The last couple of years have seen retro games publisher Limited Run Games come under fire, with the company being accused of cutting corners and releasing products that could potentially harm vintage hardware. Facing mounting criticism from retro enthusiasts, Limited Run Games has announced that sweeping changes are on the way, as it aims to strengthen its communication channels and have stricter oversight of its products before they’re released.
This follows the departure of Limited Run Games co-founder Josh Fairhurst this month. Chief operating officer Nic Ashford and chief financial officer Brendan Madigan will handle business operations, while VP of marketing & fan experiences Chris Pirrotta will lead a “fan-first focus” for the company. As part of its overhaul, Limited Run Games says it plans to provide clearer updates, more consistent visibility, and a higher standard of communication from announcement through delivery.
“It also means tightening the basics–stronger production oversight and quality control standards, faster escalation when something is not right, and more proactive communication when timelines shift,” Ashford said in a press release.
Recently, Limited Run Games has come under heavy criticism for several of its releases. Some examples include the NES cartridges for Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland and PioPow, as due to an issue with voltage regulation, it was found that they could potentially damage consoles if they were played for an extended period of time (via Time Extension). Another Nintendo game, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution on the Game Boy Advance, was singled out by collectors for manufacturer Retro-Bit Gaming’s use of recycled chips–in this instance, LRG was the distributor of the game.
While that’s not an uncommon practice and can cut down costs, customers complained of the chips being dirty, discolored, and possibly unsafe to use. Retro-Bit disputed these claims, adding that the cartridges were all built to spec and durable. Another bone of contention with this release was that the necessary chips needed for it are still in production and can be bought in bulk, with customers voicing their frustration over cheap components being used in a $60 game.
“Did y’all pull these out of a crusty bucket of scavenged chips and screws,” one user wrote online.
In another bad look for LRG, it was found that discs for classic 3DO games weren’t professionally pressed, and they were instead cheap CD-Rs that had the data burned onto them from a computer. Multiple people reported that the new discs could not be read by their 3DO consoles, making their $65 – $120 purchases of games like D, Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, and The Eye of the Typhoon glorified paperweights. In a response, LRG said that it believed that using a CD-R format would work across all commercially available 3DO systems, but customers pointed out that the 3DO was notorious for not playing CD-R discs.
“That’s a laser/system issue, not a CD issue,” Voultar wrote online. “And their test pool was five different 3DOs, probably unserviced. That’s in NO way shape or form a reasonable metric or benchmark that any professional worth their salt would ever use.”
LRG says it will share more details of its “reset” in the weeks to come, as it expects some releases to be delayed as part of its overhaul. “Fans can also expect clearer release status communications, a more consistent update cadence for in-progress projects, and more proactive notifications as key milestones change,” the company concluded.
It remains to be seen what impact the change in direction will have on the retro games collectors community, or whether they will sufficiently address fan concerns.
