Codemasters, the video game developer behind the F1 franchise, revealed the game covers for F1 2017. I say “covers” because unsurprisingly the company has designed a collection of different covers which will be used in different regions. It shows which drivers are popular in the various regions and one of the covers is actually surprising to me.
Codemasters shared the covers on their Facebook page recently. All of the covers are same, showing the car of Kimi Räikkönen leading the car of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Riccairdo on the bottom half of the cover. The part that changes based on location is the four selected drivers at the top half of the cover.
Another thing that doesn’t change is Codemaster’s choice to feature Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton front and center in every cover variation. To be honest though, this isn’t really shocking since they are the stars of this year’s title battle and are arguably the most popular drivers on the grid.
The game’s primary cover features (from left to right) Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. This is the cover that will be used if there are no local region covers for the area the game is sold.
Another variation of the cover features Stoffel Vandoorne, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. This version will be marketed in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Therefore, it makes sense that the company would feature the Belgian driver on the cover.
For the Australian cover, Codemasters chose Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo. Again, it is a sensible choice for Ricciardo to be featured on the cover in this area, seeing as he is the national driver.
But things get confusing when we look at the cover design for the Americas region. This cover features Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez. Now this, in my opinion, is the worst driver selection I’ve witnessed for a Codemasters cover. I have no clue how they picked these drivers.
Although the Americas market would include South America also, North America is the bigger market for the F1 video game. I am shocked that they didn’t swap out Massa with Fernando Alonso, especially considered the massive media attention surrounding his Indianapolis 500 debut this year. He would have been a much bigger selling figure.
I’m even puzzled by their choice to feature Pérez to be honest. Being from the North America region myself, I know for a fact that unless a person already watches Formula One racing, they have no idea who Massa or Pérez are.
However, the biggest disappointment expressed by Facebook users in the comments section for the cover image is that there are no Haas F1 Team drivers featured on the Americas cover. This is something I can agree with. Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean would have been a much better choice for this cover.
The F1 2017 game will be available for the PlayStation4, Xbox One, Windows PC on DVD and through Steam on August 25.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
