Limited Run Games has responded to a report that accused it of selling NES game cartridges that damaged consoles. In a statement, the company confirmed the reports of damage were accurate, and blamed the issue on a change in supplier. It’s now offering refunds and re-manufactured games.
Yesterday, Time Extension reported copies of Rugrats Adventures in Gameland and PioPow could damage players’ consoles due to a mismatch in voltage between the cartridges and the original hardware. One user, speaking to Time Extension, described the cartridges as “a tiny time bomb for my electronics”.
“Upon learning about this issue from our community, we immediately began investigating and can confirm that due to an issue with voltage regulation, there is a small chance that prolonged use of these titles could result in damage to either the cartridge or the console hardware,” a Limited Run Games spokesperson said in a statement shared with Eurogamer reads.
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“We have identified that these titles were not manufactured by our regular partner who we have worked with across 30+ titles and who we trust implicitly thanks to their impeccable manufacturing track record,” it continues.
“The manufacturer who produced Rugrats and PioPow has only worked on a very small handful of titles for Limited Run Games and right now, we are going through our back catalogue of NES titles manufactured by this supplier and testing for possible issues. While we conduct further testing, our immediate pledge is to rectify the potential issue with Rugrats and PioPow and ensure that this will not happen again.
“We are committed to delivering high-quality products and never want to leave our customers with anything short of the best.”
Limited Run Games has confirmed these two games are no longer available for purchase and while it promises to fulfil back orders, these will be re-manufactured via the company’s “trusted manufacturing partner”. This will result in a delay, for which it apologises.
Those who don’t want to wait can receive a refund by contacting customer service.
For those who have already received a copy of these games, the company recommends not using the cartridge. Instead, a new copy will be sent out automatically once manufactured.
“We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience these issues have caused and moving forward, we will not be distributing any original cartridge sourced by this manufacturer,” the statement concludes.
Rugrats was one of 20 games announced by Limited Run Games last summer as part of its LRG3 2024 showcase.
