fraggle
Super Moderator
Posts: 6568
Registered: 07-00 |
DoomUK said:
What happened to games shipping in interesting-looking boxes with thick manuals, instead of boring DVD cases with a 3-page "manuals" inside? And Saturn Doom's box art is hardly the greatest artefact of 90's game box art, but as a product it looks so much more appealing than a generic case that all other games on all platforms are sold in. And don't get me started on the loss of the encyclopaedia-thick boxes that PC games once came in.
To be honest I think it's an improvement that we now have DVD cases rather than big unnecessary bulky cardboard boxes. I remember back in the '90s when every single game came in one of those boxes - they took up so much space and of course nobody wants to just throw something like that away. You can probably fit at least three DVD cases in the same space. The fact that DVD cases are a standard size helps as well - you can pack more boxes tightly together, and use standard shelving designed for holding DVDs.
Other than convenience for the gamer it's also a matter of price points - a big box costs more to ship, is more expensive for games stores (who can fit fewer games on their shelves), etc. Being made of plastic I expect they're more durable as well.
So in pretty much every respect, DVD cases are superior. That said, I can understand the feeling of nostalgia about the old big boxes - there's something that feels more special about it, just like a vinyl LP feels a bit more special than a CD, and a CD feels a bit more special than a collection of MP3s. But just like in the music world, we're seeing special edition packs for people who really appreciate that kind of thing (eg. the Duke Nukem "Balls of Steel" pack or the Doom 3 Collector's Edition). The bonus is that special editions like that are specifically designed to be special, so can be much more interesting to collectors than just a big cardboard box.
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11-10-12 17:36 
