Everyone knows the story by now: ICO's European and Japanese box art is brilliant, while ICO's North American box art is f*cking disgusting. Sony Japan Studio VP Yasuhide Kobayashi is all too aware of this, and has voiced his belief that if ICO had been packaged as intended in America, it would have actually shifted some copies.
"If the packaging was designed differently, we think it would have sold more," he explains. "In fact on the Internet many people have said that the Japanese version was better."
Kobayashi made this claim at the DICE summit, where he was talking about appealing to Western consumers. He also criticized what the US and Europe consider to be a "new" game, claiming that Western developers make fresh IP that's "something similar to something that's come before, because they think it is easier for people to understand."
He added: "But actually we don't like this -- it's like you're simulating, following suit, combining two titles into one. It seems the definition of a new title is different in the US and Europe to Japan. It means a new genre, that's what we call a new game."
Interesting theories. What do you think? Would ICO have sold better if the packaging was better? What of the idea of a "new" game in the West? Are developers wrong to assume that Western gamers need familiarity in their IP, or are there enough examples of successful new genres to prove him wrong?
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
7:20 PM on 09.17.2009
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Absolutely.
I'd actually agree a lot with this sentiment, as many consumers are more or less too shallow to look past the box-art.
I'm sure plenty of Japanese people have talked about 'new' Dragon Quest Games
vs.
Its name is Handtoucan. Show some respect.
i have no idea why it keeps happening. it's as if some of this stuff was actually designed to appeal to morons and children.
At the time I didn't have the money to actually buy it...but if I'd seen the American box art I probably would have puked a little bit.
I have what I believe to be each of Handtoucan's appearances open in tabs in my browser right now, just because I think there's going to be some kind of pop quiz about him later. Thought you should know.
Now, for some reason, NA messes this up every time, and decideds that they gotta get busy on the cover, put on some awkward imagery, try to splice and cram multiple character images on their, make it an ugly forgetable cover instead of something instantly identifiable as the FF brand.
I think other things are involved here aside from just the box-art. I have a feeling word-of-mouth may be a stronger incentive to purchase a particular item in the Japanese market. Games with an indie feel, or games that take a chance, traditionally do better in Japan (think of titles like Pengel, Pikmin and Noby Noby Boy).
That may be starting to change with word-of-mouth gaining traction over the internet and downloadable indie titles proliferating over XBLA and Steam.
Then again, some titles that took a chance did well over here (e.g. Katamari Damacy). So, maybe it's just a question of how to market things after all...
And by his own standards of innovation, Japan is still not doing much.
As it stands I don't think box art matters at all to Americans. Like has been pointed out , theres a long standing tradition of crap box art. Its like its just a way of taking up space around the title. No one looks at it anymore.
The japanese box art is incredible!
Sad, but true.
though one thing I do hate...is when companies think it's cool to have boxart in cg/3dish style as if americans will only pay attention to it if it looks pretty/cool. As if people don't appreciate regular art or something. I can tell you though, if I didn't hear anything on Ico, the cover sure wouldn't have helped. It looks like some shovelware cover. Some mixed gender looking kid with a stick in his hand? and a ghostly woman behind him? it's really not appealing at all.
by the same virtue, mirror's edge was "new" and so were braid, flower, flow, spore, portal, left 4 dead, dead rising, psychonauts, the sims, etc.
the only games I can think of in the last decade or so that only paid elemental resemblance to previously existing genres are killer7, flower, and maybe phoenix wright. it's pretty fucking stupid to lay that hang up exclusively on the western market.
When Ico came out I was a game buyer for a prominent retail chain and a very avid gamer. I knew that Ico was going to be big from the press surrounding it and from playing it at E3 that year.
At the time, we made our game decisions by council and I had pumped the shit out of this title to the group. When the Ico boxart arrived from Sony, I was the only one, out of eight, who was still interested. We brought in 2 units per store instead of the eight that we had originally allocated.
When I called our rep at Sony about this she said, "I cannot fucking believe the cover of this thing." She came from PR and was pushing this title too and knew that the boxart was going to be problematic for them. She understood that we had to cut our numbers on this title from 4500+ units to just over 1000 and said she'd relay this to her team. She even entertained having us put the Japanese boxart on our site to download for people who purchased this game.
The epilogue is that this title didn't even sell when we purchased just 2 units per store. Had this title had a more artistic, more 'cool' cover, there is no doubt we would have sold two units per store. Even the lowest performing crap during that year was turning 2-4 units (Fantavision would even sell out from time to time).
Seriously, if you don't think that boxart can make or break a game, I have seen that it can destroy even the greatest of game experiences first hand.
Thank you for the opportunity to share this story, Destructoid. Love the site, and keep up the great work with these articles ;)