Exclusive: Super Rare Shorts On Skipping Switch eShop With Physical-Only Games

Upscaling artificial scarcity... absolutely no surprise from this company

So we’ve gone from “these niche games are only viable as digital releases” to “these niche games are only viable as physical releases”.
How the turntables

I'm still pissed off because I wasn't able to get Razion Ex recently, I want to Say only this.

Sounds like a terrible idea to me. I appreciate it helps draw attention to the games but that's not much good if they're then impossible to buy after a month.

@RupeeClock It Is! At least I haven't seen Razion Ex on the eShop...yet!

Horrible idea.

How many games released on Steam fail to make back even just their development costs? I imagine it isn't all that different for many games on the eShop. Any small developer would be giddy to sell a guaranteed 5k copies of their game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIqz5xmQKnc

It's an interesting idea, but as much as I love my collection of games, I am not into collecting to the point that I will actively collect extremely limited run physical releases such as this. If a game is digital initially, then gets a Super Rare ot Limited Runs release, I still consider the game to be digital only.

Given these games will only ever release this way, I will most likely consider them as not existing.

So they may as well not exist in my eyes. Only available as a set of 5000 copies? Yeah, I'll have to pass.

Why sell 60 digital copies of the game for one buck each, when you can sell one retail copy for 60 bucks to the one person interested in the collectible aspect!

Yeah this sucks.

Usually when you missed a limited print run, you're left to a terrible aftermarket or just settling for getting the game digitally.

Under this system, if you miss a limited print run you're left to a terrible aftermarket. No digital option. Pay scalpers or never play the game ever. This is going to end up breeding contempt for both Super Rare and any developer that choose to partner with them under this Shorts system.

This is pure FOMO exploitation and they absolutely know it.

@RupeeClock I hope...! But if the dev(s) decide they want to do only physical release from now on, many people will be screwed (or they will have to pay 200€ for the game on eBay)....

I think it's ridiculous when these so called "Limited Print" companies releases psysical games which costs 10 times as much as their digital counterpart.

Though I always prefer physical over digital any day, what's wrong with having options? This whole limited physical only marketing makes no sense.

i hope they have a good manual

Also I'd like to complain about Limited Run Games, they've just delayed the shipping of "Scott Pilgrim", because the cd manufacter has not printed it yet...cool! How many months have passed since the pre-order? 4? 5?

@Ghost_of_Hasashi makes sense for them, so people have no choice than buying the more expensive (and only) option available...

Well, at least it will be good for the future "TOP 10 SWITCH games you've NEVER heard of!" countdown videos.

@Whitestrider Many manufacturers are still at limited capacity due to Covid. There is only so much that can be done. You'll get your product eventually but the world is still pretty messed up right now.

@Indielink "eventually" is the key word. too bad they can't even say when, more or less.

Y'know, I chuckled at Devolver Digital releasing a physical only game. I hope those guys never change. This is a little different, though.

I kinda get it, but I don't buy the fact games aren't visible on an eshop. All the books aren't visible in a library. You go in knowing what book you want. Some games need to be more visible in other places (and the easiest way to do that is be outstanding in it's own right.) Who would decide which games become 'visible?' If all games have increased visibilty, then how is that different to now? What does that even mean. The last thing I want when shopping is to be asked 'if I'd like fries with that.'

If it descends into opportunism re-releasing previous limited run games with extra content, then that would leave a worse taste in my mouth than a Switch card.

As mentioned above, this has a strong 'fear of missing out' draw to it if there is no alternate way to get the games.

We'll see. I have bought games from Super Rare before and never had a problem. But not convinced by a lot of stuff myself.

So sick of these physical release companies and their shelf collector pandering. People shouldn’t have to hop a game that they like is still available, preorder it if it’s even being printed still, pay a premium price(plus shipping fees) and wait a crazy long amount of months for it to arrive. Doing stuff like this is bad for the industry.

@Whitestrider Lol, weren't they asking UK customers to have to buy 4 copies hahahaha! Yeah...nah.

