Has anyone else noticed this? I went into an electronics store lately and all the game boxes were very much smaller. Any reason for this? I really didn't know this was going on.

Tuss

They did that same thing when they made all the Playstation one cases thinner

Are you referring to the so-called DVD-boxes? I was surprised too the first time I saw them... Somewhere after the arrival of the DVD someone must have thought: "Hey, we could sell our pc cd-roms in the same package and it will save us place, time and costs..." and that was it, bye bye cardboard boxes; this change happened about a year or a year and a half ago, and it seems to have become the new standard.

In the US, it's a little different. Those are still cardboard boxes, much deeper than DVD boxes, but about the same size. Supposedly, this is done to lower the clutter for gamers, but the real reasons are:

* Less shelf space means less storage costs means higher profit margins
* Smaller boxes validate the "the manual was too big" excuse. This is being exploited especially by Microsoft, 3DO and Electronic Arts, but in fact there's still enough space to include a fair-sized manual (Europa Universalis II is a good example).
* These boxes are just a transition between regular-size boxes and DVD boxes.

By the way, the new smaller boxes were mandated by the IDSA for all members.

Finally, I found a picture where you can see the new small boxes. It's those like Jazz & Faust (top right) and Empire Earth.

Yeah, you can still stick a hefty manual in there, but I think the smaller boxes is mostly to make room on shevles, or being able to cut shelf space for games and make room for other things... letting you raise profit.

Tuss

The less room a game takes up the more of that game and the greater variety of games you can cram onto the shelf, simple as that.
Everything runs on money nowdays, and if you really think about it, it costs less to make smaller boxes another money related matter.

Last time I went to buy a "new" game (instead of borrowing a copy from a friend, or simply burn it) was for my birthday. I was first offended to see that there were no hardware requirement on the boxes until a clerc told me that they were only stuffed boxes with copy of the front cover. If you actually wanted to buy or look at the true box, you had to ask a clerc to get it from the backstore to you.

Therefore, there is absolutly no point in saying that "smaller boxes add space on the shelves"... Any intelligent computer game store would probably do the same. It's not an argument for me.

I still think that the boxes are smaller and that there is no worthy manuals in the boxes anymore simply because they don't put the time required to really do a quality product. It's about the same way of thinking than when you need to get a patch to make a game playable; the game been sold unfinished.

Eagle, this may hold for more specialized stores; in the case of the US, stores like EBX and Electronic Boutique. However, I have seen what the smaller boxes did in stores like Best Buy and Walmart, which cannot be restocked instantly, and thus have to have a certain number of copies on the shelves. In the case of the local BestBuy, the store was able to reduce shelf space for PC games by 40%. The saved space has been reassigned to consoles .

Just because this happened ONE TIME doesn't make NetDanzr's points invalid. I have never encountered that situation, and the true game boxes are out on the shelves at Best Buy, CompUSA, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and every other store I regulary visit.

We have the true boxes here, i don't see why you wouldn't unless the store is stupid and leaves the actual cds in the boxes. Most sotres here leave out the boxes because really who would steal a box.

You consider this intelligent? If you look more carefully at your own example, you'll see they're using twice the normal storage space with this method.

I don't see how they use twice the same space with this method. When you place items on shelves, you usually take care that they are well placed, to be good for the eyes and usually not crowded one on top of another. If they left out only the box to be displayed, they can leave the other boxes in the backstore. Having experience in "backstorism" (lol), I have no trouble to imagine that this method in fact require less space...

It's true that it probably takes less space in Wallmart and K-marts... But then again, who would want to really buy new games in those stores??? When I want to buy a game, at least here, the best bet is always to go to a specialised store. At least there, they know of what they are talking about.

I do guess tough that it depend a lot for each individual stores... And that Wallmarts and K-marts are probably way stronger in the US than here in Québec, too.

Then you have a load of items in your backroom! I worked in retail, and the LAST thing you want to have is stuff in your backroom. If it is all on the shelf that frees up space in the back, for other things. Not only does that happen, but it is a major inconvience for the customer. Customers would rather not speak to the store salesmen.

Tuss

It's really simple maths: a dummy on the shelves plus the real box in the backroom - two boxes per game, twice the space.

Creo and Tuss are rigth, having the decoy box is just stupid it does take up twice the room.
And to your point about only buying new games at 'specialised' stores Eagle, how often do you go into one of these stores not knowing what you want, I find that K-mart is cheeper than the 'specialised' stores and would gladly take price over some idiot trying to tell me about a game.

I fully understand your logic, Creo, Tuss and Sterge but I fear that you misunderstood Delos. Creo, you are right if the store would make a dummy-box for every real box they have. This however would indeed be a complete waste of time. But consider the following math! say a store purchases 10 different games and 10 copies of each game. if they store them all on the shelves, tey would lose the shelfspace for 100 boxes. But if they make a dummy-box of each different game and place them on the shelves, they would lose space for 10 boxes. Granted, in toytal space they lose more seeing as they have 10 boxes more to store but this doesn't really matter because you can stack the boxes more effeciently in the backroom (doesn't have to be one next to another all lined up and so on) + storerooms are generally larger then shelves in my experience So if you own a smaller, more specialised store, you would seek to save shelf-space so you can display more products in total thus increasing your potential sales and therefor, dummy-boxes might be a good option as you also insure that nobody steals the product whilst in the backroom getting a product for another (non-thieving) customer... Isn't this what you meant, Delos?

First of all, Delos hasn't posted in this thread at all, juha Anyway, I still don't see the point. Sure, they won't have one dummy for every real box, but why not scrap the dummies alltogether and put real (maybe empty if you want to be on the safe side) boxes on the shelves? Again, space is being saved which would otherwise have to be wasted on the dummies.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 22:49 on December, 08th 2002

Maybe for you, it is the best bet. However, if everybody was like you, the gaming industry was nowhere near the $6 billion it's making this year. Gaming industry is fueled by dummies who shop according to nice, flashy boxes in stores like K-Mart and Best Buy. Only the nerds go to real game stores .