Crimzon Clover World Explosion (Switch)

[SeafoamGaming]

Here’s the FPG status update!!!

https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/ ... oes-update

Wow… nothing! Not even about older games than crimzon clover.

Jesus christ the game is cursed

[Sengoku Strider]

Here’s the FPG status update!!!

https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/ ... oes-update

Wow… nothing! Not even about older games than crimzon clover.

Jesus christ the game is cursed

I think it's time to form a legal advocacy group for physical shmup buyers who are just getting fucked with.

I'm moving in a while and I literally had it on my schedule today to check what was up with this game, if I needed to contact them about an address change. But I'm getting the distinct impression I'm never going to see it either way.

[SeafoamGaming]

Here’s the FPG status update!!!

https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/ ... oes-update

Wow… nothing! Not even about older games than crimzon clover.

Jesus christ the game is cursed

I think it's time to form a legal advocacy group for physical shmup buyers who are just getting fucked with.

I'm moving in a while and I literally had it on my schedule today to check what was up with this game, if I needed to contact them about an address change. But I'm getting the distinct impression I'm never going to see it either way.

Yeah i think the update today was spurred about by me writing an article last week looking into fpg: mainly the continued refund dodging and how I barely heard stories of people getting refunds.

https://seafoamgaming.com/2024/05/30/sl ... evelopers/

Turns out the one thing that did work for people who actually got them was threatening to report them to the German Consumer Rights agency, ( Verbraucherzentrale ) or actually going ahead and doing it; dodging refund requests is a nono in Germany/EU. I strongly recommend people do that if they still havent heard back on refunds.

Still, lots of other annoyances; indies not getting paid (though the chained echoes publisher did), also getting ghosted, and the very big likelihood the only reason chained echoes is getting all the attention is because it is the only game that sold enough for them to justify actually printing: shopify data indicates stuff like Sydney hunter barely sold more than 400 copies. Crimzon is funnily one of the most popular games and it didnt even come close to a full sellout!

Quite bluntly it seems they just can’t make the games but like with dispatch they’re too stubborn to actually admit it, and this time the indie devs are being screwed up front too. What a fucking mess.

[Sengoku Strider]

Yeah i think the update today was spurreed about by me writing an article last week looking into fpg: mainly the continued refund dodging and how I barely heard stories of people getting refunds.

https://seafoamgaming.com/2024/05/30/sl ... evelopers/

Turns out the one thing that did work for people who actually got them was threatening to report them to the German Consumer Rights agency, or actually going ahead and doing it; dodging refund requests is a nono in Germany/EU. I strongly recommend people do that if they still havent heard back on refunds.

Still, lots of other annoyances; indies not getting paid (though the chained echoes publisher did), also getting ghosted, and the very big likelihood the only reason chained echoes is getting all the attention is because it is the only game that sold enough for them to justify actually printing: shopify data indicates stuff like Sydney hunter barely sold more than 400 copies. Crimzon is funnily one of the most popular games and it didnt even come close to a full sellout!

Quite bluntly it seems they just can’t make the games but like with dispatch they’re too stubborn to actually admit it, and this time the indie devs are being screwed up front too. What a fucking mess.

Good on you for keeping going with these articles. Yeah, from a distance the business model with a lot of these companies seems to be to offer 5 games and hope to get enough money from two or three of them to print all 5. The sensible thing would be to just refund the titles that don't make budget, but I'm guessing it can be touch and go making ends meet every month on overhead, and they're probably not making a huge living off any of this either so it's tough to let what money they have on hand go. Or maybe they're just putting too much in their own pockets, who knows. Either way they're missing deadlines by years, so it's obvious the money doesn't add up. That's not just a bandwidth problem.

[Steven]

Yesterday they finally got back to me about my refund after just under two months. I had forgotten about it entirely! Looks like I might be getting it in the end.

Given that I paid in USD and the yen is almost completely worthless now, I am looking forward to seeing how much profit I will make from this. Should be about 55% or so.

[guigui]

Hmmm, I have not asked for refund yet on my Collector Edition of Crimzon Clover with 1st press game.

