Indie/Limited/Obscure Physical Release Deals and Discussion Thread

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The Indie/Limited/Obscure Physical Release Thread
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Physical media may not be as popular as it was in years past, but that has not stopped it from finding success in more niche areas of the market. In fact, we're seeing so many physical releases, these days, that it has become difficult for even dedicated collectors to keep up with all of them. Many games, usually indie titles, are seeing releases with highly limited prints, regional exclusivity, retailer exclusivity or are simply appearing with little notification. The purpose of this thread is to identify, catalogue, discuss and post deals for these releases, in hopes of making information more accessible and supporting the medium.​
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FAQ

Q: tl;dr

A: There are probably games that were released physically that you don't know about. Find them here.

Q: What is the "master list"?

A: The master list is a catalogue of all the games that have been identified here that meet certain criteria that differentiates them from standard, mainstream releases. It offers information regarding regional exclusivity, retailer exclusivity, print quantities and more.

Q: What are the criteria? How do you decide which games make the list?

A: For the most part, these will be "smaller" titles that were originally released as digital-only but have been given a physical release. Some exceptions may apply, like if an indie game launches with a physical release, it will likely be listed. Another exception would see a larger title that was only released digitally, for whatever reason, get a limited physical release (example: if Limited Run Games did a print of Fatal Frame V.)

Generally if a game is, as the title says, indie, limited or obscure and has a physical release, you'll see in on the "master list."

Also, the game must be region-free or NTSC-U and in English (subtitles are valid).

Q: Region free or NTSC-U? Doesn't that mean the list is only valid for North American users?

A: This means that every game on the list will be playable on North American consoles, though a few games may have versions that are region-locked on a certain console (this will be noted). Most games are now region free, so if you aren't from the NTSC-U region, it's very likely that the game will work for you. Knowledge of which systems do and don't have region-locking should allow anyone to make use of this list.

Q: What about games for collectors who aren't in the NTSC-U (North American) region or own consoles that can play region-locked games?

A: There may be a separate tab for you guys down the line. One step at a time.

Pre-Orders/Upcoming Releases


Notable Publishers/Distributors

iam8bit

A retailer, located in California, that sells all sorts of limited edition video game merchandise. They occasionally publish physical, indie titles for the PS4.

Limited Run Games

Based in California, Limited Run Games is generally accepted as the company that started the modern trend of releasing physical games in limited quantities. Currently, they publish several games a month but have stated they intend to ramp down. Their games come with collectible, trading cards and are sometimes offered alongside soundtracks, collector's editions and other related merchandise. The two heads of the company are very active on different forums and regularly engage with the community. They currently publish games for the PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch and occasionally the PC.

Play-Asia

Play-Asia is an established retailer located in Hong Kong. They are well known for offering a large variety of imported merchandise, including many games that have not seen western releases but have English subtitles. They've recently partnered with eastasiasoft to distribute exclusive and limited, physical releases. These games are often offered with collector's editions which are highly praised for their presentation, content and low prices.

Special Reserve Games

A company based in Texas, Special Reserve Games currently publishes games in limited quantities with no discernible schedule. Their games are frequently offered alongside collector's editions. They also collaborate with Limited Run Games to create variant covers for some of their titles, which are then sold via Limited Run Games' website. They currently publish for the PS4, PS Vita and PC.

Strictly Limited Games

Based in Germany, Strictly Limited Games seems to publish one title a month with varied but highly limited quantities. Collector's editions and soundtracks are sometimes offered alongside game releases. They've published games for the PS4 and PS Vita.

Super Rare Games

Located in London, these guys are relatively new to the limited game market. Similar to Limited Run Games, they include trading cards and stickers with their games. They publish only for the Nintendo Switch and intend to release one game a month.

 
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I'm a little surprised I received Alchemic Jousts today from Play Asia considering how long it took Cursed Castilla to get to me.

 
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I'm a little surprised I received Alchemic Jousts today from Play Asia considering how long it took Cursed Castilla to get to me.
Did you noticed the numbered sticker with East Asia on the back? Wonder if that's the number on the card inside.
 
For some reason, every Gamestop link I click from CAG (using Tapatalk on Samsung tablet) just gives an error page on the Gamestop website ("oops... game over" link not found) (using Firefox as external browser, not Tapatalk). I have to pretend to reply to the post with the link, then edit the quoted post and copy/paste the link to Firefox. I guess CAG doesn't properly handle GS links in Tapatalk?
 
The sexy brutale from pa is legitimately a nice release fwiw, I picked it up whenever we had a thread about it
 
You're so stupid.
11.gif


 
Flatout 4: Total Insanity for PS4 and XB1 has been reduced from $49.99 to $29.99 @ BB ($23.99 with GCU). Great arcade style racing game at a good price.
 
Sweet, thanks.  I have been waiting for a price drop on Flatout 4.   Flatout 1 and 2 were crowd favorites at my PC gaming center back in the day - a ton of multi-player fun.

