LGR - The 'Final' Big Box PC Games Released
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
kameoosama
I actually liked DVD cases and such more because they were sturdier (since they were meant to be kept along with the game, as opposed to the cardboard boxes which were meant to be thrown out. I think I know why these were made though. Since Sam's Club and Costco are both designed like warehouses and they focus on people buying stuff in bulk for business use (with a bit of personal use thrown in) a lot of their product is merchandised on pallets so whenever the pallet empties out they can just wheel it away and put something else there. Because of this, you will actually see stuff meant to be sold there in absolutely MASSIVE packaging; sometimes to the point where you'll have a small blister pack inside a bigger blister pack. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why they got bigger boxes, and whatever surplus or leftover they had got shipped over to wal-marts (because they share distribution centers so that makes a lot of sense) and big lots type stores if it doesn't sell there. With that in mind, I kinda wonder if you might see even more modern games getting big boxes that we wouldn't normally think of, or if they just kind of stopped selling games after a while.
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I actually liked DVD cases and such more because they were sturdier (since they were meant to be kept along with the game, as opposed to the cardboard boxes which were meant to be thrown out. I think I know why these were made though. Since Sam's Club and Costco are both designed like warehouses and they focus on people buying stuff in bulk for business use (with a bit of personal use thrown in) a lot of their product is merchandised on pallets so whenever the pallet empties out they can just wheel it away and put something else there. Because of this, you will actually see stuff meant to be sold there in absolutely MASSIVE packaging; sometimes to the point where you'll have a small blister pack inside a bigger blister pack. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why they got bigger boxes, and whatever surplus or leftover they had got shipped over to wal-marts (because they share distribution centers so that makes a lot of sense) and big lots type stores if it doesn't sell there. With that in mind, I kinda wonder if you might see even more modern games getting big boxes that we wouldn't normally think of, or if they just kind of stopped selling games after a while.
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SkaarjSoldier
Now -THIS- brings up some memories! The first Big Box Game I've had was the one for the original 'Descent' Game back at January of 1996. I was 14 at the time but instead of throwing it away, I decided to keep it. I'm not sure why, since big boxed packages for other products I'd throw away, but I'm glad I did hang onto it. Ever since then, any PC Game I bought I'd keep. Descent 2, Hexen, Hexen 2, Quake, Quake 2, Half-Life, all sorts of PC Games. I think the main attraction was the box art, I believe that they got creative with the art to help attract customers and potential buyers. Even when the boxes shrank I'd still collect them. I had well over 50 large boxes when I ran out of room so I moved them all in an empty house next door. Then around January of 2014, the house caught on fire and all of those large boxes went up in flames.
All those precious memories. Gone. :(
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Now -THIS- brings up some memories! The first Big Box Game I've had was the one for the original 'Descent' Game back at January of 1996. I was 14 at the time but instead of throwing it away, I decided to keep it. I'm not sure why, since big boxed packages for other products I'd throw away, but I'm glad I did hang onto it. Ever since then, any PC Game I bought I'd keep. Descent 2, Hexen, Hexen 2, Quake, Quake 2, Half-Life, all sorts of PC Games. I think the main attraction was the box art, I believe that they got creative with the art to help attract customers and potential buyers. Even when the boxes shrank I'd still collect them. I had well over 50 large boxes when I ran out of room so I moved them all in an empty house next door. Then around January of 2014, the house caught on fire and all of those large boxes went up in flames.
All those precious memories. Gone. :(
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TurtleSauceGaming
Saw that box for Iron storm. Never heard of the game, but the cover caught my eye. $9 and shipping on ebay. Definitely buying. As a kid I always loved big box games. The flap ones especially, as it meant more to read while I ride home. Starting to collect console games and decided to have a small collection of big box games too, though not focusing as much on them. I just love the art on these too. Something like the Iron storm game. Yeah, it isn't always indicative of the game's graphics, certainly the further back, but it never failed to get you hooked into what the game might hold. I do miss when cover artists would stretch their legs like this.
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Saw that box for Iron storm. Never heard of the game, but the cover caught my eye. $9 and shipping on ebay. Definitely buying. As a kid I always loved big box games. The flap ones especially, as it meant more to read while I ride home. Starting to collect console games and decided to have a small collection of big box games too, though not focusing as much on them. I just love the art on these too. Something like the Iron storm game. Yeah, it isn't always indicative of the game's graphics, certainly the further back, but it never failed to get you hooked into what the game might hold. I do miss when cover artists would stretch their legs like this.
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Dosenbierdose
Here in Germany, the release of games in big box stopped around 2001. Most of the publishers started to release their games in those normal DVD cases.
For example, The Sims and The Sims: Livin' Large were sold in big boxes before they went over to DVD cases.
Addtionally, we are not used to these double-width dvd cases, which were barely used. I only remember The Sims Super Deluxe, The Sims 2 and later World of Warcraft being released in them.
I'm a bit sad, we don't have any big box released of games like Half-Life 2 oder NFS: Underground.
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Here in Germany, the release of games in big box stopped around 2001. Most of the publishers started to release their games in those normal DVD cases.
