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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He said on Twitter it will all be inside the Switch case. Meaning the keychain will cause it to bulge out like the Cave Story+ GameStop edition. I'll be skipping it for that reason, as pedantic as that is. I can't deal with a bulging case. The River City 3DS game that has that issue taunts me on my shelf by not sitting nice with my other games.
He just told me on twitter that everything *should* lay flat in the case without any bulging issues.
 
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Undertale game boxes didn't have the ESRB rating on them. I wonder if that's only for the first shipment and the December deliveries will have the ESRB rating.

 
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Undertale game boxes didn't have the ESRB rating on them. I wonder if that's only for the first shipment and the December deliveries will have the ESRB rating.
Reprints won't require ESRB. It's only required for new art asset approvals.
 
Given how thin Switch cases are, I'd be really suprised if a key chain, CD, manual, and 3D the glasses fit in the case with 0 bulge.
Well the 3D glasses should lay flat in the manual, and that CD is one of those mini ones I would guess, so that shouldn't take up much room either, but I agree, the key chain could be the wildcard here depending on it's size. But if it's placed on the opposite end of where the CD will be, I could see it working. I've fit more in to less over the years. LOL

 
Given how thin Switch cases are, I'd be really suprised if a key chain, CD, manual, and 3D the glasses fit in the case with 0 bulge.
I know it defeats the value of a sealed collection, but open your copy of CaveStory+ from GameStop. It has the keychain in a cloth bag on top of the cd on top of the manual in the area above the cart holder. The bulge is caused by the keychain loop being on top of the keychain vinyl. If the keychain in RCR:DX is not layered then the glasses will be thinner than that cloth bag and I have no doubt they can pack all of it inside the case.

For anyone not wanting to open their CS+ just go watch an unboxing video as there are a few on YouTube. But for Doomstink open it and you can fix the issue you have. Or you can shake it a little and maybe unjar the keychain loop from the vinyl as it's different than the more fixed to cardboard one inside River City Tokyo Rumble.

I have no doubts RCR will lay flat.
 
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My copy is open - the case hasn't assumed a regular shape again despite having removed the keychain.

I don't understand why they wouldn't just take the Puyo Puyo Tetris approach and put the keychain in a special outer box. I'd much rather that versus everything jammed into a thin case.
 
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My copy is open - the case hasn't assumed a regular shape again despite having removed the keychain.

I don't understand why they wouldn't just take the Puyo Puyo Tetris approach and put the keychain in a special outer box. I'd much rather that versus everything jammed into a thin case.
you are in the publishing world, you know the answer...
 
Thanks so much for the heads up! I was dumb when it first was available and forgot to get it. I nearly bought a copy on ebay when they were about 50 bucks, but I figured I should ask iam8bit if there was any chance them being available again. They never got back to me, and shortly after that the game spiked to 70-80 on ebay. They just recently started going down again, I'm glad I saw this post before I grabbed one :)

 
err is the shipping at iam8bit supposed to start at $21.99 for 2x games?   Trying to buy Hyper Light Drifter and the two shipping options are really expensive. 

 
HLD was available for months I will lmao if this new shipment sells out quick just because it's "rare" now.
It is already gone. I'm guessing this was just left over extras from the original batch, since they didn't change the number of copies to more than 9000. So I never expected it to last long anyway.

 
It is already gone. I'm guessing this was just left over extras from the original batch, since they didn't change the number of copies to more than 9000. So I never expected it to last long anyway.
That sounds about right, as most of these places always hold extras for loyal fans/customers, so you often see a small amount released after a time. Sadly, after the Vita version was cancelled, I had no interest in getting this. But I'll give it a go in a few years once I get a PS4, and during a cheap sale offering for sure.

 
Picked up the Retro City Rampage DX Switch CE even though $51 shipped is definitely a little steep.
Not as steep as the scalper prices with be. I'm in for one. 1981 copies left of the CE already. I give it ten minutes.

Edit: Seems to be slowing down now. Just now dipped below the 1800s. Maybe collectors are getting fatigued over buy this game over and over and over and over..... I missed all the other physical releases except the very first one. Physical Vita games are my joint.

 
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Is Paypal not working for anyone else at Vblank? Really don't wanna give them my CC info... 

