Importance of Game Covers

With the rise of game platforms such as Steam, it's hard to imagine something as irrelevant as a game cover to have any effect on game sales. But everything exists for a reason and game covers are no exception.

A nice and well made game cover transmits a feeling of care was put into it, making the product feel more premium. Large part of marketing in the videogame industry is all about the game cover. Flashy game covers make the game more appealing to the younger audience, especially below the age of 10.

Badly made and cheap looking game covers really affects one's initial reaction to the game in question. Since companies are fully aware about this, it's rare to find a truly mediocre game cover.

In my opinion, a good game cover is one that can make you realise instantly the theme and focus of the game, Baldur's Gate, for instance, uses a book cover design, which makes it obvious that it's medieval/fantasy themed game. The color scheme of it is also crucial, it wouldn't feel right for a Souls game to have a colorful cover nor would it feel right for a Kirby game to have a monotone cover. The colors really describe a game's atmosphere and what we can expect from it.

Nowadays, platforms like YouTube are more available than ever, platforms like Steam are taking over the videogame market, and game reviews are easily accessible. Due to this most people already have a solid idea of what they want to buy, and when they purchase games they do it digitally, stripping game covers from all of their importance. In the past game cover were much more important since all these platforms weren't available or widely used. Nonetheless, it's a valid marketing strategy that works with the younger public, greatly boosting the sales of games.

Just decided to write this because game covers really aren't appreciated enough..