will handle our warehouse and fulfillment operations. Alongside the new fulfillment center, Limited Run will launch a Europe-facing website around the same time. We’ll have more details to share in the coming months, but you can expect our European operations to launch in 2023!"
With regard to the sites I have used, I agree with the positive (Super Rare, Pix 'N Love) and the negative (First Press Games). Still waiting for Chained Echoes from the latter!
Also, have positive experience of PixelHeart (Andro Dunos II for the 3DS).
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Topic: Boutique Switch Physical Publishers Ranked
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