I couldn't quite place why it annoyed me at first. It was a helmet backwards look, but something made it especially problematic. Then I went on GAF, and sure enough, Slightly Live had made the connection:

If a backwards helmet can't be unseen, nothing compares to Poncho Chief.

There's always custom box art I guess...

I have to say I like the new one. The placeholder was the superior one, but the new one isn't that bad. And I even can understand why Bungie changed it.

I agree the placeholder was superior. I'm actually really bugged by the visor looking thing on the back of the hunters helmet. Once you see it you can't unsee it. It looks like the hunter's head is on backwards. Very distracting.

I'm hoping that the reveal postcard will be the artwork for the Limited Edition release (assuming there will be one). The new one's merits lie in the fact that the three classes are front-and-center, and therefore tells a potential buyer much more about the game than a strange sphere floating above Earth.

I loathe that ride.

It has to be off-planet. I'd say the moon, since we've not seen any gameplay from that yet (have we?)

What if it's space combat?

It has to be off-planet. I'd say the moon, since we've not seen any gameplay from that yet (have we?)

Yup.

The impression I got was that it was actually Activision that was showing off Destiny more than Bungie.

Hmm, that makes sense… although I'm sure it's a joint effort in any case? Marketing budget being distinct from development and all that. Either way, it felt like very little effort compared to the competition. It's no wonder I've always felt like the Halo series (Bungie era, at least) was never as popular in the UK as the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield if one of these gives away posters and the other lets you play their new title for 15 minutes.

I don't really think they have been aligned with the schedule of shows this year, they hit gamescom, but totally overshot PAX. Which I'm fine with them not having a full media pushes for pre-alpha stuff. I'm good with waiting til the right moment.

I suppose a part of the reason I'm frustrated is that the UK doesn't really get the same level of games conferences that the US (and even Europe in general) gets. We've only really got this one, so if a developer passes it over that's it for the year. Hopefully by this time next year Destiny will either be released or very close to, and so the information drought will be well and truly over by then.

That stuff between sci-fi and space is called mystery.

(well, except for backwards-helmet-Hunter, but I expect/hope that may change)

Hunters have eyes in the back of their head. Makes shooting first much easier.

- No text -

The colors are a little washed out, the angle and general composition actually remind me a bit of the Halo 4 box art. Just not excited by it. But it's handsome, and it does the marketing. For a brand new IP, that will be crucial. And as you said, limited editions are likely to have prettier packaging. So I'm looking forward to seeing those.

~m

I think there's an interesting psychology at play with the characters looking away from us (well, except for backwards-helmet-Hunter, but I expect/hope that may change). In Destiny, we become our characters and build our own story, so the fact that the viewer is looking in the same direction as the figures is actually pretty powerful. If the Guardians were all turned to be facing us, then that would automatically set up an opposition that would separate the gamer from the characters; it would suggest that the game is their story and we're only experiencing it for a while.

Are we not going to meet others in our path of Destiny? I think - and I am aware the possible kettle-black nature of this statement, you are thinking too much into it. :) (Oh man)

Yes - true, we do have customization options, but such a thing would be very hard to express with a simple "cover art" picture. I for one, when I put my self in a thought experiment where I have no idea what the game "Destiny" is at all, see no correlation with the image on the box and the thought of "customizability". It would be (and is) 1000 times easier to be expressed on the back of the box instead of the back of the characters.As stated in my post - all it really does is shun (the filthy nonbelievers :P).

So - I find your point to be moot. And you smell bad. </3

:P

I get what you're saying about the marketing, but I still think its a poor cover. I sense the meddling influence of Activision in this one. Marketing is being handled on their end I believe.

Just to play devil's advocate, why can't the cover be good and hit the marketable points at the same time? It doesn't have to have the backwards facemask in it to be marketable you know.

In fact, if I had a choice I would change the direction they were facing. I think it would be very interesting how Huge of a difference that would make.

Just a quick test just to play with that idea. Quite frankly I really don't even care about the composition anymore. I think the thing that gets me the most - and no doubt this is all psychology 101 (OH GEEEZ!) - its that the characters backs are all toward the viewer. We can't see anything. Just... You aren't part of our team. :(

That doesn't sound like Destiny to me.

Is that even a saying?

I'm surprised even more at this. Clearness of the composition? Its a flat composition with peoples back at ya, and unused space. If I didn't know what I was looking at I wouldn't want to pick this game up just from visuals alone.

To me it's clean and iconic, and in a world of ridiculously busy covers, the simple stands out. I'm not saying its the best game cover of all time (that would be Halo 3), but I think it's a cool image, good enough for the standard edition. I'd say I like it better than Reach's final cover as it allows me to guess and imagine more about these characters, where as having them front and attention would just be saying "here they are folks." Now the silhouettes on the bottom of the planet teaser image for Reach on the other hand was fantastic and gave my imagination much more to do, which is an element of what I like about the Hunter here.

In fact, if I had a choice I would change the direction they were facing. I think it would be very interesting how Huge of a difference that would make.

Ah, their direction is the main reason I like it as I said above.

What I would have done is to make three different covers highlighting one class each with a reversible side showing off a more mysterious shot of the Traveler hanging over The Last City with Bungie's solar charts branching off of the sphere into the night sky towards obscure symbols representing the various factions and locations we will be fighting/exploring.

...if this cover is all Activision. Among all the other complaints about it, this image just doesn't feel like it has as much of Bungie's influence, if that makes any kind of sense. I don't think it's a horrible cover, but I also don't think it's quite the homerun Activision's marketing department might hope it to be.

I don't know, I see a lot of Reach's cover in it...

Okay. So publishers say we need generic action hero shots for box art to sell games to low-information consumers and dudebros. I get that. So let's do what Irrational did with BioShock Infinite and have reversible covers for every game. That way, we have have something a little more distinctive for those of us who like that sort of thing.

I'm seeing more and more movies and games do this, which is awesome. My Skyrim looks like this:

I loved the reversible art for Bioshock: Infinite and wanted to use it, but an all-red spine stands out quite prominently with the white Xbox branding of all my other games. As long as it features the branding stuffs I'd love to have it for Destiny too!

I loved BioShock Infinite's reverse cover. With luck, Bungie will also do something like this:

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/download-your-alternate-covers-today/

Yeah as Duncan said, the problem with that traveller design, from a commercial point of view, is it doesn't visually describe the game enough.

It looks amazing, but it tells you zero about what the game is about and it wouldn't work from a commercial point of view. They had to have some sort of action, guns, heros theme.