Is this going to affect CoT? I'm not sure if CoT was planning on having boxes or just exclusively digital downloads.
ESRB just changed its rules regarding cost of rating games for physical copies.
You can still get the digital copies rated free, but you can no longer put that rating on physical copies. You now have to pay to get the physical copies rated, even if they are exactly the same game. MMO's don't really need physical copies, but it's still kind of lame for indie game companies that may not be able to afford to get their physical copies rated and simply have to pull them. Of course, you can sell physical copies without a rating, but you pretty much have to do it from your own website as most retailers will refuse it. How much it costs is based on how much the game cost to develop, with the minimum cost of rating being $3,000, but it goes up to >$10,000 if the game cost a lot to make.
Seems like a move by the big game companies to try to stop indie developers who continuously outshine them.
I was fairly sure that MWM was [b]not[/b] going to bother with physical boxes for the retail stores anyway. Sounds like they'll be even -less- motivated to do that if they would have to pay extra for them.
Having a "box" for CoT might make for a cute souvenir but considering that the code contained by the DVDs in those boxes would likely be out-of-date the instant they were burned I really don't want MWM to waste the effort regardless.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
ESRB can go away.
There's my 2 cents.
[hr]
[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
Well technically if CoT remains, to use the ESRB's own words, a "digitally delivered" game then the ESRB can apparently only "strongly encourage" a given publisher to provide consumers with clear and prominent disclosure of ESRB rating information as well as abide by the various advertising and marketing guidelines to which publishers adhere. Where the ESRB is apparently making its money from is the fact that retail boxes are pretty much required to have official ESRB ratings to be sold in most stores. Nice racket if you ask me.
Anyway if CoT does in fact remain a "digitally delivered" game without any retail presence it does sort of call into question whether MWM really needs to strictly adhere to the dictates of the ESRB. My guess is that the Devs will still want to be able to "legitimately claim" they are working within the limits of a "T for Teen" rating while at the same time (strictly speaking) they aren't really under any direct obligation to stick to that.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
If CoT is going to be digital only, let's just not have a rating and just go all out in the violence :)
Sounds like something to put into the MWM Merchandise Shop where you can also buy coffee mugs and T-shirts.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
LOL that's a good/funny idea. Being able to buy an empty "mock retail" box of CoT as a souvenir would ultimately be more useful (and cheaper to produce) than having MWM bother with actual retail boxes in brick-n-mortar stores. Maybe they could fill the otherwise empty boxes with little postcard sized art prints related to the game or some-such.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I like this idea, too. I would even go so far as to have your own character on the cover if that's possible.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
I'm sure it'd be possible - it'd likely just be more expensive. Of course there's nothing stopping them from producing BOTH a generic "mock retail" souvenir box and also a specialized "pic of your character on the box" box.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I can get a phone cover with any pic on it I was for under 30 dollars. Not sure it would be that expensive to get the character printed onto a box.
If you sell a physical box, the contents of that box are obsolete by the time the customer buys it. The game install disk basically just installs a program that connects to the server and downloads the actual game for you, as well as the latest updates to the installer itself. Anything else in the box, like a mpa of the city or manual, will be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect enough by the time you read it that it may as well not have been included. Game wiki sites are better for that stuff as they can be updated cheaply and quickly and have a life of their own.
The only thing a physical box gets you is advertising in the form of a physical presence in the store. you can sent out cardboard standees, posters, etc to Best Buy and WalMart for your game and pray that the customers see that stuff, as well as the boxes themselves on the shelves. But that's 1950-90s marketing tech. The market has moved on.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I got City of Heroes because of that box. So it must help. :p
Perhaps a Commemorative Card, with art and graphics, but the actual Serial Number is generated by the cash register and written on the sales slip. There's no disk, you just plug the number into your MWM Account and it says, 'Oh, you bought CoT!' and you can start DLing it if you haven't got it already. And you can frame the card! Hang it on your wall, or whatever.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Poetically enough, I was aware of City of Heroes before it was released in store and pre-ordered it via the internet. I had read the website prior to the game's release even. Then the game arrived and I had to buy a new computer to run it, so I had to wait like 4 weeks to actually play it.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Dad gave me CoV thinking it was a regular out-of-the-box game, but it got us into it ;)
Still, I think digital games are ubiquitous enough that the infrastructure of retail boxes can be avoided.
But I might be in on a collector's edition shiny box ;)
[hr]
[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
Never heard of the game. Or if I saw an ad, never noticed it really. Walking in the game isle of Wal-Mart I see a game to play superheroes. I was like "Well, now I gotta play this."
[img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/paragon/images/b/b9/COH_Box.jpg[/img] [img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/paragon/images/8/81/CoH_Collectors_Box.jpg[/img]
[img]https://cdn.arstechnica.net/journals/thumbs.media/CoX-GvsE-Ed-BoxArt.gif[/img]
Sell it as collectible cardstock "art" rather than a container of merchandise ("comes with box-like features!").
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Physical merch like boxed games and manuals and CDs takes money to manufacture and ship. I doubt that money will ever be available to the MWM folks, just a guess.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
You do understand we're talking about getting a "souvenir mock retail box" right. It would effectively be an empty box with NO manuals or DVDs. If MWM can already afford to produce t-shirts and coffee mugs in their [url=http://missingworldsmedia.storenvy.com/]Merchandise store[/url] I think they could afford to print a few empty boxes. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]