FROM THE ARCHIVES: STRICTLY LIMITED

If you’re a collector of physical videogames, you will almost certainly have come across limited release publishers over the last few years. These companies produce physical versions of games, often those that have proven popular in the digital download market, in small quantities for collectors. These kinds of releases divide opinion, but they’re definitely popular as there are quite a few companies now operating in the space, including Limited Run Games, Special Reserve Games and Super Rare Games. Enter Strictly Limited Games, a German publisher founded in 2017 by both Dennis Mendel and Benedict Braitsch. It operates much like the other companies mentioned, but has a particularly strong tendency towards releasing games in and around the retro gaming scene.

After working in education and localisation, Dennis joined Softdistribution, where he and Benedict came up with the idea to start Strictly Limited Games. “That has always been a dream of mine, and while I was in science I realised that a lot of videogames are no longer available – even the publishers don’t have them any more sometimes, or the publisher changed or vanished or whatever,” says Dennis, sitting in front of shelves filled with games from the PlayStation 2 to the PC-FX. “It was very exciting to start Strictly Limited with Benedict. He’s a different generation, he grew up with Steam and has a huge digital library. I’m very much into collecting, I grew up with physical stuff and I love physical