Friends, if there’s one thing that bums me about about buying games physically, it’s when companies, whether that be console manufacturers, developers, or in some unforgivable cases, retailers, add a bunch of branding and badges to the front cover. I still remember when I bought DmC: Devil May Cry at my local Walmart, and to let me and anyone else know that the game came with an exclusive artbook, the Walmart logo was plastered on the cover. Not as a sticker on the plastic wrap it came in that could easily be thrown away, but printed on the actual art of front cover itself. Not only did Walmart get free advertising when I traded it into GameStop a little bit later, but I was also reminded of the workplace trauma of my early 20s every time I looked at it.
So now that Xbox Series X games are being shown off, we’re seeing that Microsoft has been using the covers of these games to advertise whether or not games have been optimized for the new system. The company has done this by throwing a big, ugly, green logo on the front cover wherever is deemed lease intrusive. But as it turns out, it’s just an ugly thing to throw on the cover, and Xbox Series X covers are already looking pretty cluttered as is.
Xbox Series X box art vs. PS5 box art. There's a lot going on with the Xbox box art now pic.twitter.com/gv5rAzUwTt
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 12, 2020
Thankfully, it appears Microsoft is removing the logo from covers in favor of putting the relevant information on the back of cases instead. You know, where most technical information is usually put. This was first seen on Dirt 5, which has been updated on store listings with a new box art that no longer sports the big green monster of a logo front and center.
Microsoft listened to feedback pic.twitter.com/2rFqMuMZSP
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 3, 2020
In other news:
- Halo Infinite Multiplayer is Free, Store Page Causes Mode Speculation
- Injustice is Returning in Some Capacity, Don’t Talk To Me About Anything Else Today
- The Medium Shows Off Its Unique “Dual-Reality” Feature in New Gameplay
While this might seem like nothing to some folks, especially those who are well and established in the digital future, for some of us who still buy games physically (largely due to internet infrastructure still being terrible in a lot of rural areas in the United States), there’s still some of that old nostalgia for nice box art. But since companies insist on getting as much information on the front cover as possible, they’re starting to get messy, so if any of that damage can be put on the back instead, I’m all for it. Maybe something can be done about all those technical specifications in the top right corner next?
In bigger Xbox Series X news, Microsoft recently showed off a ton of games that are coming from Xbox Studios in the next few years. Some are relatively close, like Halo Infinite, which will be launching on Windows, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One when the system launches this holiday season. While others are a bit further away, like the new Fable game, which only got a teaser trailer to acknowledge that it is a thing that exists, actually.
