new PC games packaging

http://www.comcast.net/games/invas [...] _pcpackage

apparently this article came from IGN and was republished on comcast.net.

I think this could b a good thing, except it doesn't leave as much printing space on the outside (no more foldouts) & PC games generally have multiple discs and thick manuals.

This could work if the the boxes were at least 2-3x thicker than standard DVD, PS2, & Xbox, etc. cases.

Yeah i hate those big boxes they take up space and are mostly for show.

Personally, seeing that it looks like ordinary DVD/console game packaging, I'm a bit apprehensive. The last game I purchased with Oblivion. It came in one of those afforementioned "mini boxes."

The contents would most certainly have NOT fit into a typical DVD case well. People who buy detailed games get what they expect; there's not just a game disc in there, (which, BTW, people WILL expect to wait while it installs) but a full, thick paper manual (not just a few flimsy pages) and in the case of that game, a fold-out map as well. Then, of course, where the numerous advertisements and registration cards...

Personally, I think this might signal a bad direction for PC games. It's as if they're being reduced in status, to little more than a cheap DVD movie. Perhaps it may be that the majority of gamers are, for lack of a better (and less insulting) word, "simple" to that they prefer their games that way, but it's clear that there are millions that aren't, as illustrated by all those that go to painstaking lengths to assemble a "monster rig" to play their games, rather than buying a quickie pre-built from Alienware. Games are something to take seriously, I think.

Yes, you are correct on the terms of why they're making boxes smaller and smaller.

However, I realize that I forgot to point out that I am aware that in Europe, the DVD-case idea has already seriously taken root; I know many people who actually buy them from there because they're cheaper, (how this works is beyond by reckoning) and they've all come in DVD cases.

Meanwhile, all of the boxes for games I've seen in the United States (well, in the Midwest) have been the small, cardboard boxes that actually have room for a proper jewel case, (or even one of those fancy double-sized cases) along with a thick manual.

Ah, as I remember, even those cardboard "mini-boxes" (which in reality, were about the same width/height as a DVD case, just about an inch/2.5cm thick) were not quite as adopted as fast; I remember when Black & White and Diablo II first shipped, they sported these "interrim" boxes, that were still much smaller than those of the older days, but perhaps the area of two DVD cases. This was particularly useful for Diablo II, which came in a double-width jewel case, (for its 4 CDs) and had a HUGE manual.

And yeah, alt-tab doesn't work so well. Especially for Oblivion, which almost always crashes if you do that.