Turn out that those people who were very, very concerned that BioShock Infinite’s “terrible”, “generic”, “bland” box art would attract the “wrong” sort of people were (almost) right – except that was, in fact, the whole idea. According to Irrational Games boss Ken Levine, it was specifically designed to appeal to the “uninformed” gamer who might not otherwise have picked it up.
In an interview with Wired, Levin explained the his own thinking on the matter, admitting that – gasp! – it’s about maximising game sales.
“I looked at the cover art for BioShock 1, which I was heavily involved with and love, I adored. And I tried to step back and say, if I’m just some guy, some frat guy, I love games but don’t pay attention to them… if I saw the cover of that box, what would I think? And I would think, this is a game about a robot and a little girl. That’s what I would think. I was trying to be honest with myself. Trust me, I was heavily involved with the creation of those characters and I love them,” he said.
“Would I buy that game if I had 60 bucks and I bought three games a year… would I even pick up the box? I went back to the box for System Shock 1, which was obviously incredibly important — that game was incredibly influential on me, System Shock 2 was the first game I ever made. I remember I picked it up… looked at it and I said, I have no idea what this game is. And I didn’t have a lot of money back then. So, back on the shelf. And I was a gamer.
“I wanted the uninformed, the person who doesn’t read IGN… to pick up the box and say, okay, this looks kind of cool, let me turn it over. Oh, a flying city. Look at this girl, Elizabeth on the back. Look at that creature. And start to read about it, start to think about it.”
Levine added that “By the time you get to the store, or see an ad, the BioShock fan knows about the game. The money we’re spending on PR, the conversations with games journalists — that’s for the fans. For the people who aren’t informed, that’s who the box art is for.”
Which… does make a crazy kind of sense when you think about it, doesn’t it?
Source: Wired
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