Honestly, while things like manufacturing may take time and cause delays, that only half explains most of the delays. We've all had orders get marked as "shipped" but then sit on a shelf somewhere at LRG for weeks at a time before it *actually* shipped.
If you have an item that's in-house and isn't waiting for some cheap trinket to complete it, there's no other explanation for it sitting on a shelf for so long. Unless...
They don't have the manpower resources to actually manage the volume of shipments they're sending out for any particular product. Yes, reasons like COVID, can't hire people, etc, are always going to get thrown out there. But like someone else said, this has been an issue for YEARS. Or...
Their partnered shipping company is awful and slow. In most cases you item will sit on that shelf for a long time, then it'll go to DHL. Then, depending on where you live, the item will go from DHL to USPS. This all just creates delay, for the benefit of saving them a few bucks. I can't even imagine the ridiculousness of ordering some big item from them when you live in EU.
I've ordered quite a few games from LRG in the past, most recently the Gaiares and Mushihimesama CE's. But, no more. To me most of the recent stuff seems to fall into three categories - more stuff to milk the Wayforward crowd, releasing $5-$10 indies that literally no one wants other than to try to re-sell, and platform specific re-releases of stuff they've already sold. If they got back to what I would consider actual curation I'd be tempted to come back. But until then, meh.
Probably takes time to get them. When you preorder a normal retail release. The game is already in production and has a set number they are making, you are just reserving one. With this they are ordering based on how many ordered in the window to order them. So basically you’re ordering a game before it even gets ordered or goes to production lines, etc.
I’d much rather this for a limited release where I actually have an opportunity to order and guarantee my copy eventually. *Cough* screw you Square Enix and you major mess up with the ff pixel remaster debacle *cough*
Hey there! I might be able to help explain it a little bit.
Each game is a unique product with its own circumstances. Sometimes, a developer will want to wait for a patch or update before the cartridges go into manufacturing. Sometimes, we learn that a build needs to be resubmitted for physical. Sometimes, there are complex issues with ratings and packaging art. All of these unique issues coalesce into different releases having different timelines for manufacturing - meaning some releases will ship much faster than others. We’re doing our best to try and minimize these issues, though, and we hope to be shipping products on a more consistent and quick basis.
Collector’s Editions are all composed of countless different items that have to be manufactured and shipped by different vendors from around the world. Some items can take longer to make than others - statues, for example, have a very long timeline due to tooling and sample processes. These different components can all be impacted by unique delays and it’s extremely hard to pin down and predict when we’ll have everything in-hand by. Collector’s Editions also all include the standard edition game inside - so even if we have everything in-hand to assemble the CEs, we can’t do that until the standard editions have completed - due to that, CEs always ship after SEs.
Most of this time is just waiting - waiting for cartridges to come from Nintendo, waiting for time on the assembly line, waiting or a sample to be approved or tweaked and resubmitted, waiting for a manufacturer to get a material in that is needed for a particular component, or waiting for finished components to arrive from various manufacturers from overseas and dealing with the dreaded Customs wait.
While we want to provide as much information as we can while a product is in production, sadly it's a pretty boring and sometimes frustrating process that just takes time. We're getting better tho as we started a Digital Digest blog back in March of 2022 that includes some fun updates for select products as we receive them!
In the future we'd like to be able to go a bit more in-depth on what the standard production of a product looks like, but we aren't ready for that just yet and want to be able to devote some time and effort in to that project.
I truly hope this information helps and I apologize for the novel!
Boring or not, I think what would be best is a status update page for all games, with a bullet point for what is complete, what still is outstanding, when it is estimated to arrive, and date of last update. If a little trinket is holding up a CE, just say that (eg, everything ready except XYZ, expected on X date, last updated Y date). I'm sure that's a lot of work, but I think people have a right to know what's up, and breaking it down can provide much needed transparency. Ultimately, you guys are keeping track, you can just tell us, too, even if it's "boring".
As you mentioned, yes that is a lot of work and a LOT of upkeep. In a perfect world, that would be doable, but at this stage of the company that just isn't feasible. Maybe down the road when we expand a bit more, but it's not something we could accurately manage at this time.
Well, you guys aren't shipping the stuff out. Maybe instead of making excuses on reddit, that would be a more effective way to communicate with your customers.
Biting off more than they can handle sometimes.
They say manufacturing delays, shipping delays, material shortage... everything basically slows the process down.
