gaming Are video game box arts kinda.....terrible now?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,473]

Video game box arts, to me, have been a big part of my gaming life. Going to a store and seeing games in all their glory and witnessing the box arts, they can be a sight to see. The artistic value of them, to me, is something I cherish as a gamer.

 

However, nowadays, I have noticed that box arts have been....well, to be blunt, many of them have been terrible. It seems many devs now are relying on really simple concepts and as a result box arts are being less and less complex and diverse, and therefore far less memorable. This is at least the case for North American box arts.

 

One big trope I have noticed is this: Protagonist stands in the middle of the art, logo is on them somewhere or above or below them. Rinse and repeat for so many games now. Uncharted 4 is an example of a game franchise falling victim to this, and it pales in comparison to Uncharted 2, which still had the character in the forefront, but the art itself was FAR more interesting. Even the new Doom, a game that is supposed to pay tribute back to old school games, has an incredibly generic box art, with a random character standing in the middle, logo on top of them and nothing else going on. Yawn. Ever single Call of Duty nowadays, for example, does this boring cliche now.

Look at how exciting that is. NOT. Don't get me wrong, the character art itself is still well done, but does it have to be so damn static?

 

Compare this to the original box art!

Notice the difference? The character is still in the center, but look at it! Look at all the stuff going on! The character is fending off demon guys, his comrade running in the background, and it actually seems like stuff is going on! 

 

Now, this trope is nothing new, it has been around for a good long while, but it is more common now than ever. 

 

What do you all think? Are box arts today underwhelming to you? What are some box arts you hate or love? 

[Megas 27,626]

They used to have very eye catching and interesting designs and were often unique. Nowadays it's just some military dude or some guy with a gunstanding or running on the cover in an attempt to cater to the dudebro audience. In fact this is the reason the Bioshock Infinite cover is the way it is, just look at the normal cover vs the alt and see what tells you more about the game, or even which just one looks better

 

 

Even my favorite video game series, Metal Gear Solid, their covers have gotten worse, we used to get Yoji Shinkawa's beautiful artwork to grace the cover, now we just get close ups of Snake's wrinkly face :/
 

 

Vs

 

Edited May 3, 2016 by Megas

[Makazi 317]

Check out the reverse sleeve for DOOM: 

 

Should have been the front cover, if you ask me. If I walked into a store and saw that my eyes would be drawn to it since it's vivid and interesting-looking, and I'd get up close and see all the awesome stuff going on and be like "That dude is a badass; I want to be a badass!" and buy it. Standard DOOM cover just looks like a boring, generic shooter.

 

(Going to buy game regardless of cover anyways since hey, it's Doom)

Edited May 3, 2016 by Makazi

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

I've noticed this, like it used to be something that would just well grasp your attention immediately now they well don't really. Still I don't really have a favorite box art or anything just I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be put a lot of time into it. Which I find is a shame as there have been many very good ones.

[Kimi Vulpine 219]

Not that old covers were all that good...

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUPAH FIGHTIN ROBOT!

 

Seriously though, new covers are generic as all heck.

[Java Jive 440]

The boxes old PC games came in were collector items by themselves, and they were huge.

One of my favorites from the DOS days;

 

 

 

[Discordian 6,015]

I'd argue that they were never good for the most part.

[Luminance 2,186]

Yep. Current box art also now have huge prompts to make you buy their DLC or crap whatever.

[Leave a Whisper 703]

No. Not at all, I think they're eye catching and awesome.

[Luna 831 466]

They used to have very eye catching and interesting designs and were often unique. Nowadays it's just some military dude or some guy with a gunstanding or running on the cover in an attempt to cater to the dudebro audience. In fact this is the reason the Bioshock Infinite cover is the way it is, just look at the normal cover vs the alt and see what tells you more about the game, or even which just one looks better

 

 

Even my favorite video game series, Metal Gear Solid, their covers have gotten worse, we used to get Yoji Shinkawa's beautiful artwork to grace the cover, now we just get close ups of Snake's wrinkly face :/

 

 

Vs

 

 

 

The metal gear solid v cover was amazing and I am a huge fan of big Boss.

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I wouldnt call new Boxarts terrible, i would just call them uncreative, but really bad are they not in my Opinion.

 

Also, there are still a few very interesting Covers out there.

Like for example Final Fantasy Games or Dc Comic Games.

 

I would count more, but this are the only two franchises i look for, at the moment.