@Whitestrider From personal experience (I work in a gallery and we frame many of our artists work in house) I have had several phone calls with suppliers to order wood, mat board, and even picture hooks and the rep has straight up said they have no idea when things may come back in stock. It really sucks but it's no one's fault per say.

@sirlordrob Limited Run are the pioneers of artificial scarcity.

Bunch of games I'll never play then... Or more likely they'll turn up in a humble bundle in a few years when they absolutely do arrive on Steam because profit.

I thought Nintendo required digital sales. Obviously, I appear to be wrong.

@GrailUK that was because Brexit I guess...it became more expensive to send and receive packets from and to EU.

@Indielink I didn't know CDs were made out of wood...

@Orpheus79V 5000 minimum, any sales over that will be part of a second printing.

I haven't bought a physical copy of a game since like 2008 and I never will ever again. Even if it's exclusive to the physical edition.

@Whitestrider Clearly I was just using personal experience as an example of the world still being screwed up. But apparently you aren't interested in having an actual discussion.

@XiaoShao last year they have been a bit better with a game I bought (Streets of Rage 4 if I remember well...)

In some ways at the begining of limited physical releases (roughly 4+ years back) I didn't mind them as much.

Now I don't, to put it nicely without cursing, most people (90%+) that get it will never unseal it because value and stuff, because as of today and the last 2 to 3 years, all these companies exist for the sealed collector only, the one that gets ANY game to put it on shelf in seal and never ever play it in any form.

I have nothing against such people, however they are the reason these companies still exist and more of them come to the market, flooding it with artificially limited games.

And now this...

@Indielink lol, I was kidding...
I know there is a shortage of some resources, even some rules of paper I heard. The problem I have with LRG is that they aren't able to say "It will took xyz weeks/months", just a vague statement.

@Whitestrider Apologies. Sarcasm doesn't always translate well and I misinterpreted.

I think LRG still has rough estimates for the arrival dates. I know the NSCollectors subreddit has a weekly (or maybe monthly) post showing when all of the boutique indie publishers will be shipping and Scott Pilgrim special editions are listed on there.

This article makes me wonder what happened to Hatred? The first AO-rated Switch game that wouldn't be offered on the eShop or on a retail shelf.

Woo, no dice for me. The great thing about digital is if you miss the print run you don’t get scalped by people plastering “rare” all over their ebay page. Even worse when the print run is artificially limited. I’ll let the scalpers and collectors money slap fight over that. Anybody buying games pre 360/ps3 (or on wii) knows that pain.

I will stick with having options and fairly priced games, thanks.

@EVIL-C I'd argue that Nintendo are the pioneers of artificial scarcity. Remember Amiibo, NES and SNES classic and Super Mario 3D All Stars?

I just wanna point this out. A local mom and pop shop sales Shantae Pirates Curse for 200 USD unsealed. I don't like the idea my only option is to preorder a limited number of a thing while a window is up. At least Nintendo offered a digital copy of Mario 3D All Stars, and I hate having to give some positive feed back to that.

I think this is anti-consumer given the scarcity of these releases, made worst by not being available in the eShop.

Not like most people are missing much with these upcharged flash games and indies that're available on every other platform (all of them pretty much archived and accessible on the web if they're pulled from sale). Soon they'll start doing $70 """limited""" to keep on milking the collectors.

@GrailUK Their whole business model is artificial scarcity.

The one HUGE thing that EVERY single "LIMITED" physical release Co. should take to heart from this is producing the games before pre-orders ever even start. Shorter wait times for customers, means more customers are going to be willing to order.

If they do this they have a responsibly to send out review copies early.

Business strategy, let's make our product as hard to find as possible!

No, no, I can't even make a joke out of this. This idea makes almost no sense to me at all. Especially not now, in this world where scalpers buy anything they can possibly flip!

Yes, visibility is an issue for indie games. So explain to me why making it way harder to get a copy of a game is going to fix that? All it's gonna do is result in a subset of games on Switch that end up massively expensive for collectors, just because there are so very few copies in existence.

