What's up with BioShock Infinite's box art? Here's the answer.

As part of its media ramp-up for the impending March 26 release of BioShock Infinite, Irrational Games released the official box art for the game on December 1. A great wail emerged from the Internet and there was much rending of garments over the cover, which didn't seem to befit such an imaginative, ambitious, anticipated game. The majesty of the floating city of Columbia, the intrigue of Elizabeth and the Songbird, the game's grappling with weighty topics of politics and racism had all seemingly been reduced down to that most generic of videogame tropes: angry dude with a gun.

Personally, I found this all to be a bit of a non-troversy and we said as much on the recent Game|Life podcast. Cover art is sometimes the only thing a consumer makes a buying decision based on, and it's okay if they use the cover that they feel will put this game in the hands of millions of bros who just want to shoot things. Nobody said when the first BioShock came out that it was about Ayn Rand, they just said you got to set things on fire and throw bees out your hands.

When I got to sit down with Infinite's creative director Ken Levine on Thursday after playing the game and asked for his thoughts, I got an extensive, thoughtful answer that in a perfect world would put an end to all of the bellyaching.

"I understand that some of the fans are disappointed. We expected it. I know that may be hard to hear, but let me explain the thinking."

"We went and did a tour... around to a bunch of, like, frathouses and places like that. People who were gamers. Not people who read IGN. And [we] said, so, have you guys heard of BioShock? Not a single one of them had heard of it."

"And we live in this very special... you know, BioShock is a reasonably successful franchise, right? Our gaming world, we sometimes forget, is so important to us, but... there are plenty of products that I buy that I don't spend a lot of time thinking about. My salad dressing. If there's a new salad dressing coming out, I would have no idea. I use salad dressing; I don't read Salad Dressing Weekly. I don't care who makes it, I don't know any of the personalities in the salad dressing business."

"For some people, [games are] like salad dressing. Or movies, or TV shows. It was definitely a reality check for us. Games are big, and they're expensive, I think that's very clear. And to be successful, and to continue to make these kinds of games which frankly, of the people who make these types of games, there's not a lot of them, and they haven't exactly been the most successful with these types of games that have come out in the last few years. I was thrilled because I love them, and I hope that we had some small role in getting those games greenlit... But they have to be financially successful to keep getting made."

"I looked at the cover art for BioShock 1, which I was heavily involved with and love, I adored. And I tried to step back and say, if I'm just some guy, some frat guy, I love games but don't pay attention to them... if I saw the cover of that box, what would I think? And I would think, this is a game about a robot and a little girl. That's what I would think. I was trying to be honest with myself. Trust me, I was heavily involved with the creation of those characters and I love them."

"Would I buy that game if I had 60 bucks and I bought three games a year... would I even pick up the box? I went back to the box for System Shock 1, which was obviously incredibly important – that game was incredibly influential on me, System Shock 2 was the first game I ever made. I remember I picked it up... looked at it and I said, I have no idea what this game is. And I didn't have a lot of money back then. So, back on the shelf. And I was a gamer."

"I wanted the uninformed, the person who doesn't read IGN... to pick up the box and say, okay, this looks kind of cool, let me turn it over. Oh, a flying city. Look at this girl, Elizabeth on the back. Look at that creature. And start to read about it, start to think about it."

"I understand that our fan says, that's great Ken, what's in it for me? One, we need to be successful to make these types of games, and I think it's important, and I think the cover is a small price for the hardcore gamer to pay. I think also when we do something for the hardcore gamer, there's something we're talking about and something we're sure about. The thing we're sure about is that we're going to be releasing a whole set of alternate covers that you can download and print. We're going to be working with the community to see what they're interested in."

"We had to make that tradeoff in terms of where we were spending our marketing dollars. By the time you get to the store, or see an ad, the BioShock fan knows about the game. The money we're spending on PR, the conversations with games journalists – that's for the fans. For the people who aren't informed, that's who the box art is for."