 
I'm going to post this every time this comes up because it bears repeating. You can't just pop a bunch of disparate games onto a single cartridge. You can't do this on Vita and you can't do it on Switch. You'd have to spend months wrapping completely different games that likely use different engines into one base application that can launch the individual games. It's no small feat and a lot of work to go through. People seem to think it's a trivial matter when it truly isn't.
 
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Nice, thanks.

I want them all, but at the lowest price they'll reach before going OOS. Preorder with Prime discount, or wait and see? Afterbirth had enough stock to go on sale at Best Buy, but these all look more niche.

 
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Are these titles normally $30 to $40 digitally or is Nicalis just milking the Switch physical user base for all it can right now?
Milking for sure, but the $30 titles are fairly priced, as I can only imagine the "N" BS they have to deal with to even release these games in physical form, so I'm happy to triple dip on a game like Cave Story, even though it is a free game in most cases. It's also one of the best games around, so I always support these types of efforts.

Now the $40 titles, I'm not so sure on, as I'm not to familiar with those games, but at least all of these are "handheld" priced($40 and under), and not $60 for games that may be a lot cheaper, or "mobile" style efforts elsewhere. That's one of my biggest issues with the NS, is how it's pretty much a handheld, with console level prices for games and accessories. Then when you get games that should all be priced $30 and under, due to other games being $60, I see a lot of publishers charging more than they should because of the environment they are releasing in.

Most consumers(not all), will see cheaper games, along side the $60 ones, and just pass them by thinking they aren't quality efforts, and move on. So I think most publishers are pricing higher, because they can, and they figure why not? "N" doing it, so why can't we?

 
Nice, thanks.

I want them all, but at the lowest price they'll reach before going OOS. Preorder with Prime discount, or wait and see? Afterbirth had enough stock to go on sale at Best Buy, but these all look more niche.
They aren't limited - there's over 50K copies of Binding of Isaac out there. You don't have to rush to buy any of these.
 
So, my order from White Day hasn't been canceled, but the item page is completely gone now.

Is this up for pre-order anywhere else in NA?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
Whoa, my order is still fine too. The only other place I know of that has it for preorder in NA in videogameplus.

 
I'm reluctant to buy some of those Switch games because I'm worried they will later be released on the PS4, as The Binding of Isaac was. Does anyone know if these are Switch exclusive titles?

 
I'm reluctant to buy some of those Switch games because I'm worried they will later be released on the PS4, as The Binding of Isaac was. Does anyone know if these are Switch exclusive titles?
Nobody knows...but why would you want them on PS4 anyway if you have both? With Switch they can be taken on the go as well, and it's not as if any run better on PS4.

Also, carts are just an inherently superior medium for those who buy physical.

 
Nobody knows...but why would you want them on PS4 anyway if you have both? With Switch they can be taken on the go as well, and it's not as if any run better on PS4.

Also, carts are just an inherently superior medium for those who buy physical.
^^This post is weird.

The Switch can be taken on the go, but not everyone has the want or need to do so with it (my Switch has stayed in the dock since I bought it).

The PS4/Xbox One are a lot more powerful than the Switch. (Both have more RAM and more processing power. That doesn't make them equal or inferior to newer Switch, but the contrary.) I think you're the first person I've read that's even tried to contest that. With more power in the other two systems, it's almost a certain games will run better on them (frame rate or higher resolution) compared to a Switch version. (Please look up comparisons of Snake Pass on all three systems, if you have your doubts, to see that effects had to be removed and the resolution dropped just to get a stable frame rate on the Switch version.)

Also, while carts are a very good medium for durability, blu-ray discs aren't anything to scoff at. They are built to be far more scratch resistant than CDs/DVDs in the past. And these days, the PS4/XBox One install the entire game to the HDD, so the speed of the disc drive isn't even a factor in slowing down the system for streaming data anymore. (And leads to a lot less wear and usage of the disc after the initial install and minor reads of the disc each time you play the game to verify its existance.)

 
Nobody knows...but why would you want them on PS4 anyway if you have both? With Switch they can be taken on the go as well, and it's not as if any run better on PS4.

Also, carts are just an inherently superior medium for those who buy physical.
As someone who would prefer a PS4 version over a Switch version, my reasons are:

  1. I already have a large PS4 collection, not terribly interested in grabbing Switch games at this point except exclusives that I'm interested in (only have four titles at the moment).
  2. I'm not impressed by the Switch's portability. It's a bit too big, battery life is a bit too short. I feel like existing handhelds do portability better and if I'm playing at home I'd rather play on the PS4. I know the Switch is hybrid, but my point is that in both portable and non-portable formats I prefer other systems and the ability to switch (pun intended) is not a selling point to me.
  3. The PS4 has trophy support, overall better account management.
I'm not trying to crap on the Switch, just providing a point of view from the other side of the fence.

 
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