Sunday, March 10All That Matters

Opening a new game used to be so exciting. Now its kind of sad. Bring back the inserts!


Opening a new game used to be so exciting. Now its kind of sad. Bring back the inserts!



View Reddit by Arsenault185View Source

44 Comments

  • PhanThief95

    For all of Cyberpunk 2077’s launch issues, at least they actually gave us stuff in the physical version.

    A little booklet, a map, some stickers, & some postcards of Night City!

  • WhenRobLoweRobsLowes

    I opened up an old PS3 game the other day and damn, there was a booklet and a poster! Bygone era.

  • DerPicasso

    I still have the original Gta San Andreas Dvd. Its a full hardcover book with a full map poster.

    This here is just a huge waste of plastic

  • blazingchaos91

    I still don’t understand why they have cases with those insert clips. It sorta of middle finger at this point.

  • The_Elder_Jock

    Red Dead Redemption 2 had a fold out map. It’s the last game I remember having any stuff in the box and strangely the first in some time to do so.

  • D_is_for_Doomsayer

    I was just thinking about this for this game too. Whatever happened to the gold boxes from the early games? Come on, do something special for this, one of the flagships and best sellers, Nintendo.

  • Mydadshands

    No offense OP but we get it. Every 6mo someone posts something like this. At this point your just beating a dead horse

  • Sabbathius

    I miss actual cardboard boxes. There was a brief shiny period when the boxes even had embossing, so it wasn’t just flat. Some game box fronts had a velcro dot to keep it closed, because they could swing open and showed a diorama of various things. And this wasn’t some Ultra Prima Extra Deluxe Royale version, it was just the most standard box you could buy. I think Starcraft also had 3 box versions, one for each race on the cover. It was such a pleasure getting one of those, and opening them up and going through all the materials inside. Now it’s just tiny, flat, soulless plastic case.

  • Loa_Sandal

    Consumers: Stop wasting resources on needless paper and guides for how to turn on a TV! Think of the environment!

    Also consumers: This post.

  • Charismoon

    I remember buying games and reading the booklet on the way home. My husband drives because he hates being a passenger and I hate driving. I bought Story of Seasons and they had a booklet. Was so excited over this little thing that used to be a all the time thing.

  • banditC

    yea cut down thousands more trees to make manuals so ppl can look at it for 5 seconds and throw it away afterwards or keep it in the box forever. just play the game

  • TRPG_Therapist

    Ha! I had the exact same thought and recalled how much I used to love looking through each page before starting the game getting that excited feeling I’d not knowing when I would encounter each of the things shown in the manual. Then again with a game like TOTK I’m not so sure I want even small peaks since the discovery is so deeply rooted in my love of that particular game.

  • Konyption

    Lol I brought my GameCube over to a friends last weekend and his kid goes “wow why is this game so heavy?” And I proceed to pull out a 70 page manual from inside the case

  • Robestos86

    Call me old (and I guess, being over 35, in gaming terms I am), but I miss games that came with a manual and the back story. Original starcraft had it and it was great. It set the scene, explained the factions etc. Plus it actually told you about the units from the people who made them. Made it more immersive.

  • Dizman7

    Or just make the cases small so they waste less space. But they won’t do that because then they’ll be even easier to steal.

    I don’t see any reason to waste the materials to make a “manual” when only a tiny tiny minority will even look at it, yet a lot read it.

  • _Kevlaaar_

    Yeah when I was a kid I use to walk to the games store, buy a new game and read the insert book on the walk back to my house so I was ready and excited by the time I got home

  • RelativeFly7136

    I just bought the TOTK yesterday and opened it to see if there was a poster or an insert in it… ya I was sad too.
    Also if you aren’t going to put anything in them anymore just make the damn box smaller. All that box for a 1 inch by 1 inch game cartridge…

  • FatchRacall

    Homeworld had a 39-page “historical and technical briefing” included in its instructions, that read as an in-universe history lesson/novella.

    Lunar Command (Moonbase) had an excellent sci-fi short story that came in the box. I can’t find it online easily, but it’s probably out there somewhere… If not, I’ve got boxes to dig through and pages to pdf-ize.

    I miss those days. I get why they don’t exist, sort of. Costs and such, and they’re not going to get more customers or anything for including extra stuff, but… I mean, is art dead?

  • CaptainThorIronhulk

    I remember the booklets of San Andreas and Vice City being designed as travel guides and the maps that came along with them.

  • ankona89

    I used to read all my game manuals like books. All the NES and super NES. You’d learn tips and tricks and lore and all kinds of stuff

  • Aerodrache

    Let me get my cane and rocking chair right quick…

    I remember back when I was a kid, the games were great, sure… but you could just fish out the instruction booklet for a game and read it, and *that* was a whole experience on its own. You’d get a little hit of the game’s backstory, bits of art you wouldn’t see in the game. Sometimes even details about characters, or little peeks at their personality.

    Nowadays, it’s easier to bundle the art in the game (or better yet, make it a paid DLC!) and hide the bits of lore around the game world. It’s a more integrated experience, I guess, but the *magic* is gone. Super Mario Bros. 3 is… eh. Just a game, a good one sure but just a thing of code and color. But the instruction booklet… that’s a glimpse of a whole amazing *world*.

  • Reflective

    When I was a kid, I would grab a video game case just so I can read the instructions while I’m on the shitter.

    Now it’s my phone. And people wonder why I say phones are possibly the dirtiest thing you could ever touch.

  • SparklyDewgong

    Me as kid in the 90s – Car rides home from Walmart, Kmart or Zellers after buying my newest game boy colour or snes game. Opening the box and reading through the game manual to look at the artwork was such a feeling that I now realize I really miss.

    Legend of Zelda: link to the past, super Mario rpg: legend of the 7 stars, chrono trigger…

  • Figueroa_Chill

    I used to love when they had instructions with game that gave the back story of the game with how to play, always read them on the journey back home.

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