Jan 13, 2010
Hate the box art for the U.S. release of Heavy Rain? Course ya do! Don’t worry though, Sony has a solution for you.
Associate product manager for Sony Computer Entertainment Cristian Cardona writes on the PlayStation.blog that the publisher plans to make the European boxart available as a pre-formatted PDF for printing.
“We’ll be doing that for those that would prefer the UK artwork,” Cardona said. “Keep an eye out on the blog around launch!”
The game is expected to launch on or around February 23.
Thanks for giving us the option to print out our own content! Woo!
I don't care much about box art, but really, guys, the US stuff stinks.
I'm taking this as a tacit admission by SCEA that even they know the US boxart sucks.
If they know it sucks, why not change it? Or at least make the insert reversable, with less sucky art on the other side?
^ and I think they would be right. Generally in North America, people prefer to see the characters on the box. Resident Evil 4 for example had someone on the cover here, and in the EU they used a creepy forest. Chances are most people would see the origami on the front and just frown thinking it's some artsy game. A lot of people choose games based on the box art (yes it's sad).
I think in terms of pure sales numbers, Sony is doing the right thing. I might prefer the simplicity of the EU box art, but the average consumer prefers to see people/characters on the cover or at least something dramatic. Origami cranes aren't exactly... "POW", maybe an origami dragon or something would be better.
But yeah, they aren't stupid, they know what American audiences prefer over European audiences or Japanese audiences.
Indeed. As cool as the origami box art looked, one of my first thoughts about it was that the uniformed consumer isn't going to know what the game is about by looking at the cover. I'm not saying that a consumer should be able to tell what something is about by looking at a single picture that happens to be on the front of its package, but as Kitty said, enough people factor that into their decisions to make it worth Sony's while (or whoever) to make a more "expressive" cover.
If Sony thinks anyone who buys games by looking at covers is going to by Heavy Rain, even with people on the front, they're fooling themselves. Anybody who knows and cares that little about what they throw $60 at isn't going to be impressed with any bulletpoints on the back about a film noir style ("no ir? What's ir and why don't this game have none of it?") or context-sensitive gameplay. A lady with skeletal problems in a tank-top on the cover isn't enough sex appeal to get people to impulse buy the game, either.
You'd be surprised. Those same kind of people go "Is this game any good?" and I say yes, and they buy it. I'm shocked at how much pull I have with the average consumer. They walk in, ask whats new and whats good, I tell them, they buy it. I also tell them what sucks. This seems to please them greatly.
I think the film noir bit (if it's on the back) would make most people think it's in black and white to be honest... I hope they don't have it on the back cover...
It's gotten much better in recent years, but there was a time that a few Gamespots I went into were run by massive fanboys. In one case they were MS fanboys (and this was back during the original Xbox), anyone would come in asking about a game, if it was a Xbox game they'd say "get it" even if it was crap, and if it was a Sony game they'd say it was crap.
I actually worked at that location for a 6 month period around when Shadow of the Colossus came out, and everyone there was telling people to avoid the game because it was "artsy crap". Thankfully I was there to correct some wrongs - but I don't want to think of the people that missed out on that game because of those fanboy neanderthals.
Yes.. they liked the word "crap".
I actually worked at that location for a 6 month period around when Shadow of the Colossus came out, and everyone there was telling people to avoid the game because it was "artsy crap". Thankfully I was there to correct some wrongs - but I don't want to think of the people that missed out on that game because of those fanboy neanderthals.
Gamestop.... sue me.
Here's the good box art, via the PS blog:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/playsta...og/4382829518/