Why are devs allowed to put screenshots on the box that look nothing like the game?

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Eagle156

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So I picked up Starcraft 2 and of course the screenshots on the box look amazing. Everything is really sharp, the contrast is great, all the colors look great like there's HDR. But everyone who's played Starcraft 2 knows that the game actually doesn't look anything close to that, even on maximum settings. Then I realized that every game I've bought had the same "enhanced" screenshots on the box. Why are devs allowed to do this? Isn't that false advertising?
 
it looks like that for me,

get a 10" monitor with 1080p.

print have more pixels than screen for the same size usually
 
Wasn't there a program out there that added bloom/hdr effects to games?
 
If you're against false advertising, why would you buy a product which is falsely advertised?
 
Yeah, shrink your screen to the size of the screenshots on the box and it'll look AMAZING! :cool:
 
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Just like on my Motorola Droid, pictures look awesome on the screen, but take them off the phone and damn do they look grainy/not so good.
 
Tolyngee said:
Why are women allowed to make marital promises that are denied the moment they get the ring?
Click to expand...

Screw marital promises, I just wish they would start earlier... what about the makeup, the push-up bra, the high heels, the bustiers, the weaves, the collagen, the waist slimmers and the colored contact lenses. By the time they take it all off you don't even know who the hell it is! That's false advertising!
 
WasntMe said:
Screw marital promises, I just wish they would start earlier... what about the makeup, the push-up bra, the high heels, the bustiers, the weaves, the collagen, the waist slimmers and the colored contact lenses. By the time they take it all off you don't even know who the hell it is! That's false advertising!
Click to expand...

Not all women are that way. Some are natural beauties that don't need any of the "enhancers" but when they do use them... :D
 
#1 its not the "DEVS" that would be marketing....

#2 The box has friggin gloss on it 90% of the time (also smaller screen size) and to be honest it looks damn good on my computer and monitor which is also glossy..
 
RoyLuv said:
Yeah, shrink your screen to the size of the screenshots on the box and it'll look AMAZING! :cool:
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This.

Colors and contrast comes down to your monitor. I play on an IPS panel and the colors just pop.
 
ever seen the call of duty 2 cg commerical that came out? alot of people didn't know that it was prerendered cg shown and not in game graphics. they were not happy. the commercial had to get pulled, lol.
 
you are confusing the developers with the publisher, who handles all the marketing including the art.
 
Has more to do with the pixels per inch in those pictures, being shrunken to fit the box, glossy paper and high contrasting color printing than false advertising.
 
Well, I never buy a game because of pictures on a box. If I don't see an actual gameplay video on youtube or Gametrailers.com, I don't even bother with it. Why anyone would do anything different is beyond me in this day and age of youtube and forums like this :)
 
to answer your question, it's not usually a "developer decision" of what to put on the box, it's usually up to the marketing department of the company to put up a good box cover, that's not to say the dev team has no say in it, they usually try to supply the marketing department with a few choice pieces of art and let them pick what they want to put on the box.

Usually how it goes, but there's always exceptions, it all depends on the company and how strong of a figure the head of development is.

Like, Shigeru Miyamoto, if he wanted to, he could dictate everything about the game, from how it's made, to what's in it, who works on it, the commercials, what's on the game box, how much it costs, what features he wants in it, all that. He doesn't often do that but if he's asked to he will.

Same with Hideo Kojima, he has a large say in what goes on with his games, and he does come up with some of the marketing ideas himself.

It all really depends on the company, but often, I'd imagine it's the marketing department that puts out the boxes you see, that's their job, to attract your attention and interest, there's a lot of games on the shelves, so they know every moment they have you looking at their game is a potential buy.
 
The game actually does have HDR, and it looks great too. The only thing that really looks touched up is that it seemingly lacks any aliasing, so some absurd amount of AA or supersampling got rid of it. There's a lot of nice touches in the game, with the shadows and how units are illuminated in spot lights like street lamps etc.
 
IT looks great on my monitor. Try running it in ultra mode.
 
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