I miss those old days where buying a game didn't mean quick click on Steam and let your paypal "digits" fly over, then download the files. Days where buying a game meant to get your ass out and go to shop buy a nice colorful big box with floppies,manuals, maps, posters etc in it. Why publishers don't make these box versions anymore? All we can get is those flat dvd envelopes or if you willing to toss more pennies, collector's editions... I miss 90s...
Two reasons. The first is shelf space. The second is, naturally, cash money - and that's also why they've even stopped putting paper manuals in things. I bought a so-called Collector's Edition of The Darkness II, and while it *did* have a manual in the DVD-case packaging it was about four pages long and ended with "to view the full manual, download it from example.net/cheapskates." Bah! Remember Frontier: Elite II? Giant full-colour star map, Gazeteer, thick manual, book of short stories? Remember all the Infocom games and their feelies? Man, games used to be so much more exciting. You can occasionally find the indies doing cool stuff with feelies, but it's unheard of in the mainstream. Even the collector's editions don't bother tying them into the game (although in Infocom's case it did, admittedly, double as rudimentary copy protection). Sure, my Halo: Reach box has a wealth of lore items and a massive statue, but they're not tied into the game; they're just stuff, and stuff I paid extra for at that. Bring back big-box games, manuals, and while you're at it shareware. Bah, I say!
I recently found my stash of Amiga games in a cupboard - and by Amiga games, I actually mean boxed originals Man, just looking at the boxes brought back so many memories, as did flicking through the various manuals, data cards and so forth. I'm not sure that many kids today will be flicking through a list of console games in a quarter-century's time and feeling that same level of nostalgia
I miss the boxed games i still have my book shelves full of old games in boxs. I worked in my local game for 2 years and remeber when an entire wall was dedicated to pc games my local only has 1/2 a shelf for them now. The main reason i get so many collector's edtitions of games is that quite often its the only boxed type you can get hold of.
The 'low end' of the market has been eaten by digital distribution, so I'm surprised that the remaining retail boxes aren't ultra-high-end fancy special packages with physical pack-ins that you can't distribute digitally (and with a nice markup), rather than trying to chase the low-end where digital distribution can always out-compete through lower costs. If all your retail packaging has to offer is "well, we've got some OK box art we then plastered logos and review quotes all over" then I'm sure as hell not going to waste my money on it over the downloaded version. But if it's a game I'm looking forward to, and your retail version has a nice chipboard box, some nice pack-ins (cloth maps, an actual manual, sew-on patches, etc) then I'll stump up the extra cash even if it costs several times the download price. Nowadays, 'special edition' either means you get some cosmetic DLC that nobody gives a crap about, or it comes with an action figure. Whoopee.
I used to have loads of these back in the day. It was easy then, as I had an enormous walk in closet where I could stash them all. Sadly over the years I ran out of space to store them in, so all of my games went into an enormous CD 'wallet' thing (more like a binder) and I threw all of the boxes away. The last one I can remember having was Quake 3 in a tin box. It was the Linux version though. But yeah, still got all my games just don't have the boxes for them any more. I still collect games and prefer to own physical copies but it seems like we are being pushed away from that now, with some games only being available digitally. Odd thing is the price just continues to rise for what amounts to be a broken game with absolutely no physical ownership whatsoever.
Wanted the Lego Minifigures Online for my son's birthday present - paid an extra £5 for the steelbook simply so he'd have something to open on the day! Wasn't even a DVD inside - just a card with the code on! Worth it for the look on his face as he said - "What is this?" - He didn't know games could come in boxes!
If I still had to store games in box form, my game collection would be very small in comparison to what it is, I'd wait a lot longer for most new games and actually aim to complete the bulk of what I buy. My game time these days is limited to so few hours a week that the games I have to play has grown beyond sense. Made a good New Years resolution won't buy another game till I finish some of what I have first. Digital distribution has allowed things like the humble bundle to succeed. The last game I got on a box was GTA 5 on PC and it did not even contain the install files. All that was on the disc was steam and a cd key. I still had to download the 40gb. Most new releases have followed a similar path on PC.
I have a couple that I treasure but I can understand why they got rid of them. They took up loads of space, both in the shop and at home, and unless stored carefully they could get really tatty and crushed pretty quick. Putting nostalgia aside DVD cases do make more sense, and these days digital distribution even more so. That said I do miss some games coming with massive encyclopaedic manuals, and the extras unnecessary bits and bobs like maps and themed leaflets that made it feel special.
Nothing will ever compare to my excitement at buying great big PC game boxes in the late 80s and early 90s. That familiar rattle of not one, not two but three floppy disks, and more manuals/posters/flyers/copy protection games than you could shake a stick at. I'm sure it's similar for kids nowadays buying physical copies, but digital distribution has definitely taken the romance well and truly out of it.
As much as I love the Steam sales and the convenience. There is definitely something to be said for big box games. You can tell the people who made the game cared about how it was presented to its consumers, and not just shoved in a normal DVD case with a spec list on the back. GTA 5 does it quite well, presenting the discs in a unique way, with a box with nice graphics and art style. But Witcher 2 does it perfectly, with great graphics, CD sound track, map and a users manual which for a noob like me came in very handy, giving you tips on how best to beat the monsters.
I also miss the big boxes. I have a copy of Jane's F-15 here, it includes the disc, a Casual Play Guide booklet, an Expert Flight Manual (hundreds of pages in length and all in English), a setup & troubleshooting booklet and a pull out showing the control keys. The box weighs nearly a kilo! A flight sim is an example of a game that needs come in a big box. A crappy PDF manual is no use for such complex games.
The physical release of Gone Home did this quite well: 40-page developers notebook, soundtrack, copy of all voiceover files, fold-out poster, Steam key, and DRM-free copy of the game on DVD.
No, this is a box: The id Anthology. All id's pre-Doom releases on one CD, all id's classic Doom releases (Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom) on another CD, Quake on yet another CD, a final CD with PowerPC Mac builds of stuff, a book about the history of the company written from the perspective of a 'survivor' trapped in the 'demon infested' office building, a T-shirt, poster, Doom comic book, pewter Cyberdemon figurine, dog tags, and a calling card which was entirely useless anywhere outside the US. 10,000 copies made. I've got one, owned from new. Surprisingly cheap, at the time. Worth more now, naturally (especially as mine is the rarer of the two pressings id ran for the 10,000 total).
