We take games seriously

Video and board game packaging is crucial to sales and setting customer expectations
As long as there have been people, there have been games. Of course, game packaging came along much later with the advent of the retail environment and then the online marketplace. Today, the box the game comes in is as essential to the buyer experience as the game itself.

Not surprisingly, gaming has grown more sophisticated over the years, and its packaging along with it. For a trip down memory lane, visit An Extremely Interesting History of Game Packaging, where Games Radar writer Brett Ellston delves into video game packaging trends -- the good, the bad and the totally inconsistent. He goes back as far back as 1977’s Atari 2600, and shows how game developers evolved their brand standards in a young and highly competitive field. Flimsy cardboard sleeves gave way to CD and DVD-type plastic packaging, which then pivoted to the eye-catching graphics and uniform paperboard boxes we see today.
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The modern board game predates all of us, and we have packages documented back to 1880, as cataloged here on the seminal website Board Game Geek. Board games have long represented the contemporary happenings of their eras -- world wars, the settling of the west, economic booms and busts, literature and films. Some board games have even turned out to be eerily prophetic. A wildly popular cooperative game called Pandemic was first published in 2007. Players work together to eradicate diseases around the globe.
 
Board games have always been in demand. But game industry sources have declared the last decade the renaissance or golden age of board game publishing and design -- even prior to 2020 -- when we all had to stay home and play them. 3,000 games alone were released in 2018, and gaming conventions are at an all-time high for exhibits and attendance.

​That’s where printing and packaging come in. Carlson Print Group offers eight specialty print techniques that can be used to convey crucial information to rabid gamers and casual family fun types alike. These techniques work exceptionally well in video game packaging. 

Combined with black and metallics such as gold and silver holographic effects bring an edgy, futuristic look. Lenticular graphics give an impression of depth and movement, and metallic foils add a knockout element to every color on an image. Chrome FX foils can be applied to thin gauge substrates like wraps and covers and thick gauge materials like plastic packaging.

Coatings and varnishes have a universal appeal in print and packaging. Coatings create a tactile experience, and some can convey specific sensations. Strategy games are set in far-flung or unique locales, and coatings can bring that across before the gamer even opens the package.
 
Carlson Print Group has extensive experience in these verticals and can meet all your packaging and specialty printing needs. Printing is not a game to us -- we take it very seriously. Call or click today to get your packaging sample kit or discuss your next creative project.