Cover Art: the Last Chance to Grab Players

A couple days ago Gamespot ran an article referencing NPD research that "40% of gamers impulse buy."

As for what factors played into an impulse purchase, 40 percent said the game's packaging was a "very important" or "extremely important" factor in their decision.

This was higher than the 33% that mentioned the importance of a referral from a friend, the 25% that said the in-store demon was a critical factor, the  21% that liked the recommendations from other shoppers, or 19% that felt like the sales clerk played a big role in what title they picked up. This should be moderately good news for videogame advertisers: it's a lot easier to control the packaging of your product than the buzz which surrounds it, let alone the aptitude of the salesperson behind the counter.

The reason that the cover art is so vital, in my opinion, is that for most games it is a clear indication of "what type" of game it is, and what type of player will enjoy it. Now, judging a game by its cover is bound to result in some more expensive mistakes than judging a book by its cover, but overall there are some pretty integral semiotic codes that go into the construction of cover art.

Though Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare earned great ratings from game reviewers across the board (and the History Channel games, generally, have not), it's clear to see that in both cases art work is likely to catch the eye of gamers who like war games. If you have already played and enjoyed game like Call of Duty 4, you're probably going to be more inclined to buy The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific just from glancing at the cover art. If the game is being sold at a reduced price (which it probably is: Battle for the Pacific is likely available used, and even new, it's old enough that it's not going to have a whopping $59.99 price sticker), you'll be even more persuaded.

The beauty of semiotic coding as advertising in cover art is that the same codes tend to be transferable not just from game to game, but also from movies, novels, comics, etc. To give an example...

A movie poster for a well-known, much-loved franchise: Star Wars. For many fans, this movie is the epitome of the space-faring epic, not only a classic but an definitive work in the genre of science fiction. It is a -- to put it likely -- wildly successful application of the "good versus evil" theme to the world of aliens, spaceships, and intergalactic battles.

Here's the cover of Mass Effect, an incredibly successful science fiction RPG:

I'll let you guess what the game is about.