Taking the bet that, if they actually release it then I can one of the fews owning a kind of unique item out there. Is this bet already lost ?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Hmmm, I have not asked for refund yet on my Collector Edition of Crimzon Clover with 1st press game.

Taking the bet that, if they actually release it then I can one of the fews owning a kind of unique item out there. Is this bet already lost ?

I'm in the same boat as you are, guigui. How hard is it to source all the various components that comprise of a Crimson Clover Collector's Edition set anyways?

The special one-of-a-kind Crimson Clover themed Japanese arcade ball-topper wouldn't be that hard to get made -- just get in contact with the arcade game parts manufacturer and place an order for "XX" amount and it'd be done within a certain amount of time. However for a special batch order as this, it'd would need to paid "up front first" beforehand, then initial production would proceed in a timely manner (however long that might take is anyone's guess). Clover-TAC must be quite upset with the CC project in dealing with First Press Games boutique video game publisher fiasco as it currently is.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[guigui]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one left here, thank you PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Speaking of Clover-TAC, indeed, anyone knows what he thinks about this issue ? Maybe he can do something with FPG themselves ?

[Jonpachi]

There's almost certainly a legal agreement to grant FPG the rights to distribute the Switch version as a physical cartridge, and I doubt there's anything CloverTAC can do about that. He's probably hoping to get paid eventually too, but it's all a mess now.

One thing I am fairly certain of though; this is not about it being hard to get anything printed/created/shipped. This is about them lacking the capital to make it happen, and there's probably no way to fill that gap in their finances without some magic windfall. This whole wannabe-LRG market is collapsing now that the Switch is sunsetting, and CCWE and a few others would seem to be the unfortunate causalities of that.

[Steven]

How many of these LRG ripoffs are there? Worst Press Games, Strictly Limited Games, and Super Rare Games are the ones that I know about, but there are probably more, and most of them probably only started to exist after the release of the Switch. Every time I learn of a new one I wonder if there actually sufficient space in the LRG ripoff market for all of these different companies that do exactly the same thing, that being to take forever to not ship games.

At least LRG is mostly reliable, but I'm done with all of them now, LRG included, and no, I did not buy their Kyuukyoku Tiger-Heli.

[spmbx]

There's some lists on reddit. For a general idea this is one of those. Not sure its complete and not sure of they really are limited (like arc, numskull?)
1Print Games
Arc System Works
BSIDE Games
Dispatch Games
eastasiasoft
Fangamer
First Press Games
Funbox Media
GameFairy
iam8bit
Idea Factory
Koei Tecmo EU
Limited Run Games
NGDEV
Nicalis
NISA
Numskull Games
Omake Games
Physicality Games
Pix'n Love
Pixelheart
PM Studios
Premium Edition Games
Red Art Games
Rice Digital
Signature Edition Games
Skybound
Special Reserve Games
Strictly Limited Games
Super Rare Games
Thunderful Games
Ultra Collectors
VBlank
VGNYSoft
Wired Production

[Steven]

Yeah, ArcSys, Koei Tecmo EU, NISA, and Idea Factory are really weird to put on that list. I could sort of see it if they have their own limited editions that they only sell on their own online stores, but you can go to basically any brick and mortar store in their respective regions and find mass-produced copies of their regular editions.

[cfx]

.

[TransatlanticFoe]

So, it seems like the regular editions are not coming any sooner either:

https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/ ... ing-delays

Can't skip ahead apparently. No idea why, given they're 2+ years behind at this point.

Crimzon Clover has been "submitted to lot check" (not sure what there is to check, the build has been stable on the eshop for years) since early 2023 and loads of their titles are listed Q1 2024, so it's fair to say they don't put effort into keeping that page up to date.

[Sengoku Strider]

Crimzon Clover has been "submitted to lot check" (not sure what there is to check, the build has been stable on the eshop for years) since early 2023 and loads of their titles are listed Q1 2024, so it's fair to say they don't put effort into keeping that page up to date.

I'm idly wondering if that's a Lionel Hutz-esque typo. "Submitted to lot check? No. Submit! Check (this page) a lot!"