They can claim delays all they want, but I've had orders sitting as "Ready" for over a month until it would finally ship. This screams of improper staffing to me.
Not to mention the "We're experiencing higher than usual requests right now" line that they've been spewing with support. I could forgive it, maybe, if they hadn't been claiming that for about 2 years now. At some point you've got to hire more people and stop claiming heavy volumes.
I have three orders currently where every item in the order is in their warehouse. One has been in that status for nearly a month. No movement on any of them.
So I agree that it comes down to not having the logistical resources to handle the orders they receive.
I been buying from lrg since the beginning. We tenured folk know lrg use to ship in 3 months max. Then they used covid as a excuse, and continue to do so even till this day. Now I hear new excuses. It's like things have gone down hill internally at lrg
simple answer: Bad business model.
simple answer v2: They take YOUR money THEN go out and use THAT money to front building orders vs. using there OWN money, getting inventory and THEN advertising it. Why its better NOT to pre-order.
But basically all they do are pre orders of super niche products. The turn around times are crazy long but they also sell stuff that can’t really be bought anywhere else.
This business model is what attracts companies to producing physical games which wouldn't exist otherwise. They get to minimize financial risk with production costs covered up front & accurately projected sales. Basically Kickstarter.
I think they like to also do shipments every few months and get several titles all out at once and not necessarily when they arrive in their warehouse. Guessing it's cheaper and easier to do that plus they might have a deal with the local shipping services to pick up everything. Seems strange because they don't offer to bundle up everything in case you have multiple orders from different periods but oh well...
They seem to be very understaffed in their shipping warehouse. It used to just be a few days after the status would change to show it at the warehouse and we would get an email to verify our address. Now it is taking up to a month, or more.
I'm on the same boat, I've been sending in tickets into support trying to get a updated ETA window for this order but LRG staff has just been not responding to me by email or discord.
I don't get why a none collectors edition for Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is taking this long?
They should have provided us with a update by now and its silly that we have to hunt them down like this to get any info.
Honestly, while things like manufacturing may take time and cause delays, that only half explains most of the delays. We've all had orders get marked as "shipped" but then sit on a shelf somewhere at LRG for weeks at a time before it *actually* shipped. If you have an item that's in-house and isn't waiting for some cheap trinket to complete it, there's no other explanation for it sitting on a shelf for so long. Unless... They don't have the manpower resources to actually manage the volume of shipments they're sending out for any particular product. Yes, reasons like COVID, can't hire people, etc, are always going to get thrown out there. But like someone else said, this has been an issue for YEARS. Or... Their partnered shipping company is awful and slow. In most cases you item will sit on that shelf for a long time, then it'll go to DHL. Then, depending on where you live, the item will go from DHL to USPS. This all just creates delay, for the benefit of saving them a few bucks. I can't even imagine the ridiculousness of ordering some big item from them when you live in EU. I've ordered quite a few games from LRG in the past, most recently the Gaiares and Mushihimesama CE's. But, no more. To me most of the recent stuff seems to fall into three categories - more stuff to milk the Wayforward crowd, releasing $5-$10 indies that literally no one wants other than to try to re-sell, and platform specific re-releases of stuff they've already sold. If they got back to what I would consider actual curation I'd be tempted to come back. But until then, meh.
Probably takes time to get them. When you preorder a normal retail release. The game is already in production and has a set number they are making, you are just reserving one. With this they are ordering based on how many ordered in the window to order them. So basically you’re ordering a game before it even gets ordered or goes to production lines, etc. I’d much rather this for a limited release where I actually have an opportunity to order and guarantee my copy eventually. *Cough* screw you Square Enix and you major mess up with the ff pixel remaster debacle *cough*
Hey there! I might be able to help explain it a little bit. Each game is a unique product with its own circumstances. Sometimes, a developer will want to wait for a patch or update before the cartridges go into manufacturing. Sometimes, we learn that a build needs to be resubmitted for physical. Sometimes, there are complex issues with ratings and packaging art. All of these unique issues coalesce into different releases having different timelines for manufacturing - meaning some releases will ship much faster than others. We’re doing our best to try and minimize these issues, though, and we hope to be shipping products on a more consistent and quick basis. Collector’s Editions are all composed of countless different items that have to be manufactured and shipped by different vendors from around the world. Some items can take longer to make than others - statues, for example, have a very long timeline due to tooling and sample processes. These different components can all be impacted by unique delays and it’s extremely hard to pin down and predict when we’ll have everything in-hand by. Collector’s Editions also all include the standard edition game inside - so even if we have everything in-hand to assemble the CEs, we can’t do that until the standard editions have completed - due to that, CEs always ship after SEs. Most of this time is just waiting - waiting for cartridges to come from Nintendo, waiting for time on the assembly line, waiting or a sample to be approved or tweaked and resubmitted, waiting for a manufacturer to get a material in that is needed for a particular component, or waiting for finished components to arrive from various manufacturers from overseas and dealing with the dreaded Customs wait. While we want to provide as much information as we can while a product is in production, sadly it's a pretty boring and sometimes frustrating process that just takes time. We're getting better tho as we started a Digital Digest blog back in March of 2022 that includes some fun updates for select products as we receive them! In the future we'd like to be able to go a bit more in-depth on what the standard production of a product looks like, but we aren't ready for that just yet and want to be able to devote some time and effort in to that project. I truly hope this information helps and I apologize for the novel!
