This is something that went trough my mind as I was playing The Saboteur.  I was thinking how great a game this is and wondered how it did in sales.  Well, it sold poorly: 422,722 units worldwide.  But, the game is really very good.  And then, I looked at the art cover.

I don't know.  It just doesn't work for me.  Nothing eye catching or interesting about it.  So, what do you think?  And do you know any other cover art that don't do justice to a great game?

Well I dunno.

Like I remember Ueda san saying that he thinks of the reasons why ICO didn't sell well in America was because of the really crap boxart.

So it could be but I don't think that could be a real big factor...

well I dunno... it can have the opposite effect

Which really complicatedly creates the effect. I don't think people will not buy a game cause the cover is dumb if they were going to buy it in the first place. I think people will buy it because it looks cool, meaning the cover/box. And if the cover sucks you don't get any sales from it looking cool.

Just an idea anyways.

I bought final fantasy VIII PC cause it had a holofoil cover, a girl that wasn't poorly preportioned and ifrit on the back... and the love affair began!

Yeah, somebody already mentioned Ico, and when I was a kid and not into videogame furums I just bought whatever game looked cool, and by that I mean the box cover and screens in the back of it, and I think it might be reasonable to think there are boys that do the same, thats why I think it does matter.

The mediocre Mercs 2 killed Sabotage.

I agree. Its kind of intriguing. I do think that bad box art can affect sales. Its the first thing you see (if your at a stor) so its basicaly a games first impression to make on people (assuming you shop in stores and dont pre research a game)

Dead Space Extraction was doomed from the moment people found out it was going to be on rails, but I am certain that its horrible cover art made things even worse.

Sure it can.  Anything people pick from a shelf is affected by the packaging.  If I remember ICO back on the PS2 was judged to have been impacted by its terrible (and it was terrible) US cover art.

But this isn't about games so much as the general impact packaging, advertising and look has on purchasing decisions - which can be very large for the majority of more casual shoppers.  By casual I mean someone going into a game store and perusing the shelves for something that interests them vs reading lots of reviews, etc. not casual as in the dreaded "casual" gamer.

that's just an excellent boxart

Same here