Star Occean: Till the End of Time Box art question

[abw1977]

If this is a silly question I apologize for it in advance but I had no luck finding the answer before turning here…

I’ve only seen this case artwork in person:  


I’ve seen this one on eBay: (and I of course recognize it from the strategy guide)


Can anyone tell me what’s the difference?  (If anything.)

Thanks!

[Masamune]

I own the original, the box one.  I also work at EB, but this is still going to be a guess for the most part.

I'm pretty sure that the Box and non-Box are the exact same, the boxed one was pretty much just for the initial shipment, basically for those people who reserved the game.  You also got a poster for pre-ordering the game.

The non-boxed one is just how they produced it after the initial shipment, and then when it went greatest hits (i'm pretty sure it's greatest hits now) they continued to make it without boxing it.

So in summary, there is no difference.  It's the same game, the company just chose to produce it without the box to most likely save money.

Edit:  The boxed one also might have been exclusive to EB Games, but I'm not sure because the game came out before GameStop bought out EB Games, and before the two were the same company it was rare for bigger titles (I.E. Square-Enix games) to be exclusive to only GameStop or EB.  The normal case was probably what Wal-Mart and Best Buy had to sell though.

[daschrier]

I have the boxed version which I got at Circuit city. I got it on release, but I didn't preorder it, so it was most likely a first shipment offer rather than a store exclusive.

[Eusis]

Boxed was for pre-Greatest Hits, period. There was no exclusivity bullshit, as I've seen that all over the place. After it went Greatest Hits, they took out the box, made that the actual cover (Rather than the plain one that was there before) and fit the manual in by stuffing it with the shrink wrap.

[abw1977]

So it sounds like the top one, the one I own and keep seeing, is the initial release but the box is missing…  Correct?  (Sorry, I bought my copy used.)

I’m also assuming this is a box much like Magna Carta just had, correct?

[Masamune]

Magna Carta, DQ8, etc.  Yep.

[Eusis]

I’m also assuming this is a box much like Magna Carta just had, correct?

Similar, but not quite, I think Magna Carta's was of higher quality, and was designed to hold more than a two disc DVD case and the manual.