Why budget games don't have to be cheap
There's a lot of sense in budget software ranges, though not in all respects...
{ Fri 15th August 2008 }
Just recently Sony launched their 'Platinum' range of games for the PlayStation 3. The idea has been around since the days of the first PlayStation and is quite simple: offer popular, but older, games at a cheaper price under a unified branding scheme to entice those who might have missed out first time round. It was a good idea then, and it remains so no (unsurprisingly copied by competitors such as Microsoft with their 'Platinum Hits' range).
It was due to the reduced price (and a handy 2 for £25 offer at Play) that I've ended up grabbing Heavenly Sword and Resistance: Fall of Man, my copies of which turned up last night. Unwrapping my packages, an act I usually take pleasure in even when I know what lies within, I was presented with the issue I have with 'Platinum' and budget titles in general: the butchered covers.
This may be rather superficial of me, but I like things that look good and I appreciate the power and appeal in good cover art design. And yet, there I sat staring at the perfectly decent cover art shrunk and surrounded in silver and massive gaudy yellow blocks informing me that this was, indeed, a platinum title. It's incredibly ugly; not just bright and horrid, but the layout is messy too. Oh, and for some inexplicable reason one spine has black writing, one has white, despite them being on the same silver backing.
In the days of the first PlayStation the platinum titles swapped out the black spine and strap on the cover for silver versions that mentioned 'Platinum' in small alongside the PlayStation branding. It didn't affect the original artwork and was done rather tastefully I thought. Or at least it was here in the UK. Much like the PlayStation 3's awful yellow nonsense, the US were subjected to a fetching lime-green and bright red colour scheme for their 'Greatest Hits' range (so glad we didn't that over here).
Once things moved into the PlayStation 2 we were introduced to the now common practise of shrinking the original cover art down and surrounding it in a block colour (typically black or silver) and big words pointing out that it's part of a budget range. Admittedly it's not too bad on the PS2 range, certainly there's an appreciable lack of unnecessarily bright and out of place colours.
The big issue I have with these practises since the PS2 days is that it almost always makes the game case look cheap, typically breaking the aesthetic created by the original artwork. It's like they feel the need to beat you around the head with the idea that this is a cheap version of the game, just in case you didn't get it by the reduction in price. In the case of the PS3 platinum range they must feel hitting you over the head isn't good enough, so they've taken to shouting at you whilst doing so.
In all honesty, it somewhat puts me off the idea of picking up these platinum titles. It seems counter intuitive to me to take something, make it more desirable by reducing the price, and then less desirable by making it look ugly or silly. It'd be like one of those Hollywood movies where the ugly girl turns out to be quite beautiful after all, except when she turns up for the big date at the end she's taken to over-abusing the fake tan and dressing like a cheap whore (unless you like that sort of thing).
Of course if I want to play the game, and the price is right, a cover won't stop me, but I feel like I'm being punished for not getting to the game quick enough, or waiting for the price to fall. The PSX days here in the UK proved that you could do platinum range branding tastefully, so why not make something that's both desirable on price and on looks? Until someone sees sense I guess I'll have to hide this platinum PS3 games at the back of my cupboard.