SUPER RARE LIMITED BUY NOW GO GO GO
...sickening

That is a hard pass for me. I buy all my games digitally these days.

Honestly, I’ve lost track of all of these niche publishers and what they have published.

Available in physical and bittotrent flavors.. Coming real soon.

@tseliot Mmm. Yeah, kinda. I think it's more selling every copy of what they make - which is shrewd practice. But I can see how you would think that. If they didn't make them, then who would? I don't buy them all, just the ones I really want and as I have never had a problem ordering one (and I mean, of course there is some onus on myself not to dilly dally) I don't really have an issue with it all.

@JacquesLecornu Yeah, and I also remember the Wii U, DS, 3DS, and Mario Kart Home Circuit.

Convenient how when it's a popular product it's always a deliberate conspiracy, yet when it's not as popular and easier to find, no one says a word.

Who had exclusive distribution rights for Shantae 5 in North America? Limited Run. (Shantae 4 was a regular release) Yet in South Asia, Shantae 5 is widely available on Playasia and other retailers.

At least they announced from the beginning these items were intended to be limited time items. With the Amiibos I think they underestimated the appeal of figures like Wii Fit trainer and printed less than say, more famous characters, like Mario and Pikachu.

I get companies don't want to overproduce things, because it loses them money, but this limited one-time print crap has gone too far. I want to see as many companies as possible adopt an open pre-order system where they make enough to fill all initial preorders within a certain window of time, like 2 months or so, and then if they want to do some additional limited time distributions after the preorders are filled, that would solve a lot of the problems.

Sorry... who is this developer and what was their previous game...

Yeah, nah! I’m not interested in this exclusive limited run bs. If a game is good and well developed then it would get attention. If it’s not then we’ll people don’t buy it funny how commerce works sometimes. I’m not pre-ordering a game I have no idea about. Hell I don’t pre-order many games at all! Have a look at the Cyberpunk fiasco recently and that’s from a known big developer not some small team I’ve never heard about before...

@Whitestrider Any idea when the physical copies will ship, if they didn't yet? May give a clue as to when it releases digitally. I saw the early May article about the impending physical release, but your comment was the next time I saw anything about it, so I'm in the same boat.

@Filth_Element No, not all good and well developed games get attention. Tons of games throughout digital and physical history have been overshadowed by games with larger social footprints. PR divisions in dev studios, along with publishers, are tasked with getting word out to the public about the game they're working on.

Just the simple act of a site like NintendoLife reviewing a game will net the dev more attention and sales (assuming it's decent and even if it isn't, it could help) than if NL never spoke of them. Word of mouth is very important.

And just because a AAA studio made a game doesn't mean it's going to be better than a no name indie. Cyberpunk is a microcosm of the quality standard AAA studios tend to produce.

Basically a bunch of games I, and the majority of the gaming community, will never buy or play.

Until they are available digitally, which they will be, whether they want them to be or not.

I actually love this! But I’m into DIY music and books so this is up my alley. A friend of mine runs a Noise record label and puts his and other artists’ stuff on all kinds of archaic formats. Cassettes are the default but he’s done 8-tracks, VHS, Betamax, floppy discs, you name it. He does the art and printing, and does limited runs that all eventually sell out. Each release is a like a bespoke art piece. This feels like that and is actually a cool step for the -art- of vijeo games.

@Kilroy no idea unfortunately...

These must be really small projects to make profits at 5000 copies. Not sure what standard publishing agreement rates are, but using digital storefront rates at 30% and average sale price of $60, developer take home would be $210k minus any other costs or rate differences, and any other physical item costs in package.

Seems like an odd business model, if the games were any good to begin with, they wouldn't need to resort to this type of marketing.

Personally I'd want as many people to play my game as possible, rather than selling it to a limited number of collectors who probably won't play it anyway.

So they are deliberately making these games scarce to jack up demand for them. This will not benefit the gamers who would want to play these games but the scalpers who will sell these games for a ridiculously high price. Super Rare Games can kiss my ass.

So the industry is shifting towards this?
It is boutique gaming a thing now?
Interesting...🤔

At one point, I thought this company looked promising too... but everything they do seems to be a disappointment.

