R-Type Delta

[Firehawke]

LRG is a large part of why I'm almost entirely digital-only now.

I know that opinion won't be popular, but seriously.. fuck those guys. They keep grabbing the stuff I'd want physically, too, which makes it worse.

[TransatlanticFoe]

The Radiant Silvergun situation isn't really relevant to today's Embracer Group situation. In that case, pre-Embracer's purchase, Livewire published the game. The physical release came up shortly after Embracer bought them but so quickly that Embracer wouldn't have driven that decision.

Embracer, via Clear River Games, released physical editions of not only Radiant Silvergun but also Mushi, DFK and Espgaluda II. Those were alll Livewire published titles which had a Limited Run release in the US and, I think with the exception of Mushi, a Superdeluxe (Limited Run's pre-Embracer Japanese arm) release - but were eshop only in Europe. Livewire's licence expired and they removed them from the eshop, so presumably this allowed Embracer to do a European physical release. It happened 2 years down the line, so folk in Europe were in exactly the same situation (and indeed one we're frequently in) - import now and pay more, or wait in hope that an European release is coming.

Since then, Embracer have aligned the two companies (or rather send Clear River stock to be re-badged and sold as Limited Run) so that it's transparent that US and Europe are getting a release and when. Though often lagging behind a Japanese release, so the merry dance of "import or wait" is still there.

Get angry at Limited Run for their practices. And Embracer for continuing to, well, embrace their practices in the US instead of doing a normal retail release - Embracer would absolutely do the Limited Run model in Europe if it thought it would work. But Europe has two Limited Run-style companies (First Press, Strictly Limited) in dire straits and with rock bottom reputation, so a retail release makes sense. And we're grateful for it - usually Europe gets totally fucked over!

[CerealPT]

considering how many cave games have been delisted on the defunt 360 and on the switch yeah, I will take LRG antics over a digital only future.

[dai jou bu]

But Europe has two Limited Run-style companies (First Press, Strictly Limited) in dire straits and with rock bottom reputation, so a retail release makes sense. And we're grateful for it - usually Europe gets totally fucked over!

I was wondering if you could set things straight for me since I’m slightly confused about ININ games and SLG because they seem to have overlap in publishing the same games, and their websites don’t mention anything their relationships to each other.

Are they both owned by the same company, or does ININ have publishing rights outside of Europe for the catalog that SLG also publishes. I always assumed that SLG was the “super-premium iconoclast publisher” (they’re ballsy enough to not even put an age rating label on the games they release, a move that not even LRG does) while ININ was their mass-market retail arm. They have a presence at the gamestops over in the United States (that’s how I got some of the Cotton games at a really good price), but I also made the assumption they also released the same games in retail stores within Europe as well.

Also, if I had to pick the lesser of two evils, SLG has been consistently better than LRG with their products. Aside from not having an age rating label on the packaging art, their customer service and the stuff they put inside the collectors editions are better thought out since I almost never think twice about getting the highest tier version of their collectors editions if it’s a game I’m interested in buying. Not to mention their prices are a little bit more reasonable.

I’m actually genuinely surprised clear River games scooped up r-type delta instead of SLG because they also have a big chunk of Irem’s catalog in their pipeline, not to mention they’re very pro-shmup.

considering how many cave games have been delisted on the defunt 360 and on the switch yeah, I will take LRG antics over a digital only future.

No you don’t. They will literally ship your product to the address you put down on the order over a year ago after you no longer live there, and will sometimes still send it there even if you use their address correction form and will be not only be nearly impossible to reach once it ships, but will then tell you they can’t do anything about it and you need to talk to the post office once it reaches the last part of the delivery.

The post office will then tell you they can’t do anything until the first delivery attempt if it’s unsuccessful but since anyone can sign for it, that’s basically code for “you’re SoL” (Cresta, yeah, that was the game they shipped to my old address).

So you send an email about the incident, then swear to never use LRG again until you get a reply almost 3 months later, and they finally rectify the situation.

… you sure you want to have this kinda high-stakes russian roulette to your several-hundred dollar orders? I know these numbers are nowhere near the level of your lowest high score so a 3 digit value game does look inconsequential, but there’s no score multiplier if you manage to pull off the impossible in this kind of scenario.

[Jucksalbe]

I was wondering if you could set things straight for me since I’m slightly confused about ININ games and SLG because they seem to have overlap in publishing the same games, and their websites don’t mention anything their relationships to each other.

They are just different labels of the same company (United Games).