No idea if Bill & Ted’s Retro Collection (Nintendo Switch Store Link) is worth the roughly $10 it’s selling for, I didn’t buy it or play it, but what’s disturbing and prompting this article is this game collection launched February 17, 2023 and is being delisted January 1, 2024 and will no longer be available for purchase.
Check that date range again, because yes, it’s less than a year after release.
The reason for delisting is the publisher, Limited Run Games, only had the Bill & Ted license for two years, which included development time.
Now, fans of the Bill & Ted movies have one last chance to grab the retro game collection before it is officially gone from the Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store on January 1, 2024. Josh Fairhurst, the CEO of Limited Run Games, confirmed the delisting on Twitter and stated that it was because the IP licensing was expiring. According to Fairhurst, the company had access to the Bill & Ted licensing for two years, which also included the development time, which was “longer than anticipated.” While players will no longer be able to purchase the collection from the digital storefronts, those who already have access to the title can redownload it at any time.
Switch Game Collection Getting Delisted Soon (gamerant.com)
I suppose the publisher’s name (“Limited Run Games”) explains these games are not likely to be around for an extended time and/or have many physical copies made. And yet, is it just me that thinks it’s kind of wrong not to tell gamers when a game launches new that it will only be available for X amount of time before being delisted?
Is the reason not to tell us because the publisher feels it might hurt sales or is it that they just want to keep all this secret until the game gets delisted less than a year later? Or is it another advertising/news cycle opportunity when the collection is about to be delisted?
Here’s what comes with Bill & Ted’s Retro Collection:
- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure (Originally released for the NES)
- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Portable Adventure (Originally released for the Nintendo Game Boy)
On a positive note, these games are/were available for these legacy systems, if you can find physical copies through eBay or other used sellers.
Reading further in the linked and highlighted article and there are more games from Limited Run Games being delisted but the publisher “…did not confirm the specific ones.”
What, huh? None of this is making me want to buy any games from this publisher, simply because they won’t tell us how long their games will be available for sale. Maybe other gamers don’t care about these details, but I do. There is value in something being time-limited, but not knowing the time limit at the time it is released seems, well, wrong.
What do you think? Would you like to know when a game is released if it’s only going to be available for less than a year? That seems real important somehow. Or maybe not.
Friendly readers will note the words “TIME SENSITIVE” added to the PGM headline because you literally have three days from the time this is being published to decide whether or not to buy this collection from the Switch store.
Chances are good over time that most people reading this will arrive too late to buy if they wanted to do so. Sure, gamers have had 10+ months to buy the collection if they wanted from the Nintendo Store, and maybe that’s more than enough time. Would like to hear your thoughts?