Packaging design for game boxes, especially for consoles, is relatively consistent these days. No matter what art is printed on the cover, the box is always a plastic rectangle or, for collector's editions, sometimes a metal rectangle. Back when gaming was still establishing itself as a long-lasting industry, though, companies were willing to be a lot more experimental with designs.
The Sony PlayStation 2 remains to this day the bestselling home video game console of all time, with a massive library of classic games many of which are still unavailable on modern systems. The PS2 standardized a packaging design similar to a standard DVD case, with an additional slot to store a memory card above the disc, but it could have turned out very differently as shown by a box prototype.
The prototype, created by designer Hock Wah Yeo, features an unusual clamshell design, where the disc is stored in a large circular structure at the top. The case opens upward, as opposed to the standard side-opening design, and reduces the size of the box art to emphasize the disc's shape. The box's ridged design is reminiscent of the original PlayStation's box design, before the games transitioned from large plastic boxes to standard CD cases. Sadly, the design was rejected and replaced with a box closer to standard modern box designs and making it more difficult to distinguish game from console.
Sony likely did not choose this design because retailers would have become annoyed with its unusual form factor, which was a major point of contention with Hock Wah Yeo's other package designs. Before the PlayStation 2 prototype, Hock Wah Yeo has a portfolio of striking packaging going all the way back to the 1980s. He is the mind behind the infamous Spectre box that would become damaged when stacked due to a protruding plastic triangle, the highly kinetic Ultrabots box that physically separated and moved like a robotic arm and even some iconic NES games with his early work at Broderbund Software.
The PlayStation 2 prototype box design looks nonsensical by modern standards, and admittedly has disadvantages when compared to the design Sony decided to go with. The standard design has a lot of space for end labels, which are crucial for organization and ease of access for physical discs. No one wants to spend minutes pulling each game off a shelf to find a specific one. However, the design would have stood out against the competition at the time, with the Xbox using standard DVD-sized cases and the GameCube boxes taking on a similar form factor.
Even if the box prototypes are unusual, Sony playing it safe and going with a more traditional design may not have been the best move. An important fact about Hock Wah Yeo's box design methods is how much they would drive sales; the original Prince of Persia's sales tripled when its standard case was replaced with the iconic trapezoid box. Perhaps the PS2 could have made even more of an impact on gaming if the boxes were as willing to experiment as the underappreciated, experimental games released on the system.
Source: Obscuritory