Is Limited Run Games Done?

“Have you ordered from Limited Run Games, only for the order to be delayed and it wasn’t your fault? You may not be entitled to compensation, but if you buy from them afterwards, you’re definitely entitled to a ‘fell for it again’ award.” Your award will arrive in 10 months.

Maybe, if you’re lucky.

Chances are that if you care somewhat about collecting games physically, you’ve at least heard of Limited Run Games. They’re the biggest name in this particular corner of the industry, and for some titles, they’re the only option for actually getting a physical version of an indie game. Sometimes, somehow, even for special Collector’s Editions of AAA games. Unfortunately, crappy production, massively delayed orders and a host of other controversies have given LRG a reputation that they’re at best a necessary evil, and at worst, they’re a reason why you should forego physical entirely.

So what happened to Limited Run Games? Was it always this bad, or did something happen along the way that just led to them becoming perceived as one of the worst companies in all of gaming? Are their current efforts going to be enough to alter public perception or has the limit been reached for Limited Run Games? Let’s chat.

Limited Run Games began life in October 2015, founded by Josh Fairhurst and Douglas Bogart as a means for Fairhurst to try and physically preserve games developed by his game dev studio, Mighty Rabbit Games. The two were particularly inspired by the huge success of Retro City Rampage’s physical release, and so announced that their first game would be Breach & Clear for the PlayStation Vita. The first game would ultimately sell out within a pretty impressive 108 minutes, proving once again there was a market for physical releases of indie games. Limited Run was off to the races.

After creating a physical release of Mighty Rabbit’s Saturday Morning RPG, Limited Run Games were approached by Oddworld Inhabitants to create a physical run of Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty!, which would fully move LRG into the world of third party production. Through 2016 and 2017, LRG produced dozens of third party games across a range of different platforms, expanded their offerings by introducing collector editions, and changed their ordering policy from a set production number to a pre-order period where they’d print to meet demand.

2017 offered LRG’s first real hurdle, as ESRB would put the squeeze on specialty sellers.

Beforehand, physical print resellers like LRG or iam8bit wouldn’t need to seek out an additional ESRB rating, considering the game had already been released in the past. That changed, with LRG et al now having to pay out of pocket to have their games rated, though at a discount if the game had a sub $1million budget, that’s $3,000 versus $10). ESRB would say that the ratings are “voluntary”, but also noted that many storefronts and retail stores have a policy that means they only stock ESRB rated games. Douglas Bogart summed up his thoughts on the ESRB ruling pretty succinctly: “There’s no nice way to put it; they basically have a monopoly”.

Despite this ESRB ruling, Limited Run Games would still go on strong, even as others hit some struggles. Special Reserve Games cancelled their run of Ruiner, citing the ESRB as the reason why, though would partner with LRG years later to release Ruiner physically. Cor, what a whipper by the way. As for LRG moving into 2018, they’d partner with Best Buy to stock games like Yooka-Laylee and Golf Story in their in-person stores, possibly due to the ESRB’s ruling.

Either way, the move promised a better cut for developers, while giving LRG the reach to sign bigger publishers and games.

That’s something that’d pay dividends in 2019 when they partnered with Disney to release older Star Wars games, marking a move towards retro games as well as contemporary releases. LRG wouldn’t make it out of 2018 without issues though, as they’d engage in a lawsuit against BadLand Games due to some issues regarding a release of Axiom Verge on the Wii U. The two would reconcile and ultimately release Axiom Verge physically.

Where the issues seem to really start is in 2020, which was the same for everyone. The “challenging conditions that led us to being stuck at home for months also toilet paper was cryptocurrency” led to a proper customer issue for LRG. Everyone was stuck at home which naturally led to increased demand from the gaming industry, most notably felt from nearly everyone getting lost in turnip prices on their own Animal Crossing islands. However increased demand put further strain on the already present supply difficulties coming from China.

Limited Run CEO Josh Fairhurst spoke about those difficulties to GamesIndustry.biz, stating: “You have to wait months and months and months just to get a shipping crate… It can take a year to get stuff over from China right now. Manufacturing will complete pretty fast, but just trying to get stuff on a boat and get it over here is just absurd.” Speaking anecdotally, we ourselves felt that with Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game. Ash waited 8 months for it to be dispatched after ordering it in January 2021, placing it right in the midst of those supply chain issues.