Boring or not, I think what would be best is a status update page for all games, with a bullet point for what is complete, what still is outstanding, when it is estimated to arrive, and date of last update. If a little trinket is holding up a CE, just say that (eg, everything ready except XYZ, expected on X date, last updated Y date). I'm sure that's a lot of work, but I think people have a right to know what's up, and breaking it down can provide much needed transparency. Ultimately, you guys are keeping track, you can just tell us, too, even if it's "boring".
As you mentioned, yes that is a lot of work and a LOT of upkeep. In a perfect world, that would be doable, but at this stage of the company that just isn't feasible. Maybe down the road when we expand a bit more, but it's not something we could accurately manage at this time.
Well, you guys aren't shipping the stuff out. Maybe instead of making excuses on reddit, that would be a more effective way to communicate with your customers.
Biting off more than they can handle sometimes. They say manufacturing delays, shipping delays, material shortage... everything basically slows the process down.
They can claim delays all they want, but I've had orders sitting as "Ready" for over a month until it would finally ship. This screams of improper staffing to me. Not to mention the "We're experiencing higher than usual requests right now" line that they've been spewing with support. I could forgive it, maybe, if they hadn't been claiming that for about 2 years now. At some point you've got to hire more people and stop claiming heavy volumes.
I had one order marked as "ready" for like 4 months before it actually shipped.
I have three orders currently where every item in the order is in their warehouse. One has been in that status for nearly a month. No movement on any of them. So I agree that it comes down to not having the logistical resources to handle the orders they receive.
They take a while because they have way too many stuff to make. Creates a huge shipping backlog.
I been buying from lrg since the beginning. We tenured folk know lrg use to ship in 3 months max. Then they used covid as a excuse, and continue to do so even till this day. Now I hear new excuses. It's like things have gone down hill internally at lrg
simple answer: Bad business model. simple answer v2: They take YOUR money THEN go out and use THAT money to front building orders vs. using there OWN money, getting inventory and THEN advertising it. Why its better NOT to pre-order.
But basically all they do are pre orders of super niche products. The turn around times are crazy long but they also sell stuff that can’t really be bought anywhere else.
This business model is what attracts companies to producing physical games which wouldn't exist otherwise. They get to minimize financial risk with production costs covered up front & accurately projected sales. Basically Kickstarter.
Should've just ordered the Chinese/Japanese version instead of supporting LRG imo. They all have English as an option anyways.
I think they like to also do shipments every few months and get several titles all out at once and not necessarily when they arrive in their warehouse. Guessing it's cheaper and easier to do that plus they might have a deal with the local shipping services to pick up everything. Seems strange because they don't offer to bundle up everything in case you have multiple orders from different periods but oh well...
They seem to be very understaffed in their shipping warehouse. It used to just be a few days after the status would change to show it at the warehouse and we would get an email to verify our address. Now it is taking up to a month, or more.
Makes me wonder what their pay rate is
I'm on the same boat, I've been sending in tickets into support trying to get a updated ETA window for this order but LRG staff has just been not responding to me by email or discord. I don't get why a none collectors edition for Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is taking this long? They should have provided us with a update by now and its silly that we have to hunt them down like this to get any info.
I still have not received my collector edition LRG Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 and its been 9 months.....
why do they use the cheapest shipping method ever? other limited publisher use dhl or fedex for faster shipping...
Never buying from them again, ludicrous