For example, The Sims and The Sims: Livin' Large were sold in big boxes before they went over to DVD cases.
Addtionally, we are not used to these double-width dvd cases, which were barely used. I only remember The Sims Super Deluxe, The Sims 2 and later World of Warcraft being released in them.
I'm a bit sad, we don't have any big box released of games like Half-Life 2 oder NFS: Underground.
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Christian
I used to always go and look at the boxes of games while my parents shopped at Sam's. I always loved the ones that had the flaps with the velcro because they had pictures inside them.
I feel like the bigger box makes you feel like you're getting more somehow. Like just recently I got a PS4 game that came in a box twice the size of a regular blu-ray case and it felt like I was getting something more out of it, which is technically true since it was a special edition, but just holding the bigger box before I opened it felt good. lol
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I used to always go and look at the boxes of games while my parents shopped at Sam's. I always loved the ones that had the flaps with the velcro because they had pictures inside them.
I feel like the bigger box makes you feel like you're getting more somehow. Like just recently I got a PS4 game that came in a box twice the size of a regular blu-ray case and it felt like I was getting something more out of it, which is technically true since it was a special edition, but just holding the bigger box before I opened it felt good. lol
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BlueDragon992
I once had a dream where I was in the PC software section of what I think was a Costco and came across an -Ultimate Collector's Edition- physical release of Crysis 1 that was not only in a big box, but one that was made of -steel- and came with a whole bunch of extra stuff like both expansion packs, (Wars & Warhead, a fold out wall mount map of the island on which the game takes place and a troubleshooting manual on what do do if your PC can't run it. Alas, I didn't pick it up because even In my dreams, I'm flat broke. LOL!
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I once had a dream where I was in the PC software section of what I think was a Costco and came across an -Ultimate Collector's Edition- physical release of Crysis 1 that was not only in a big box, but one that was made of -steel- and came with a whole bunch of extra stuff like both expansion packs, (Wars & Warhead, a fold out wall mount map of the island on which the game takes place and a troubleshooting manual on what do do if your PC can't run it. Alas, I didn't pick it up because even In my dreams, I'm flat broke. LOL!
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-YellowDevil-
I always figured that big boxes was just another way of advertising and marketing, because the bigger boxes would grab your attention more. Like how supermarkets specifically arrange cereal on the shelves. Problem is, smaller shops like ones in the mall have limited shelf space and have space restrictions that Walmart/Sam's Club did not face. I don't know if there was a push for smaller boxes by the vendors, customers, or game companies, but I figured everyone was ok with that decision in the end.
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I always figured that big boxes was just another way of advertising and marketing, because the bigger boxes would grab your attention more. Like how supermarkets specifically arrange cereal on the shelves. Problem is, smaller shops like ones in the mall have limited shelf space and have space restrictions that Walmart/Sam's Club did not face. I don't know if there was a push for smaller boxes by the vendors, customers, or game companies, but I figured everyone was ok with that decision in the end.
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fisk0
I wonder what the last big box title released in Sweden/Scandinavia was. Seems like we started getting DVD cases before most territories, as budget releases started coming in DVD cases around 1996-97. I really don't recall seeing big boxes on the shelves after about 2002 or so, Deus Ex and Red Alert 2 being among the last I can remember. Guild Wars and its expansions kinda came in a version of the small box, quite a bit thicker but otherwise not much wider or taller than a DVD case.
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I wonder what the last big box title released in Sweden/Scandinavia was. Seems like we started getting DVD cases before most territories, as budget releases started coming in DVD cases around 1996-97. I really don't recall seeing big boxes on the shelves after about 2002 or so, Deus Ex and Red Alert 2 being among the last I can remember. Guild Wars and its expansions kinda came in a version of the small box, quite a bit thicker but otherwise not much wider or taller than a DVD case.
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R.
i'd love to collect big box pc games, its just that there are too many games and are very expensive especially if the box is included, so i just keep to the handful of games that i originally bought in ca 1996-2001, i wanna at least have hi-res cover scans but theres no collections out there, mobygames has quite a bit but you'd be downloading for years if you did it one by one, hopefully i win the lottery some day >then > ebay > dos games
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i'd love to collect big box pc games, its just that there are too many games and are very expensive especially if the box is included, so i just keep to the handful of games that i originally bought in ca 1996-2001, i wanna at least have hi-res cover scans but theres no collections out there, mobygames has quite a bit but you'd be downloading for years if you did it one by one, hopefully i win the lottery some day >then > ebay > dos games
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Alastair
The last -big box- I bought was a Doom collection.
Three CDs, a sliver of leaflets and padding so they would fill something the size of a small/US breakfast cereal carton.
I appreciated when someone put effort into a manual that really filled that space. I'm thinking of the Overlord flight sim that had a wire bound manual with WWII stories inside, or Homeworld and the splendid art and stories in the manual.
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The last -big box- I bought was a Doom collection.
Three CDs, a sliver of leaflets and padding so they would fill something the size of a small/US breakfast cereal carton.
I appreciated when someone put effort into a manual that really filled that space. I'm thinking of the Overlord flight sim that had a wire bound manual with WWII stories inside, or Homeworld and the splendid art and stories in the manual.
reply
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