A short while ago we reported on the rather alarming news that Limited Run Games was shipping CD-R discs to people who had ordered limited edition physical copies of the classic FMV horror title D.
While Limited Run Games was quick to issue a response and apologise for this, it would seem that, two months down the road, action is still yet to be taken to satisfy those who paid money for these "premium" items.
"This is an update over two months later after Limited Run games promised purchasers of D on 3DO replacement replicated discs...and we've heard nothing," says Video Game Esoterica, who did a video unboxing of the game two months ago to highlight the problem.
"Manufacturing games for hardware that is 30+ years old presents a variety of challenges," said Limited Run Games at the time. "We partner with one of the biggest disc replication providers in North America to press our physical discs and despite researching original 3DO hardware and software extensively, we found quality and reliability issues when attempting to press 3DO discs in the traditional manner. In an attempt to offer full compatibility with original hardware, our disc replication partner was able to successfully manufacture the discs using a CD-R format, which we believed would work across all commercially available 3DO systems. This process was professionally done and was used to ensure maximum compatibility rather than serve as a cost-cutting exercise."
However, Video Game Esoterica, as well as other members of the retro community, refute this stance – and, putting aside the unreliable nature of burnt CD-Rs (which have a much shorter lifespan than professionally mastered CDs), many 3DO consoles will have a harder time reading them than retail discs.
"Some 3DO console variants struggle to read CD-R discs entirely," says Video Game Esoterica, "but read pressed discs / replicated discs fine! So Limited Run Games sold fans games they cannot actually play in their original 3DO consoles."
Video Game Esoterica concludes by saying that "Kenji Eno deserves better than this and D and D's Diner Director's Cut deserves better than this, but most importantly, PAYING CUSTOMERS of Limited Run Games deserve better than this! Nothing short of a full refund / full replacement copy with replicated discs will make this right."
Video Game Esoterica confirms that he has also approached other customers and they too haven't had replacement discs.
We'll update this post if we hear anything back from Limited Run on this matter, and the timeline for replacement discs.