Limited Run Games has said it is acting as the saviour of physical gaming, as it plans to offer alternatives to discs following Sony's move to an all-digital future for PlayStation titles.
In an interview with GameCentral, chief financial officer and general manager Brendan Madigan and chief operating officer Nic Ashford discussed the company's plans to keep physical copies of video games alive. Sony has announced it will end disc production for PlayStation titles after next year, a decision that has prompted Limited Run to explore other form factors.
A fan-driven business
Limited Run Games started in 2015, when discs were still the most common way to buy and play video games. The company is known for providing collector's editions for current games and remasters, as well as physical editions of titles that were previously digital-only.
Madigan explained that the company's original vision came from a co-founder who had put out a digital-only game called Breach & Clear. "That game was digital-only and kind of his vision was, 'Hey, this game is going to get lost in time.' And he said, 'Let me run the minimum order quantity, bring it out physically, and kind of see what happens.' And I think it sold out within minutes, effectively."
Ashford added that the company's approach is about preservation. "In some respects we're acting as the saviours of physical gaming and saving these games. Because a lot of these games, outside of the Call Of Duties and everything else, may just sort of wither on the vine and just go away if they're kept digital."
Learning from past mistakes
The company has faced controversies over merchandise quality and pre-order issues. Ashford said the company is listening to fans and has put measures in place to improve. "We were totally transparent with our fans. We've kept them involved throughout the remanufacturing process, to the point where the certain percentage of people that have cancelled their order are now coming back, now they see the progress and saying, 'Is it possible you can reinstate our order?'"
Madigan acknowledged past failures. "There have been times over our 10 years where we've let our fans down, right? And I think that's where Nick and I and the new core team that we have at Limited Run were more committed than ever to working directly with our fans and taking their feedback to heart."
Ashford also noted a shift in strategy. "We're thinning them down and being a little bit more selective on what we do. Because we have to, right? If you're releasing 20 or 30 games a month, it's very, very difficult to sort of focus on… or give the sort of higher quality IP what it deserves."
Looking beyond the disc
Madigan said the company cannot manufacture its own discs for the PlayStation 5, as that is something Sony has to do. However, he sees opportunity in other form factors. "There are other form factors, right? So if you go back through the history of gaming, the form factor has changed many times over. Cartridge to disc, Blu-ray, if you want to get more granular. And I think where we come in is, we can help develop whatever that new medium is to give everyone the benefits of physical without it being on a disc."
Madigan hinted at the company's approach. "One of our internal slogans is creating products that deserve to be on your shelf. So if you think of a physical game today, whether it's a standard or a collector edition, people put on their shelf the games that mean the most to them, right? So the formats that we're looking at have to be things that are display worthy, collectible, hold value."
Ashford said the company is looking at ways to give fans something physical and tangible. "A code is a code. We know it's coming. And there's not really a way you can do that. It doesn't actually make a lot of sense to be sending trucks all over the country with pallets and pallets of discs here and there. But nevertheless, the fans want something physical, something tangible, and we can lean into that and give them that experience, albeit in a different way."
Preservation and the future
On game preservation, Ashford noted that the company's parent company, Embracer, has an archive in Karlstad, Sweden. "The owner, Lars Wingefors of Embracer, is a massive, massive games collector to the point of he created a standalone archive. Which is very, very active in going out and buying collections from all over the world."
Ashford said the company has a 125,000 square foot warehouse with product that comes through it, and that preservation is key. "We do support third party museums and collectors and so on. So, yeah, we're in this for the long haul."
Looking ahead, Madigan said the company puts out games from Super Nintendo and NES today, with marketing that explains why the game was important. He pointed to Digital Eclipse's Atari 50 collection as an example of contextualising games in history. He also mentioned Plaion's Atari+ line, which brings out original consoles with original cartridges.
Ashford said he does not believe physical gaming is going anywhere. "Things that are worthy of being kept relevant forever… I see that in music. I see it in movies. There's no reason to believe that it wouldn't happen in gaming."
He concluded: "A lot of people were clutching their pearls about the news of Sony. And, you know, rather than seeing that as the end of the world for gaming, we see that as an opportunity. And we're grasping it with both hands."
