Limited Run Games Buries Past Controversies Under New Leadership
- Limited Run Games replaces Josh Fairhurst with new leaders promising transparency and better communication.
- Past issues include fake scarcity claims, faulty products, delays, and criticism from players and co-founder.
- Backing from Embracer Group and ties to major developers may help recovery.
Limited Run Games is one of the better-known companies dealing in physical media for new and old games, but it’s arguably drawn more attention over the last year for its production mistakes and treatment of customers. Now, the company has new leadership that promises a “fan-first focus.”
Co-founder and former CEO Josh Fairhurst announced last month that he’d be stepping down on April 1. Limited Run Games will then be led cooperatively by the Chief Financial Officer Brendan Madigan, and Chief Operating Officer Nic Ashford. In a recent news post on the Limited Run site, they revealed that trust is a major aspect to their renewed leadership.
“We know trust is something you earn over time,” said Ashford. “That means being clear, being consistent, and keeping fans closer to the process as projects move from announcement to production to delivery. It also means tightening the basics – stronger production oversight and Quality Control standards, faster escalation when something is not right, and more proactive communication when timelines shift.”
Madigan added: “We want every fan to feel confident in what an LRG release means – and to be able to verify that confidence through clearer milestones, more visible progress, and more consistent follow-through.”
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Not So Limited Runs
One of Limited Run’s upcoming releases is a collection of Marvel video games, including Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, although it’s not part of a Limited Run; a lot of the company’s current and upcoming games also aren’t limited. This is partly due to the company’s focus on game preservation, but likely also partly due to previous issues with limited games that weren’t as rare as they appeared.
One of the biggest controversies Limited Run faced last year came through an exposé by noted YouTuber MRIXRT, who spoke to current and former employees. They revealed that the stated limited edition numbers shown on product pages were often purely decorative, as Fairhurst wanted to capitalise on gamer’s FOMO by generating false scarcity. Fairhurst was quoted as saying “We can’t get caught because we don’t release sales numbers.”
The other founder, and former best friend of Fairhurst, Douglas Bogart (who left Limited Run Games in 2023), posted a lengthy “therapy session” on Medium in August 2024 and, allegedly, accidentally made it public. In it, he detailed a lot of strife and management issues, mostly revolving around Fairhurst’s behavior and maxim that “money is money,” whether it came from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia or “screwing over” customers.
Gamers Can Wait
This particular aspect has also been well-documented, as Limited Run sold NES cartridges in February 2025 with faulty components that could not only fry the cartridge but damage the console too. The company blamed the fault on the manufacturer, as it wasn’t someone it had previously worked with.
However, this wasn’t the first time Limited Run had come under fire for faulty products and it wouldn’t be the last:
In May last year Limited Run Games was the subject of complaints after it was found to sell cartridges, for a new game, with old components inside. In May 2024 the company sold limited edition copies of D: The Collectors Edition for the 3DO console printed on normal CD-Rs, which the console struggles to play and can even be damaged by.
Most recently, in December 2025, Limited Run Games shipped out Sonic X Shadow Generations Collector’s Editions featuring a statue of Shadow and Sonic stood atop a replica Dreamcast. However, aside from this taking well over a year to finally reach paying customers, it was also met with multiple complaints due to poor quality work on the statues, including broken pieces and smudged paintwork.
New Leadership, New Rules
The lengthy delay, and accompanying radio silence for the majority of the time, of the Sonic release was just the latest in a long line of problems with Limited Run Games getting products to paying gamers. It’s such an issue the new leadership team has made it clear that it plans to course-correct as soon as possible.
“We’re excited to strengthen the fan experience around every release,” said Chris Pirrotta, the Vice President of Marketing & Fan Experience. “More predictable, reliable updates – plus clearer expectations and better visibility into progress. Trust is our product, and we’re excited to keep building it.” Pirrotta has over 25 years experience building fan-first communities and collector-first businesses, namely TheOneRing.net and Sideshow.com.
Limited Run Games also released a company statement that it will start to roll out “updated timelines for some releases,” with any changes to pre-orders and deliveries clearly communicated “with the reason, the updated target window, and the next milestone.”
Whether this will be enough to repair the damage Fairhurst did to his own company remains to be seen, but given that Limited Run is backed by the Embracer Group and has partnerships with major video game developers, it’s probably going to financially weather the storm, at least.
