Irrational and 2K revealed the cover art for the highly anticipated Bioshock Infinite. However, they were met with a response they were not expecting.
The new cover art was received with extreme disappointment from pundits and the fanbase at large. The cover depicts a white male protagonist with a gun over his shoulder dominating the image. This has been lambasted for a number of reasons. When the Bioshock series came on the scene back in 2006, the game was venerated for its originality and for its never ending inventiveness. However, the box art for the latest entry in the celebrated series has been quipped as generic and boring.
Redditor Gregar posted on a thread, "You have a game involving floating islands, mechanical creatures of all shapes and sizes, the existence of realityshifting and timebending magic and sky-ziplines. And the best you can come up with is a Generic, Grizzled, White Protagonist that you can't even see, because it's First Person, holding a generic shotgun over his shoulder."
@Soapbelt tweeted "not a fan of the bioshock infinite box art. kinda tired of seeing guys with guns facing me."
@ChilledChaos adds "Is it just me, or does the Box art from Bioshock Infinite look like Uncharted 1, just turned around lol?"
@Dylan Duarte also tweeted on the generic nature of the cover, "Dark-haired white guy? Check. Gun? Check. Fire? Check. Yup, that's definitely a videogame cover."
Another users on the game's Facebook Page noted that ""Bioshock has always been the antithesis of games with this generic look (Call of Duty, lookin' you square in the [expletive] face). Kinda disappointing to see they've embraced that."
Still others bemoaned the fact that Elizabeth, a companion character in the game, is no where to be seen on the front cover. ""As the female character is one of the main reasons I'm intrigued by this game, I kind of wish they'd put her on the box art, too," stated Kotaku reader RetroGamer.
The game is slated for a February 26, 2013 launched. Ultimately the contents will matter more than the cover, but for now 2K and Irrational will have to deal with the controversy its new cover art has caused.