14 DAY TRIAL // When I woke up this morning and had a sip out of a plastic Pepsi bottle I checked out its label and saw some resemblances with Grand Theft Auto's original cover pattern. GTA titles usually feature covers that are divided into squares which show you a couple of symbolic characters and their actions. For example you get to see a man shooting someone, or a chick checking you out and playing hot. Pepsi's new labels and ads use the same square pattern, showing the audience a couple of people having fun either by listening to music or just smiling and gazing into the horizon.
I'm not saying that Pepsi or Rockstar copied these patterns as I'm sure we can find a couple more companies using the same ad design and style. A couple of weeks ago we were able to check out GTA IV's game cases, for the Xbox 360 and PS3 version and we were clearly not impressed by them. A game's cover is essential for the title, as it basically sells it, because it advertises the product's features or just lures the buyers into buying it. Staying true to a pattern can prove to be a brilliant idea and I bet that nobody dug Final Fantasy's average covers at first, but now they're major hits.
Even if they only show the game's name written in capital letters and a mysterious sketch of an in-game character, such covers define the title as time passes and we only have seconds to decide what we're going to buy while visiting a game store and checking out huge shelves filled with colorful game cases. After a couple of years of serious gaming you'll always be able to identify a Resident Evil or Silent Hill cover (features dark colors, a monster surfacing nearby) or the trademark GTA cover (features a sexy woman, a hitman, mobsters).