nullnullnull (1463) on 7/6/2006 3:08 PM · Permalink · Report

Increasingly games have been distributed to customers outside of the traditional retail channels. Game are available for download from the Internet and using ESD packages like Steam. Games for consoles are and increasingly will become available for download from services like Xbox Live Arcade and whatever Sony and Nintendo plan on offering. Cell phone games are almost exclusively available for download.

Historically MobyGames has recorded the cover art of the physical packaging of the games in the database. However many of these games no longer have a physical package. To accurately reflect this we have added a new packaging type:

Electronic Cover Art

Games that this applies to would be games where there is no actual media and packaging. Games like Cell Phone games, Xbox Live, PC games that are only available through download, and other platforms to be added in the future I'm sure.

* Cover art for these games should come from the official publisher/developer.<br>
* Since there is no actual package a "digital" image is acceptable.<br>
       * Some companies provide a type of "electronic cover" for their games, these are acceptable in the highest original resolution possible - do not resize up or down.<br>
       * Some companies provide these on the site and/or in press kits.<br>
     * Some companies do not provide these "covers" at all, currently no other image is acceptable.<br>
      * Source of images is a requirement. <br>
* We are looking into accepting screenshots of the title image as an acceptable image in lieu of a "cover" if no cover image exists.<br>
* Images from sites other than companies involved with the game - fan site or media site is not acceptable. <br>

As with everything with MobyGames this is a work in progress. We will try to adapt to the changing landscape to accurately document every game ever made.