Also surprised the standard is going so fast. 

 
when it comes to buying stuff online, i hate paying for shipping lol. thats why amazon i always have to buy over $25 of stuff. stuff like this, iam8bit and LRG i got no choice.

 
Is Paypal not working for anyone else at Vblank? Really don't wanna give them my CC info...

Also surprised the standard is going so fast.
PayPal took longer than usual to load, but still worked fine for me.

Looks like ~1450 CE and ~250 standard left. Definitely interesting to see the standard get snapped up so fast. Here I thought $15 for all those little extras was pretty reasonable!
 
Looks like the standard is moving around a lot... it was down to 178 when I checked out and now it's up to 206. The CE is going down consistently. 

 
Got in my order for the Collector's Edition of Retro City Rampage for the Switch. I love how VBlank has been catering to nostalgia. Any company that is willing to port their game to DOS I'm on board with.

 
I thought the CE just had the maguffins in the box, but it actually says CE and has a reversible cover. Yeah, that's cool, I needed two more copies of this bloody game lol. 

 
Standard for me. The game is only okay and I already have it for PS4. I'd imagine collectors double dipping like myself is what is strongly driving the standard over CE sales.
 
Got in my order for the Collector's Edition of Retro City Rampage for the Switch. I love how VBlank has been catering to nostalgia. Any company that is willing to port their game to DOS I'm on board with.
Same here, I have so many damn versions of this game, and have yet to finish a single version. LOL

I'm always happy to support single Indie type guys like this, but I'm really hoping this is the last damn version of RCR offered. Now we should be moving over to 50 versions of Shakedown Hawaii soon enough. LOL

 
How many copies of each version did they end up producing?  I don't see any limit on ordering, nor does it say it's a limited print run like the other releases...  It would appear to me that they plan on reprinting more copies in the future.

 
How many copies of each version did they end up producing? I don't see any limit on ordering, nor does it say it's a limited print run like the other releases... It would appear to me that they plan on reprinting more copies in the future.
According to the owner of VBlank, there are 3,000 CEs plus some extras that will be sold at a later date and the standard edition is limited for now, but he is open to doing a reprint if there is enough demand.

 
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Odd how quick the standard sold out but the CE is still left... especially since the standard might get reprinted. 

Or maybe people are just hesitant to buy the game again. Feel like this game's gotten so many physical releases already. 

 
Ordered a standard version as soon as it went live. Glad to see both versions selling out so fast as it shows there’s already a huge demand for physical NS games.

Hyped to get my hands on physical versions of games like Tiny Barbarian DX, Sine Mora EX, The End Is Nigh, Ittle Dew 2 & Axiom Verge.
 
The VBlank physical releases have never had the rabid demand that LRG titles usually generate. This is more a matter of marketing as opposed to anything else. LRG has built up their business model around extremely limited print runs that sell out almost immediately. VBlank is considerably less frequent in their release schedule, and is much more focused on just one developer's output. They put out a DrinkBox game recently, but that was the the first time they've published someone else's title.

Of course, none of that matters to me. I came to collect, not to flip. So having a physical copy of Retro City Rampage for the Switch is a foregone conclusion for me. It's a physical copy of a game I love, from a developer I like, on a platform that I think it would be a really good fit for, with all the sorts of retro-trappings that I like in general, and which are very appropriate to this title in particular. Easy sell.

 
^ $35.99 shipped seemed a bit steep too for the standard edition but I’m happy to have a physical version of this game on NS. $30 to $31 shipped woulda been much more digestible but obviously no one seemed to hesitate as the Standard Edition sold out pretty fast. Last I checked the Collector’s Edition has under 350 copies left. It’s looking very possible both versions will be sold out within less than 24 hours.
 
Switch just came out.  Easy pickings for anyone wanting a new easy to collect for platform from the start when releases are slow and before any games become "rare".

For now.  

Until next September-October hit and 150 AAA shovelware games come out at once.  And then another 900 games a month when LRG is cleared for Switch releases.

 
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Switch just came out. Easy pickings for anyone wanting a new easy to collect for platform from the start when releases are slow and before any games become "rare".

For now.

Until next September-October hit and 150 AAA shovelware games come out at once. And then another 900 games a month when LRG is cleared for Switch releases.
It's going to be a nightmare for the 68 people who just have to have a complete set!
 
bread's done
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