They haven't even sold out of copies of Itta, which had 5000 copies made (Note: Not 5000 for sale — They never reveal how many were offered for sale!) and released in January.

When the first one can't even sell out of however many copies they offered for sale, I don't see a shorter game by the same developer selling enough copies that they even run out of 5000 and do a second print run.

So even if they say they 'hope' this physical-only release will be more profitable than Itta (which wasn't even a Switch exclusive but on PC too), I don't see this being true.

These seem more like 'commissioned' short games and personally, I really hope the shorts devs got enough money from the initial funding to make it worth their time dealing with this scummy company, and all future possible complaints about this practice.

This is aimed at a niche market, snoob gamers that rather have a game that almost no one has than guys that play games with the purpose of having fun, in that regard I think it's going to succeed but personally, they will lose my money rather than I will be missing out something. I gave up long time ago, there are more games that I want to play (or music for the matter) that the amount that I will be able to consume, I have come to terms with it.

@MS7000 basically you buy only digital and that’s ok but it’s also closed minded

...But why? I'm no fan of digital, but on the other hand artificial scarcity bothers me to an irrational degree.

I'm curious who exactly is the market for this? Limited obscure physical prints of extremely low budget games.... There seems to be some new market of high earning OCD fetishists or scalpers for marginal quality electronic entertainment? If this was limited reprints of FFVIII or Donkey Kong Country I could kind of get it. But budget stuff that screams hobby project?

I hate this so much.

I already hate the entire FOMO marketing strategy that all of these limited print physical publishers use. At first I understood, these were games that would undersell, but now we have massively successful digital games then getting FOMO limited print physical runs with absurd markups from the digital price. Now they're just going to start doing physical only so it's now or never?

Sorry, but I'm not going to give an obscure indie game a shot just because I'll never have another chance to play it — I just won't play it period.

I regularly browse the eShop and check out anything remotely interesting looking, so if your game is good there's a good chance it'll pique my interest without you needing to try to exploit me with predatory FOMO marketing.

@Kid_Sickarus it seems to me they are only viable as a physical release as they are creating artificial scarcity and relying on collector FOMO

@Dirty0814 On the contrary, I much prefer physical games; I just don't care for the physical releases done by companies like Super Rare. Normally the games are more expensive than they should be because the physical release is so limited, not to mention, should you miss one, you have to hope that someone who owns a copy is willing to part with it without overcharging by too much. As a result, physical games from companies like this, I don't bother collecting.

They are just shooting themselves in the foot. This strategy will probably work for the first game they release that may. Maybe second. But after that I wouldn't count on many preorders.

@EVIL-C I would agree with you on a couple of things, but I fail to understand what risks Nintendo would have faced if they had left the digital version of Super Mario 3D All Stars on the eshop. It certainly can't be the risk of producing too many digital copies of the game.

@JacquesLecornu I forgot about that one. That one had no "risks" by leaving it up. I expect it was solely for parity between physical and digital since it was advertised as limited time. Digital delisting is stupid.

This is a ***** move.
It's better for the developer and the platformholder to go digital. More $$ of the pie. This happens because the middle man (be it gamestop or Super Rare or whoever) is removed and their % is taken by the developer.

Add in no physical manufacturing and shipping costs.

This is doomed to fail.
They will be lucky to break even if they do an open pre-order and get enough for a small print run.

If Super Rare think they can get around Nintendo platform fee, think again. Tengen tried this back in the 80's and was sued into oblivion because of it.

A large scale distribution physical only might work. But a small scale niche, limited time only physical only release?
That is ***** with a capital D.

******

Also the talk about 3D all stars does not apply here as it's a totally different thing. 3D all stars was a quick cash injection for Nintendo, using FOMO (fear of missing out) to get everyone to buy it within that 6 month period.

[edit] I have been hit with the censorship bot. Shame on Nintendolife. I like you a lot but censorship is not cool.

❗The only SRG I have is 'Chroma Squad' as I loved it on Android and love PR in general.