I guess I'm not sure what their goal is, beyond selling out of games. If you sell out of a game because you printed 5K copies but you could have sold out had you printed 10K, then you lost money. If money isn't the main driving factor, and you prefer to keep the "super-hard to get, gone in 2 minutes" level of scarcity intact, then sure, only print 5K copies.
At the end of the day, it comes back to the "selling out" issue. Yeah, WB was a real popular title, and at a few thousand more copies, I'm sure more could have sold or been produced to meet demand. As I'm sure NT would and could see the same benefits.
But's it's a fine line, and based on LRG business model, it's ALWAYS going to be in their best interest to sell out, and be done with a title, than to over produce and not sell out. Most of these games go as quick as they do, because of "demand" and being "limited". Of course a title can still be limited at 8000-10,000, but how quickly would those numbers sell out? The slower and longer it takes, the slower and less demand will be. Everyone here is looking at these situations from the outside, and after the fact, which is always easy to do, as we have all the info at that point.
LRG has mentioned several times, how when an item is perceived as not enough, it goes quick, but as soon as an item is hanging around a day or two, they get slammed with cancellations from people who no longer want two copies(or maybe even one copy), as the demand is no longer there. I think at this point, due to having a larger fan base, they could maybe up some of their game qty's. But since most of these deals are done way in advanced, I personally would NEVER even begin to guess estimates for a title that won't be out until 6-12 months from now. And having these asian options happen, they could really get boned, if a title comes out before hand, and they over produce theirs.
All it takes is one title that doesn't sell out, or maybe is produced over and beyond, and then they'll have real issues. LRG just can't have inventory sitting. Now look at "N" who is in the business of selling the most products, to the greatest number of people, and you get the NES Mini that was for sure funds left on the table, when over producing an item like that, is really the nature of the business. TV's, Cars, Electronics, are always discounted, or put on sale to make room for new products, and that is just a part of standard retail business.
If a big retailer has to discount anything, "N" has already been paid, so really it may only affect future orders if an item sits for awhile. LRG pays everyone upfront, so if an item doesn't sell, they are SOL! And stuck holding the bag, as everyone will have been paid, but them. So at the end of the day, to maintain their business, they are going to leave disappointed customers more often than not, as this doesn't really work any other way than how it does now.
those people, seriously.
