About Face: Faceplate Failure
by: dkpatriarch
© 2008 David Hilton
Pimping out cars and even computers shows a flair of individuality, a symbol of cool taste, or an extravagance of wealth. So obviously being able to pimp out your 360 with changeable faceplates was a stroke of marketing genius, right? Wrong.
Modding your video game console to look different in the past has also seen a strong following, so why has the faceplate idea failed to inspire gamers? Here was a company prepared to prevent the usual ‘void your warranty’ risk by offering you the opportunity to buy and change your faceplate easily to give it some flair or originality.
The first release games were even marketed with ‘Limited Edition’ faceplates for pre-orders which should have fanned the collectors’ flame for all things Limited. Here was a collectable unlike others like art books, extra content discs, tins or figures you could actually use and show off in public without looking like an obsessive, because it fit with your console.
Not only that they decided to sell different themes and gamerpics on marketplace using the same ‘personal modification’ philosophy, with a fair bit of success despite the cost. So why didn’t the faceplate take off?
Madcatz in the U.S. is still selling faceplates with skins for popular games like Gears of War, Halo 3, and Assassin’s Creed, but here in Australia the faceplate idea has gone the way of the dodo and the expense to import one doesn’t seem worth it. Some have said that the faceplates idea just makes the console seem cheap, especially compared with the sleekness the Wii and PS3 seem to exude.
A plastic interchangeable front just doesn’t give it the classy look they want. Others have pointed to the difficulty of finding one that is right for their 360 in the home; the one they like is made for vertical positions they don’t want to use or it doesn’t have the right colouring for their black Elite or white Pro.
Others say the cost isn’t worth it when you can get a discounted game for the same price. Some think the whole idea is contrary to the original idea of making the object unique and your own; instead of creating something to your taste you are buying into a corporate marketing tool and there is no ‘social rebellion’ or ‘artistic vision’ kudos for that.
Some of the faceplates don’t fit right and cause the disc tray to have problems ejecting (I’m looking at you COD2 faceplate!!!). Finally many of those that were touted as Limited Edition were not really limited at all.
I personally have had several faceplates; even one I got an artist to paint for me. That one is really an original piece of video game art. But now, when the 360 has to compete with increasingly well made PS3 versions of the same game you would think that an added bonus of a faceplate would be an extra selling point to add to the achievement aspect the 360 versions boast? But they are nowhere to be seen.
Click Images for full view:
Maybe publishers don’t want to to promote one version over another and the faceplate might do that? Only they have been going extinct for awhile now and were never very big. After GRAW2 or Halo 3 they seem to have vanished.
Tin-covered versions of games with bonus videos on a separate disc or an artbook are the go now. Every game released seems to have that ‘special’ version. They are the sellers. The plastic faceplate has either failed to inspire the market or the marketers.
Showing the Pre-Order contents, Limited Edition cover, and Pre-Order Cover
What do you think about faceplates? A bad idea? A good idea gone wrong? Share your opinion in the comment section below.
Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Console Customizing, Hardware News, Microsoft Games, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | "collectors edition faceplates", "Custom face plates", "custom faceplates", "custom xbox 360 face plates", "Limited edition faceplates", "xbox 360 Faceplates"
I’ll take a look again and update about this!
Edit : Thanks for the good article
I really like the Carbon fibre look on the PGR3 one and the “START” around the “ring of life” to imitate the PUSH Button start of a high end car, its a nice touch and finish, and looks good with the silver tray. i guess it depends on what your xbox 360′s direct surroundings and environment, it can either, complement, stand out, blend in, or just look plane boring, depending on your mood and the faceplate you want on it.
http://www.xboxaddict.com/faceplates_all
We just unveiled the Faceplate Database. Currently, there are over 800 manufactured and custom faceplates in the database. Soon, there will be many more, plus alternate shots of existing faceplates (packaged,displayed, etc.) Check it out if you get a chance.
Eh, I’m not really that big on faceplates myself. I have the Elite and think it looks slick enough just with the black finish.
