An extremely interesting history of game packaging

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Before we get to today’s consoles, we should hit up the current handhelds and see how they’ve changed. The DS, as has been the case with Nintendo products since the SNES, has seen very little alteration in its six years. From the beginning DS games have been in hard plastic cases, marking the end of Nintendo’s affinity for paper boxes – the GBA kept the paper dream alive through 2007 and even 2008, but today, it’s all but gone.

Above: For the sake of having two entries, the Guitar/Band Hero DS games did come in larger-than-usual (and paper) boxes

There are also a small number of games (Tornado and Metal Slug come to mind) with case sleeves or slightly thicker cases, but they’re an extreme minority and ultimately boil down to yet another hard plastic case.

Brett Elston
Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.