February 18, 2005
Stage 5: Cover Stories
The image above shows a small portion of one side of a poster packed in with all newsstand copies of the current issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) magazine. The poster features alternate package covers for four of the hottest games in recent months: Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Resident Evil 4. As far as I know, this is the first time any US game magazine has tried something like this, and if the response from readers is positive, they'll probably continue to do it in the future.
I'm particularly fond of this concept for two reasons: 1) It's great to have a choice when it comes to box art, especially when so many of today's publishers tend to put their games in hideously ugly packages, devoid of any style or artistic sensibility whatsoever, and 2) ...This was my idea. (Hah! You knew there was a catch.) I suggested it to Shoe back in late November after stumbling across an alternate cover sleeve for Dragon Quest VIII in a Japanese magazine called V-Jump. In that case, I actually preferred the original to the alternate, but it got me thinking... Wouldn't it be cool if you could have US box art for, say, Halo 2, but with the Arbiter instead of Master Chief? Or if you could replace the travesty that was Ico's US cover with the beautiful DeChirico-inspired Japanese art?
Dragon Quest VIII's original cover sleeve:
And the alternate, found in the December issue of V-Jump magazine:
Fortunately, Shoe liked the idea, and with a couple of finger-snaps (or whatever it is those editors-in-chief do), he made it happen. They only included the cover and the spine, rather than the entire sleeve, which is a bit disappointing, but it's totally understandable; I mean, if it's a choice between two covers with a back or four covers without, who's going to go with two? More variety = more happy EGM readers.
In other box art news (how often is it you get to say something like that?), Ubisoft recently updated the packaging for the US version of Lumines, after their original attempt garnered tons of flames and complaints from fans on the internet. The new version is definitely a marked improvement over the original, though it could still use a few tweaks before I'd call it decent. I often wonder who it is who actually designs these things? Kids on the internet often conjure up much nicer packages than the stuff put together by these major publishers, which has to make you wonder about the credentials of the "artists" they're using.
In any case, here's a brief history of the Lumines box art thus far. Decide for yourself which one you prefer:
Original Japanese Version:
Old Proposed US Version:
New Proposed US Version:
Regardless of whether or not you approve of the new box art, one thing is for certain: it's VERY encouraging that Ubisoft responded so quickly to consumer demand like that. It's a shame not all US publishers are that attentive! I'm pretty certain I could've saved Sega tons of money if they'd only listened to my advice over the years... :)
Posted by john tv at February 18, 2005 06:51 PM