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"I miss the cardboard box...!"

I know the new DVD style packaging for PC games is cheaper and gives a more uniform appearance, but i`m increasingly finding that i miss the bigger cardboard boxes, most if not all contained huge manuals, sometimes demo`s and often a booklet on up & coming releases. It made them look worth buying and that you got more for your £30.

Plus my games collection is starting to look a bit lop-sided with DVD cases at one end of the shelf and larger boxes at the other end.

Also, if DVD boxes are cheaper to produce, how come the cost of games has not reflected this????
Who`s making a little bit extra money from all this, i wonder?

Any comments...?

Grandprix wrote:
> Does anyone know of anywhere where you can buy DVD cases without
> anything in them?


Yeah, try a PS2 game!!!!


Seriously, thats another drawback of the DVD box - now all our games look like console games. Did i really invest alot of money in my PC so that when i take a break from web design and scanning to play a game, i then have to take my pick from a selection of console game boxes?. If i wanted that i`d of got the cheaper PS2.

Thats why the cardboard box was special - it WAS the PC`s trademark!!!.

Does anyone know of anywhere where you can buy DVD cases without anything in them?

I always thought that the large cardboard boxes were an unnecessary waste of space and resources. If a game required a large manual then fair enough, a larger box would be required. But most of the time, the games I got contained a single disk, a tiny instruction manual, and a whole lot of air.

I have over a hundred games that came in large, cardboard boxes, and they just take up too much space. If they were all in CD or DVD cases, then I could reclaim about two thirds of that space for something else. And the reason why they used large boxes for so long was for just the reason you mentioned... that people think the game is worth more than it really is, which influences them to buy games which they might not have otherwise. If a game is worth it, then it should sell even if it comes in a paper bag. If it's a poor title, then the publishers' only hope would be to shove it in a fancy box and hope that people are gullible enough to fall for the eye-candy and buy it.

I would imagine the difference in costs to produce the DVD boxes compared to the cardboard boxes, to be just a few pence, so no-one's going to reduce their prices from, say £29.99 to £29.76, just to reflect this. So, my guess would be that the retailers would pocket the extra few pence, since it is they who are the ones who bring the final price up to the usual amounts... £29.99, £34.99 etc... whatever price they buy them in for.

I have so many games in the big boxes I have now had to throw some away because I don't have the room. The DVD cases certainly looks better and is more convinient.

I was always an advocate of the DVD cases over big boxes for PC games...

Expecially since the boxes were largly empty, making it a competition about size and colour, to catch the buyers attention... over the substance of the game title....

Besides, no one ever complains about the size of Music CD cases...

However, upon recieving my first DVD box titles a little while back (Black and White)... I did initially feel a little let down... Its certainly not as impressive as the bigger boxes... and it fit through the letter box! :)

After a couple of days use, It actually seemed more useful to have the DVD case... It holds the DVD/CD nicly... it allows the CD and manual to be kept together... instead of leaving the manual in the box( which then getrs stick in the garage)... its also nicer to look at... with package designers making to the size of the DVD box (and not leaving you with a blank CD case once you've opened the box)

Besides... lets be honest... if you really need a bix box packaging your computer games to make you feel good... maye its not the packageing that need changing?

I used to use my PC for gaming an this is just my opinion but i hated the massive box you had to carry all the way home just to find that just 2 CD's and an instruction booklet were in it which could have slotted into a DVD case.

The DVD casing is surperb and is near unbreakable unlike cd cases and you can store them on a shelf for quick access instead of a big pile of cd cases and a tonne of cardboard on the top shelf.

I know they don't leave much to the imagaination but i still think their so much better and cheaper to make.

I completely agree with you. I really liked getting a big box and opening it, to find extra stuff. I have a full cupboard above my bed with all the game boxes in piles and they all look really good, and then I look at the newer games that I have bought and theres just a case, no box for me to add to my collection.

I have a very good question that I would like to pose to whoever thought up with this idea, what happens if you buy a game that has a manual like Flight Simulator or Civilisation?

just a thought, Ben

I know the new DVD style packaging for PC games is cheaper and gives a more uniform appearance, but i`m increasingly finding that i miss the bigger cardboard boxes, most if not all contained huge manuals, sometimes demo`s and often a booklet on up & coming releases. It made them look worth buying and that you got more for your £30.

Plus my games collection is starting to look a bit lop-sided with DVD cases at one end of the shelf and larger boxes at the other end.

Also, if DVD boxes are cheaper to produce, how come the cost of games has not reflected this????
Who`s making a little bit extra money from all this, i wonder?

Any comments...?