Normally when Limited Run Games release a new title for the PS Vita they sell out within a matter of minutes. Even the weaker titles still sell out on the same day that games go on sale as collectors rush to make sure that they don’t have any gaps in their collection. Yet something seems to have gone horribly wrong with one of the latest games to be released, Gunhouse, that hit LRG’s site on 24th August 2018…
As with all of their games, the production run was limited and in this case it was in the lower end of the scale to just 2,300 copies yet over three days after first going on sale almost 30% of that stock still remain available. But why is that the case?
While we won’t know for certain until there is an official statement from Limited Run Games themselves, there could be a number of factors at work. Firstly, unlike most of their releases both this and Senran Kagura Bon Apetite released on the same day were sold in a totally new way for the company. While neither game was being made to order LRG did away with the customer purchase limits from the start so consumers could purchase as many copies as they wanted immediately. This could have been an inkling to potential customers that LRG had little or no confidence in the quality of either game and were hoping for quick bulk sales to potential online resellers.
Pricing for both was also a factor but even more so for Gunhouse. With both games selling at $29.99 and with other customers still being reminded about pre-ordering the previously advertised Bastion many would have found it difficult to justify spending $100 on games in a single transaction.
Finally in the case of Gunhouse, while it is a brand new game only just landing on the PlayStation Store, at the heart of it the game is only an enhanced port of what we have already seen on PlayStation Mobile. That version retailed for just a couple of pounds yet the digital Vita port is being sold for £18.99 – an astonishing price hike. Even accepting the fact that a physical game costs more than its digital counterpart still can’t justify paying $30 for a PlayStation Mobile port under any circumstances.
I would hope that Limited Run Games learn from this or at least from the sales method so this doesn’t happen again. There is still huge demand for physical Vita games – just not ones like this.
I stopped buying from them as i still wait for months for 9 games from them to get shipped. So now i decided for the future releases to pay a little more to ebay sellers but get the games then instandly shipped after the seller received my money.
Which games are they? Care to elaborate? We’d love to know people’s experiences.