I bought a new pc game today for the first time in ages, I think the last game I bought was Morrowind, way back last year sometime. And I was surprised to see all these weeny game boxes, like half the size of the old boxes! And not all that impressed really - how is that going to look on the game shelf? There was maybe two games that were in normal sized boxes, the rest all mini. I was actually a bit concerned because I was afraid I was accidently buying an XBox game instead of a pc game - you know like at the video renting place they have VHS and DVD and the DVDs are smaller and if you're quite vague and simple like me you pick up a DVD when you don't actually have a DVD player... [img]graemlins/uhoh1.gif[/img] ;) But it was a pc game, just a tenny box. Is this a new thing now, or just an Australian thing or what?

It's the new trend... I say that's good because it saves up material. Better for recycling also. [img]smile.gif[/img] It's more environment friendly IMHO [img]smile.gif[/img]

yeah all that plastic? its just cheaper to fabricate, so more profit for the developers and distributors! :D

Those boxes have been around for a while...KOTOR came in one for me, as did GTA III, NWN, BGII, TOB, the three disc version of BG1 ToTSC...

I don't mind the trend too much, as I really did just throw those old boxes away after a little while...heck, I barely even use the cd cases anymore, now that I have my good ole 200 cd case... :D

Actually, you can thank Wal-Mart for that! They said that was the size they wanted in order to fit more on the shelves and who's going to argue with them? :D
It's better overall anyway I think.

BTW, cool Unicorn avatar; I've never seen it before!

There should be a PC or Xbox word in the corner of the boxes. That should differentiate it. Anyway, you can always ask which game it is ( pc or xbox ).

Yeah, nearly all the boxes are small now Aelia - more and more manuals are coming out on the CD's rather than in paper form.

So what game did you buy?

I hate the manuals on CD, they are much harder to read in Adobe, tis annoying.

But yeh, they have been that way for a while. Sim City 3000 even has that type of box.

I really like these new game boxes, it's much better than those bigass carton boxes they used to put games in. I hardly ever throw stuff away, so i still have those old game boxes, and they're just not very practical to put on a shelf, let alone on your desk.

I feel ya on that one, johnny! I used to keep boxes until I started playing PC games...and those boxes broke me of it quickly...though I think I still have the big honking one for Unreal Tournament GOTY...

Well I have all of my boxes in my study, probably at least 40 of them. There goes any shelf space...

I prefer the new boxes to the old ones. Saves alot of space.

I don't see how anyone can actually mistake a XBox game box for a PC game one, it even says "PC CD-Rom" and XBox respectivaly on them. I suppose the cover is different in other countries.

Smaller boxes save paper. No use to waste all that paper on the bigger boxes. Sorta like those old 3-foot long CD sleeves. Totally wasteful.

Yes, well obviously it was well marked, I was just expecting a larger box so it threw me, and, as stated, I am dim at times :D

An update, I hadn't actually opened the box when I made this post, but now I have, and was impressed with the spiffy plastic case with the manual and CD flippy bits! Woo :D (easily impressed by shiny new things [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img] )

Although I dunno how that goes with the saving the environment logic - seems like it would take a lot more manufacturing and materials to make this heavy-duty plastic box than just the larger box with the cardboard CD protector ;)

Oh, and I bought the Sims 2. Going to install it now [img]smile.gif[/img]

Gotta think after-the-fact, too... those heavy plastic cases will take up less landfill space than the mostly empty cardboard boxes [img]smile.gif[/img]

I do miss paper manuals, I have to say... electronic is okay, but if I'm in the middle of a game, I don't really want to shuttle off to Acrobat for a question, do I?

I know what you mean, Bungleau! I can't count the amount of crashes to desktop I would have had with my games had I not had that paper manual...