Tothoro

Does anyone have any questions about our update I can answer?

A couple I've seen elsewhere (it might be good to put these in an FAQ somewhere):

• Does this mean trading cards are gone for good, or will they still be produced/purchasable separately?
• Is anything else going to replace the trading cards? Are the newsletter digest things coming back, stickers, etc.?
• For the collector's items "without complication" - what does that entail exactly? Steelbooks, acrylics, art cards?
• For the collector's boxes, are there any existing games that use this box or a "prototype" of this box?

From me personally: Given the current production/shipping backlog and the flow of new releases, when do you expect the improvements to have a visible impact on queue and turnaround time? Q3? 2024? Later?

I wouldn't call the cards stupid per say, but more of an extra than anything. There is a 5 dollar off code in their latest email titled "An Important Message from Limited Run" expiring on 04/30/2023. I may bite on Shin-Chan now, but need to try Moon to see if that would be a good physical purchase. What's likely going to happen is I will play and eventually beat Moon digital and get Shin-Chan when it's a lot cheaper (about $20). I'll see and I can give some Moon impressions in the Switch thread.

Keep in mind shipping from LRG is usually more than $5 domestically and most of their distro line stuff (which Moon and Shin-Chan are part of) goes to retailers like Amazon where you can get free shipping.

So you didn't mention this, but any game up for preorder after April 1 will no longer come with a trading card. All previous preorders will still come with a card. Their original printer was purchased by the Pokemon Company and finding alternatives has caused delays in games being completed to ship out.

That's a good callout too. I don't really care about the cards (I'd usually just sell them off in lots when I ordered from LRG regularly) but I know some people are big fans. Here's the full text:
 

After much deliberation, we have decided that our numbered Limited Run releases will no longer include a free trading card. This is not something we take lightly, but it is a necessary step we must take to increase our fulfillment speed. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, trading cards could be manufactured in weeks. However, a boom in demand for trading cards from new collectors caused printers to be pushed to their capacity. As a result of this increased demand, our card manufacturer was purchased by the Pokemon Company, pushing us to locate new suppliers. Because of this, trading card runs can now take 3 to 5 months to complete.

As our production time for Standard Edition games has sped up, we have seen a new problem. Many of our Standard Edition games now arrive before the cards have been printed. They may sit in our warehouse for weeks while waiting on cards. We don't feel this is acceptable. Our customers and fans deserve their games when they are complete.

Any Limited Run numbered release that opened pre-orders before April 1st, 2023 will still come with cards as promised. No existing orders made before that date will be impacted!

There are also mentions of LRG Europe and CE standardization in the full article, if those topics are of interest to folks.

Update on some of LRG's "shipping initiatives": https://limitedrunga...nitiatives-2023

Some of this feels like really basic, common sense stuff that they should've been doing all along (like having everything needed for manufacture when pre-orders end) but I guess better late than never? Credit where credit's due, the attempt at increased transparency is nice. I just wasn't aware their logistics processes were so immature.

Overall I remain cynical, though. Their 2021 update identified a lot of the same issues and nothing noticeably improved in the following two years.

One thing to keep in mind about Rightstuf is that they've always had a huge, overaching emphasis on customer experience and customer satisfaction. The founder called it "Super Service" and spoke about it in detail in his retirement message from a few months ago:

I am a bit concerned about how the company will adapt to the Crunchyroll acquisition but they've always done right by me in my 7 or 8 years shopping with them. Recently they even started sending out reminder emails listing all of my open pre-orders. Great company altogether.

Unfortunately, I don't feel like that is a priority for LRG. In the early days, sure. Even up to the release of Celeste and the accompanying apology card, it felt like it. But it's been downhill since, and pretty much every piece of feedback falls on deaf ears. They don't even bother responding to the feedback channel in their own Discord anymore.