A Look Back At Why Box Art Was Important

Something I used to love as a kid was going to EB Games or Harvey Norman and browsing the shelves for all the boxes of brand new video games. And with good reason: it was an era when box art matted. It matters a lot less now, but it’s still fun to look back in time.

YouTuber NakeyJakey has chronicled the journey box art has taken over the last couple of decades. There’s also a good comparison between some of the box art for releases in Japan and the West — why on earth did Square think the Japanese box art wouldn’t do well in the West?

Anyway, it’s nice to look back at an era where everything didn’t feature CG character models in profile, from behind, walking towards or away from explosions.

There’s a parallel between box art and manuals — in a digital world, the time and effort is often better spent elsewhere.

What box art do you remember the most?


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