Does Box Art Really Matter? BioShock Infinite Draws Criticisms

Does box art even matter anymore?

If you'll allow me to get personal for a moment, I can't recall the last time I physically purchased a game from the store – or, for that matter, the last time that a game's box art stirred up any emotion in me beyond, "Oh, that came out. Neat."

Clearly, I am in the minority, especially when it comes to the BioShock series. For the latest installment in Irrational Games' quasi-steampunk first-person-shooter, BioShock Infinite, recently had its box art revealed… and the Internet is not happy. Not happy at all.

Kotaku's Owen Good has a great roundup of some of the criticism thus far, which includes fan complaints that the game's cover – featuring a guy holding a shotgun over his shoulder overtop a burning flag in the background – doesn't really reflect the game.

"You have a game involving floating islands, mechanical creatures of all shapes and sizes, the existance of realityshifting and timebending magic and sky-ziplines, and the best you can come up with is a Generic, Grizzled, White Protagonist that you can't even see, because it's First Person, holding a generic shotgun over his shoulder," said a fan in a related Reddit thread.

Others commented that BioShock Infinite's strong emphasis on the female companion that accompanies the main male protagonist makes it a little weird that she (Elizabeth) is nowhere to be found on the game's box art.

"This box art is designed, one suspects, for its mass appeal and familiarity. Which is weird, because BioShock Infinite itself looks unique, looks nothing like Call of Duty. And I don't particularly care to see my first-person character, to be honest, even if he does look a lot like an even more rugged Nathan Drake," writes Forbes' Erik Kain.

Other critics point out that the "generic" look of BioShock Infinite's box art is hardly different from the standard "random dude holding gun" image presented by the aforementioned Call of Duty series – which has proven itself to be a wildly popular franchise regardless of what's on the front cover of the game.

"Then there's Skyrim, one of the greatest games this generation, which only featured a title and a symbol on a black background. Not very exciting," writes Exophase's David Sanchez.

"Seriously, people are making too big a deal about this. Then again, first world problems and all that," he adds.