@Menardi The way the current order process for LRG works is that they manufacture the majority of their standard edition games to the specific demand during the 4-6 week pre-order period. CEs are sometimes open pre-order or limited based on whatever contracts they have. While I understand that you believe they can just run a bunch of extra copies for long-term sale or do another print run whenever needed, their business model doesn't work like that.
In order to sell a copy of a game, they need to negotiate a contract with developers / any other parties attached to the game. My understanding is they have it written into their contract that they must put the sale up by a certain established time frame and once the sale period is over, they release the rights of the game back to the publisher. By their very setup, LRG does not do reprints. They also couldn't do reprints if they wanted to unless they entered into another contract with the publisher again, which would take a lot more time, effort, and cost on their end. A lot of people nag LRG to reprint games when that energy should be pushed onto the game developers who maintain their rights to reprint the game again with any other publisher. Many game developers have already done this for LRG printed games.
To your other point about ordering more stock to keep on their site for long-term, that would drastically increase the risk level of their business. With their current model, if they sell 10,500 copies during the pre-order period, they likely order 12,000 copies to cover damaged / lost orders that may occur, and eventually sell the small amount of extra stock during blowout sales, conventions, blind boxes, etc. Overall a minor risk. What you are asking is that they either do additional runs (which they can't by contract) or purchase extra stock up front for long-term sale, which may or may not ever sell-out for many games. If they order extra copies for games that don't sell out and this happens multiple times, they would likely be in the red and it could be game over for them. Their current model keeps them profitable while keeping their risk level low, even if some people miss out of their releases long-term. It is just smart business and it works.
Of note for Switch games, they need a minimum of 5,000 carts ordered to produce a run. They need to hope they get at least 5,000 orders in their open pre-order period or else they could be left with a bunch of extra stock. Most games exceed the 5,000 limit, but certainly not every game has as some games only get a 5,000 print run. That shouldn't matter in the long run since they are opening a retail outlet and sell stock at conventions, but extra inventory long-term adds to their risk-profile.
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Re: Feature: Limited Run Games On The Process of Bringing Scott Pilgrim To Physical Shelves
@Menardi The way the current order process for LRG works is that they manufacture the majority of their standard edition games to the specific demand during the 4-6 week pre-order period. CEs are sometimes open pre-order or limited based on whatever contracts they have. While I understand that you believe they can just run a bunch of extra copies for long-term sale or do another print run whenever needed, their business model doesn't work like that.
In order to sell a copy of a game, they need to negotiate a contract with developers / any other parties attached to the game. My understanding is they have it written into their contract that they must put the sale up by a certain established time frame and once the sale period is over, they release the rights of the game back to the publisher. By their very setup, LRG does not do reprints. They also couldn't do reprints if they wanted to unless they entered into another contract with the publisher again, which would take a lot more time, effort, and cost on their end. A lot of people nag LRG to reprint games when that energy should be pushed onto the game developers who maintain their rights to reprint the game again with any other publisher. Many game developers have already done this for LRG printed games.
To your other point about ordering more stock to keep on their site for long-term, that would drastically increase the risk level of their business. With their current model, if they sell 10,500 copies during the pre-order period, they likely order 12,000 copies to cover damaged / lost orders that may occur, and eventually sell the small amount of extra stock during blowout sales, conventions, blind boxes, etc. Overall a minor risk. What you are asking is that they either do additional runs (which they can't by contract) or purchase extra stock up front for long-term sale, which may or may not ever sell-out for many games. If they order extra copies for games that don't sell out and this happens multiple times, they would likely be in the red and it could be game over for them. Their current model keeps them profitable while keeping their risk level low, even if some people miss out of their releases long-term. It is just smart business and it works.
Of note for Switch games, they need a minimum of 5,000 carts ordered to produce a run. They need to hope they get at least 5,000 orders in their open pre-order period or else they could be left with a bunch of extra stock. Most games exceed the 5,000 limit, but certainly not every game has as some games only get a 5,000 print run. That shouldn't matter in the long run since they are opening a retail outlet and sell stock at conventions, but extra inventory long-term adds to their risk-profile.