[Gamer707b]

You all have unbelievable patience. I "pre-ordered" Crimson Clover years ago, whenever it went up for pre-order, but once I realized it was getting delayed, i quickly contacted First press and requested a refund. It took a good 4 or 5 emails, but I got it eventually. You guys are saints with the amount of patience you all have. I just don't have that kind of patience. I don't want my money tied up with a company for that long while "they figure out what they're doing." That was only the second time I put my money down that far in advance for a game. First was LRG. Experience wasn't too bad, but I'd rather just pay a bit extra and get it on the secondary market when it's available. Sucks to see this game still having release issues. I truly hope you all get the game as you all deserve it with all the waiting you've done.

[Creamy Goodness]

I see it as a sunk cost. I'm not frivolous by any means, but for $50 it just doesn't seem worth my time to try to get a refund. I am just now hoping I just get it.

[Bear78]

There's some lists on reddit. For a general idea this is one of those. Not sure its complete and not sure of they really are limited (like arc, numskull?)

1Print Games
Arc System Works - I wouldn't really count them.
BSIDE Games - Dead
Dispatch Games - Dead
eastasiasoft
Fangamer
First Press Games - on it's last leg?
Funbox Media
GameFairy - Dead at this point? Nothing new in years.
iam8bit
Idea Factory - I wouldn't really count them.
Koei Tecmo EU - I wouldn't really count them.
Limited Run Games
NGDEV
Nicalis
NISA - I wouldn't really count them.
Numskull Games - I wouldn't really count them.
Omake Games - Dead?
Physicality Games - Dead
Pix'n Love
Pixelheart
PM Studios - I wouldn't really count them.
Premium Edition Games
Red Art Games
Rice Digital - I wouldn't really count them.
Signature Edition Games
Skybound - I wouldn't really count them.
Special Reserve Games - More or less Dead
Strictly Limited Games
Super Rare Games
Thunderful Games - I wouldn't really count them.
Ultra Collectors - Dead
VBlank
VGNYSoft
Wired Production - I wouldn't really count them.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Red Art Games was accepting pre-orders for it's Switch Shinorubi SE & LE sets. They still haven't delivered them either.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[cfx]

.

[Jonpachi]

Isn't Shinorubi available right now through other sellers? Play-Asia has had it up for a while.

[m.sniffles.esq]

A really great business model...

Spoiler

[Bear78]

Isn't Shinorubi available right now through other sellers? Play-Asia has had it up for a while.

Standard has been out for a bit, I think it's just the CE that got delayed.

[Nugs]

I received the Shinorubi Deluxe edition from Red Art games a while ago.

[SeafoamGaming]

New “status” update today, blaming every single delay on cardboard issues. Yes, really.

https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/our-progress

[TransatlanticFoe]

And this impacts the standard editions how exactly?? It's all very bizarre.

[m.sniffles.esq]

New “status” update today, blaming every single delay on cardboard issues. Yes, really.

Where I grew up, there was this loft at the end of the block that would hire disabled (physically and mentally) persons to hand-assemble packaging.
Based on the time lapsed video, I'd wager they could bang out over 500 before lunch. (out of a sense of civic duty, I hired them to assemble fancy, elaborate record jackets a couple of times. The place that was employing me wanted to use interns)

In other words, there are existing industries to solve their problem, if they cared enough to cut into their profits to do so

just saying

[PC Engine Fan X!]

So all those CE sets have the bigger boxes folded by hand with 1st Press Games doing manual labor to get them assembled? Why not have the company that was sourced to print the cardboard boxes have them shipped already folded, there are specialized high-speed machinery that can perform such tasks much faster than if folded by hand indeed. I was watching a local news morning show about how a local olive oil company uses an entirely automated olive pressing machine takes entire whole olives (with seeds and all) turns them into freshly pressed olive oil -- just one of those olive oil pressing machines aren't cheap to begin with either, but it's a one-time business expense that pays for itself in the long run during olive harvesting season every year -- use the correct automation processes to get the job done quicker and faster with "less downtime" -- time is money in the end.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Jonpachi]

Perhaps time is money, but at this moment in time they have no money. Hence paying for only unfolded cardboard and folding it by hand.

[Bear78]

And this impacts the standard editions how exactly?? It's all very bizarre.

The standard editions also come in a cardboard box lol.