I paid for a few faceplates mainly some clearance ones, i got a few of the blue hot rod VIP pack ones, some of the melted Mango Weis bar ones (i think its called sun set or something), i got and paid for the PGR3 one from Harvey (yeah Harvey sells not for resale stuff) i got a silver one, and then i got some non genuine ones like the black one from joytech, and the customisable one too. i paid a minimum of $2 each for these and a max of $10 (PGR3 being the $10)
I rekon the idea might have worked better if they whole case was customizable, like Shadow Wave said. For me, i don’t really have an interest in getting a different faceplate than the one that came with my xbox. I don’t care what it looks like, so long as it plays games. that said, I’m always on the lookout for free gamer pics and themes
and I’m a sucker for a good soundtrack to
I get 2 or 3 with each email, an dthen some when I send to you as well. Just blank emails, with a link asking me to visit a site, which might be a motorala phone, or BBQ equip etc . . I just ignore them, but they could end up as spam if the filter picks them up.
I’d suggest getting a yahoo.com.AU account (not the normal .com one) as I get very little spam through it, and it works fine. Plus, if you’re using FireFox yet, it has a spam filter that checks your outgoing mail, so I believe. They have a email program as well as a browser.
I’ll let you know the name of it soon. or just do a google for firefox email and see what pops up.
It’;s why I steer clear on MS comp products . . every hacker aims straight for them. They spend most of their time concentrating on MS product, and way less on stuff like FF and various other “smaller” email prog and browsers.
It’s usually a spider program that grabs your email addies . .
reformat time
Crap….I noticed that you were ‘missing’ along with a few others in my hotmail contacts list…any idea what is happening? How many have you been getting?
Yes David, the Alone In The Dark CE is being released by Atari here in Australia . . .Spoke with them the other day, and they sent details over. So you’ll just have to keep and eye out for when they are starting ti take pre-orders on them
Just put your name down with say Game and when it come sin, they’ll have your details to secure one. If I find out any details beforehand, I’ll certainly let you (anyone) know.
There’s an actual Limited Edition RS:V3 as shown above, you can get it via Play-Asia, Game-UK and ShopTo, and it’s different to the separate Pre-Order Kit you get here in Oz.
I’ve registered with DecalGirl to be an affiliate when we go onto private servers, and will be looking at others as well. As jazzing up consoles in a very artistic way of self expression. If there was a way of grabbing older cases and then simply doing work on them, I think there’d be a small market for that. Not big, but still a market nevertheless.
Oh BTW, David, your Hotmail is starting to spam me with blank emails with offers in links . . . justthought you’d like to know . . .
Did you guys ever see how big (and heavy) the Halo 3 Legendary helmet Pack was? I bought two and sold them on ebay and the postage almost cancelled out the profit I made!!! I didn’t realise it would be that big!!
I’m interested in this Alone in the Dark pack though, mostly for the music dvd (I love soundtracks). Any chance it will be released in Oz???
I think the pre-order deals with faceplates were a good idea, but they simply stopped doing them.
http://www.360dailynews.com/index.php?page=news/fullstory.php&indid=1788
Theres the link i posted it to be a clicky but my comment didn’t post for some reason.
The CE is beefy like i said the size of the XBox360 box when you bought the Pro. Enjoy Shadow
[url]http://www.360dailynews.com/index.php?page=news/fullstory.php&indid=1788[/url]
Hopefully the link works. The CE for Alone in the Dark is beefy like i said almost the size of the box you bought the Xbox360 Pro.
Enjoy the picture Shadow
I only have the faceplates I have won or gotten via pre orders. But I think and hoped, that for most 360 pre orders the bonus would be a faceplate… But sadly it wasn’t..
I bought my first and last faceplate the other day, a black Gears of War Faceplate, just because my elite is black and hopefully it would match nice.
The main problem with them, is MS should have made the whole plastic cover the “face plate” so you could totally change the look of your 360. not just the front.
anyway, good idea gone bad, still i’d to see them as a pre order gift.
-Can I see a link to this alone in the dark CE?
Funny to see this, as Grant and i were just talking and he mentioned this article. hehe.
i am personally not all that fussed about changeable face-plates for the 360. i still have the Blue faceplate that you got when you bought the VIP Pack with Perfect Dark Zero and a controller.
As much as face-plates look cool and slick, i don’t see the need for them. Sure they would look great in your lounge room with a face-plate that stands out but other than that there is not much use for them.
I have to agree with the Special Edition of games they have been taking off, nearly every game now that gets released gets either a limited, special or collectors edition.
Grant told me there is an Alone in The Dark Collector’s Edition that is nearly the same size as the box that homes the Xbox 360 Pro Console. i was like woah! that’s crazy.