Even though it’s another situation that wasn’t LRG’s fault, it feels like it’s where public perception began to sour for the company. Scotty P wasn’t the only delay at that time, with some apparently waiting seven months for a Shantae release, though Scott Pilgrim would have them beat. Scott Pilgrim was their biggest launch of all-time at that point, but people having to wait two-thirds of a year for their order feels like something was…not quite working somewhere. Not only that, but because so many people were waiting on Scott Pilgrim, LRG were all hands on deck to fulfil those orders, leaving some reporting that other games were pushed to the wayside for weeks in the process. LRG was gaining the reputation as a logistical supply chain nightmare, and that’s stuck for the better half of a decade.

2022 might be the most telling year in the “downfall” of Limited Run Games though, as they were acquired by Embracer Group. You know, those nostalgia merchants that buy up the licenses to all of your favourite games and properties then reel them out for cheap cash grabs, only to cancel and shut studios when people widely reject it? Yeah, them. The main selling point for LRG was that they could do new runs of games like Knights of the Old Republic, but Embracer haven’t been strangers to controversy over the years. The issue for LRG is that the controversy has massively increased since the buyout, and while we can’t establish cause and effect, the correlation is interesting to say the least.

After one half of the founding pair, Doug Bogart, “parted ways” with LRG in April 2023, the issues came thick and fast. The delays became part and parcel of the LRG ordering experience, while new issues regarding the actual production quality became more and more commonplace, especially more recently with the Sonic X Shadow Generations release. The last thing you want to do is annoy the Sonic community, but LRG started making moves that were actively dangerous to both their brand and to you as a consumer that go way beyond some mildly annoyed Sonic fans.

For starters, LRG were caught using CD-R discs for their run of D on the 3DO rather than pressed on discs, with the issue being that CD-R discs don’t even work properly on real hardware and can be done by anyone with a blank disc and a CD burner. Meanwhile, actual pressed on discs have the data fully encoded onto the disc. Basically, LRG got caught using the cheapest solution possible and were summarily lambasted by the community in doing so, stating after the fact that they were “working with new partners to find a solution for traditionally pressed discs”. They wouldn’t have had to do that if they just made the right decision the first time around, but there we are.

A year later, LRG found themselves in a similar situation, but one that’s more damaging to both their rep and your consoles. Someone by the name of Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso found that Limited Run was using NES cartridges with voltage issues. The issue surrounds a discrepancy between the 3.3V cartridges and the 5V consoles they’re being used on, with prolonged use leading to damage for both the cartridge and the console, with Jordi finding these issues on LRG’s release of Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland and PIOPOW. LRG would cite a rogue production company who wasn’t their regular partner as the one’s responsible.

Funnily enough though, LRG would find themselves in manufacturing hot water again a couple of months later with their release of Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution. It was discovered that the manufacturers responsible, Retro Bit, used recycled components in order to fulfil orders. Customers would check their cartridges only to find dirty and scuffed chips, with many wondering how safe they’d be to actually use. Retro Bit did state the cartridges were made to spec and that they should be safe, but given the 3DO debacle months early, trust had already been broken.

In all of these examples, it seems like partner companies and manufacturers are the ones responsible for the issues, but the common denominator in all of this is Limited Run Games and CEO Josh Fairhurst. It all points to a low bar for quality control at the bare minimum, but that was merely the tip of the iceberg for LRG’s issues, as highlighted by an amazing 90 minute video from mrixrt. They speak to former employees and whistleblowers about LRG and the allegations are damning.

It’s alleged that LRG would secretly reprint these “limited” games without informing customers, with Josh Fairhurst using the justification that “we can’t get caught because we don’t release sales numbers”. That’s a crazy thing to say. There’s also claims of missing charity donations, COVID policies that actively endangered employees, personal vendettas with iam8bit and just an all around toxic workplace that encouraged a “the leader is always right” mentality. Oh, and if all of that isn’t bad enough, they’ve been embroiled in a $3 million lawsuit because they sold a bunch of customer data to Meta.

Clearly, something had to change, and in 2026, it did. After years of what felt like sloppy service all around, Limited Run Games aimed to revitalise themselves, with the former CEO and president announcing his departure on January 1st. The company themselves would follow up that momentum by announcing a fan-first focus to tighten up the business. Call me nuts, but you should typically always put the consumer first, right? Still, this fan-first focus hasn’t even been going that well.

In the past month, LRG have sent out emails to a lot of their customers informing them there will be huge delays on their orders, because a change is as good as a break, I suppose? In the emails, LRG cite their own overaggressive deadlines and “optimism” as they undergo changes within the company. Considering delays were a part of the process anyway, it’s hard to see what’s changed. An overhaul is desperately needed, obviously, but people often don’t care about the cause, only the symptoms, and even if the cause is different, LRG is still showing the same symptoms.

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