Why Game Packaging Has To Change

At first glance, it doesn't make sense why Japanese games when marketed in the West have to change the way they look when it comes to packaging, and at times, certain aspects of the game itself. For a common gamer, a game is a game and all that has to change is the Nihongo to English, so one can understand it. However, chances are, if the packaging or box art was not adapted to Western culture, Westerners would not have noticed the game at all.

Marketing, advertising, and packaging are complex things that includes several factors to consider to successfully pull a sale off. If it's an Apple, an Orange or even a Hamburger, Marketing would not probably need any effort at all since an apple is an apple and a burger is a burger. Games on the other hand, since they need to be plugged into the gaming machine or computer to show what they are, and when placed in shelves with a bunch of other games, they need to catch attention for the customer to get interested and pick them up.

In today’s world, it is common knowledge that Japan has been one of the major sources of video games for a very long time (think Space Invaders and the 1970s). However, Japanese culture and ways are so different at its core when compared to Western culture in general. Also, Japan like the other countries in Asia has its own specific differences in Asian culture as well. What may be funny or cute to a Japanese may be boring or corny to an American.

So with this situation in mind, game manufactures, developers, and publishers from Japan had to make their games fit into their target markets. Selling them to the West meant that they had to sell like Western products (or games), and though the effort may cost, be tedious, and even onerous, steps had to be taken for a successful sales campaign to materialize.

Nintendo Adapts To The West

Popular among the packaging and box art changes are the Nintendo games. When Nintendo of America was established around the early 1980s, one of its main objectives was to serve as a middleman between the Japanese games market and the USA. With Nintendo of America (NOA), the giant game company was able to adjust to the current-day American gaming market and that of the West as well.

As previously mentioned, game marketing is actually complex stuff and several factors had to be taken into account when it came to packaging their games.

Branding The Products:
In the early 1980s, there was a saturation of the video game industry as many released video games had either poor quality or were not delivering what they advertised and promised to gamers. NOA starting up on its early years had to distance itself from the negative image of the early video game industry which was considerably weakened, and establish itself as a serious “Brand” in video gaming. Thus, packaging at all levels had to be recreated to provide the best impact on the gaming market of the day.

Adaptation To Culture:
As the saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. NOA had to adapt the games to the US market and this relied heavily on how the demographic US video gamer of the time viewed themselves in relations to the video games they play. Japan has a heavily manga-anime-oriented culture (up to today), as to why their products are mostly packaged and presented in the same way. The US gamers of 80s (boomers and gen x) at the time would never accept anime as a serious attraction point as the common Western notion was, Anime is for kids.

To this, Nintendo had to adapt, as to why box art had to change for the Western audience who preferred strong, rugged, and manly characters or super sexy babes in comparison to anime. Yes, anime babes were cute and beautiful but gamers of the time wanted women who looked like Tanya Roberts.

The Lost In Translation:
The very reason why so many NES and SNES packaging box art adaptations for the Western audience end up looking a bit, Weird. From the strange to the amusing, there are those that stand out, but then, all can be attributed to, getting them sold. There are 2 main reasons for this, first is that the package designers were contracted externally without intimate knowledge of the game. They just did what they were instructed to do, and Mega Man suddenly looks different from his Japanese self.

Most of the package and art contractors were under tough deadlines so they just sort of winged the design (so to speak) and the game packaging went off the rails in many different ways. Nevertheless, as long as it caught the attention of the US gamers. Speaking of attention, that’s the second reason. Sometimes, the weirder, strange, and fantastic, the better to catch attention in the Western way. Again, to a Japanese it may look like a travesty of their original product design, but to an American or Westerner, “Hey, this is so cool”!

Subsidiary Decisions:
In the US, NOA was honcho as far as Nintendo games were developed, packaged, and sold to the American and Western market. Nintendo had granted autonomy (in so many ways) to NOA in handling business in America, so naturally, NOA headed in the direction it saw fit to get the product out and sold in the US-Western Market, artwork, game revisions, and packaging included.

A Few Prominent Examples

Mega Man:
The North American packaging version of Mega Man is so out of phase with the core concept of the game character. It depicts a middle aged Space Ranger with a pistol instead of the Manga-anime cyborg with an arm blaster as his main weapon as in the game.

The Guardian Legend:
Two changes, the name and the artwork. The original Japanese game was called “Guardic Gaiden” with an image of the female cyber heroine (Miria) of the game. The US version is called The Guardian Legend and depicts the eyes of a monster that apparently has no specific character in the game. Talk about strange!

Phalanx:
Phalanx was for the SNES gaming console. It’s also one of my favorite packaging conversions of all time as it show how different the perception between Japanese and Western gamers, on a game package on display they are likely to pick up and peruse.

The old dude playing a banjo at night in some farm or countryside while a sleek star fighter streaks across the sky is likely to catch the attention of Western-oriented gamers than the Japanese version. For a non-Japanese, the original packaging or box art is a bit confusing as it depicts some sort of a star fighter with a green tubular weapon up front. Just between the two of them, the old dude with a banjo gives the vibes of a sci-fi space opera movie to elicit even me and myself to pick it up for a look.

There are many more examples, and in all of them, the core objective is to grab the prospective customer’s attention, look as interesting as possible, and project a non-offensive or weird vibe towards the intended Western audience.

Image Info:
ttps://www.mobygames.com/game/7142/phalanx/cover/group-70686/cover-194083/
https://www.mobygames.com/game/7142/phalanx/cover/group-185344/cover-503955/