Wiki Style Guide: How to Properly Add a Game's Release Data

Releases

Thanks for taking interest in adding and editing Release data on the site. While it's not a particularly fun or exciting part of the site to edit, it's a fundamental part of the data that the wiki is built upon. So, it's important that we do it correctly. This will serve as a style guide on how we should all be doing this. Failure to do so will lead to submissions being rejected and warnings being issued.

Adding a Release

There are two ways to add a Release. The long way and the short way. Feel free to use the quick method, which requires just a Name, Region, and Platform. Though, it is highly encouraged to include the Developer, Publisher, Date, and Image.

If you have the information though, please use the long way as it offers the ability to add much more detail. It's important to get the Release listed, but it's equally important that it be as accurate as possible.

Physical vs Digital

If the game is released in both variations, the digital version should have a parenthetical in the title of the Release to denote the difference. If the digital release is on PC, there should be a comment in the Notes section of the Release to show which store it is from.

Special Editions

Whether it's a collector's edition, premium edition, SteeBook edition, or "Love is Over" edition, this should be listed as a parenthetical in the title of the Release. If it's a digital version, the word "digital" should also be in that parenthetical (i.e. "Digital Premium Edition").

Early Access

Games that are released in Early Access should have a Release entry for that date with a parenthetical (i.e. "Dota Underlords (Early Access)".

A separate Release entry should be added for the full launch of the game once known.

Editing an Existing Release

Currently, editing a Release can be difficult. If a release doesn't have an image attached, you can add one. Here are the steps required:

• Hover your mouse over where the image would normally be and click "Edit"
• Click the tab that reads "Images (0)"
• Click the red "Add New Image(s)" tab on the right
• Upload an image
• Click the "Make default" button, which is to the right of the green "Save" button

If you are having issues with this, please message a moderator and we'll take care of it.

Images

Okay. Here is the complicated part. It may seem nitpicky to some, but it is important that each release has the proper box art and or store image. For example, if a game is released on several different platforms, we shouldn't be using the Steam store's image for all of them. We also shouldn't be using the North American box art for every region. Nor should we be using some generic logo in any situation. So, let's break it down by popular platforms.

PC

PC releases are probably the most complicated at this point due to the various online stores.

Steam

Steam Store

For Steam releases, we should be using the 460x215 "header.jpg" image from the top right corner of the game's store page.

Just right click, save, and upload to the release page. Easy.

SteamGridDB

Alternatively, you can often obtain more Steam image assets more easily by using SteamGridDB. Simply search for the game you want, then click the "View Original Steam Assets". You'll see a list of images including the main "header" store image as well as box art, logo, and background images.

Epic

For Epic Games Store releases, we should be using the 278x158 logo on the left side below the video on the store page. The tricky part about this is that you can't save that logo as an image. You'll need Snipping Tool it on PC or Shift+Cmnd+4 it on Mac.

Epic Games Store

Microsoft

With the advent of Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass, many PC games are available through Microsoft directly. For these, we need to use the 200x300 "apps00000.jpeg" that is found on the game's store page.

Microsoft Games

Humble

Humble releases don't require documentation because they are selling keys that used to redeem the game on other stores.

Others

Play it by ear. If you have questions, let us know and we'll make an official decision.

PlayStation

Retail - Amazon

Console release images are much simpler. You've got your retail box art, which is generally easily obtainable through Amazon. They offer high-res box arts that are usually 1500 pixels tall. Just click the box art on the game's page, then either use the magnifying glass to expand it or just open into a new tab to see the largest version.

PSN Store

We prefer you use the largest, highest resolution image available. And then you have your digital release image, which should be obtained from the PlayStation Store. The store is weird, so here's what we'll do for now.

If the game has multiple versions, the game's store page will look like this image to the right. Each version will have a 325x325 square box art. Unfortunately, you can't easily save these images on PlayStation.com, so you'll need to capture them with either a Snipping Tool (Windows) or Cmnd+Shift+4 (Mac) to deftly grab it.

If the game does nothave multiple versions, there is nobox art on the game's store page at all. There's just a splash banner at the top that you can't do much with. But, if you search for the game specifically, the results will be shown in a grid of box arts. If you right click this small box art and open it into a new tab, you'll get a 445x445 version that you can capture.

Xbox

Same rules as PlayStation.

The digital releases should use the 1440x2160 "apps00000.jpeg" image found on the Xbox.com search page. Just right click one of these box arts and open in a new tab to see the full resolution version.

Xbox Games Store

Nintendo Switch

Same rules as PlayStation and Xbox.

The digital releases should use the 1920x1080 .jpg image found at the top of the game's the eShop page.

Nintendo eShop

Older Platforms

For older consoles and handhelds, follow the general rules above. For example, use the highest resolution image possible for retail box art. Avoid using photographs of a box whenever possible. If it's a platform that offers digital releases, use the official store's images as described above.

Questions

If you have any questions or suggestions about this, feel free to post them below. Or, if you prefer, contact the moderators directly.

Thanks! I care.

You can get a much higher res version of the box art on the Microsoft store by opening the cover art in a tab by itself and removing everything after the ? at the end of the url.

I think it would be better to use images from Nintendo UK´s website because they are in 1000x1000 and they don´t have the orange frame as those from USA´s website.

@kaigan_sake: For UK releases, yes.

Yay! Does this signal a new era of wiki revitalisation!?

Also, you can get higher resolution images (616x353) from Steam by using "https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/[GAME ID]/capsule_616x353.jpg"

Example: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/205710/capsule_616x353.jpg

@beachthunder: Oh my god, how have I not known about this. Or maybe I just forgot it, but that is super helpful. Thank you.

There is a way to add an image to an existing release. Like shown for the release of "Flight of the Intruder" for the NES.

Greetings

@fiye: I just tried that to add boxart for the Switch version of Obra Diin (https://www.giantbomb.com/return-of-the-obra-dinn/3030-46427/release/3050-169418/) When I hit Make Defualt, the page refreshed and nothing seemed to happen.

It worked. Maybe you should first upload the pictures to the "Images" gallery of the game before adding them to a release and setting them there as default.

GOG really doesn't seem to want you to get the store images from them, and they're really hard to get from the front page of their store, but slightly easier, at least in Firefox, if you go to their "All games" page (where you can search by game title) and then right click the page and pick "Show page info", and then go to the "Media" tab in the Page Info window, from there you'll see a list of images where all the game box art is listed as a long strong of numbers followed by _product_tile_256.jpg, where you can replace the 256 with 398 in order to get the largest version of the box art, example: https://images-4.gog.com/463a31a169013ea4177dffdcc99e5c6374a0b7c3b9c55dbe754321b0a8624e6c_product_tile_398.jpg

They sadly don't seem to have a convenient file naming scheme like Steam's app-id.

Weird, I refreshed a few times and nothing was happening. Probably a cache issue on my end, because i'm seeing it now.

@bobafettjm: THANKS

Just noticed this blog entry. I went back to all the digital Nintendo Switch releases I added and appended (Digital) to their names. I'll do this moving forward.

I just found out that you can get the vertical box art images used in Steam's library view by replacing the file name of the image with "library_600x900_2x.jpg", like https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/[GAME ID]/library_600x900_2x.jpg

Those seem like a good fit for use as default images for game pages, though not all games, especially not older titles has one of these.

Example:

With the change to the PSN store, what should the standard be now?

@fisk0: I have been using SteamGridDB to grab box art and header images for releases, it's really useful because it has both the store and Steam Client assets on there.

Here is the F29 Retaliator page for example.

I've made some updates to the guide regarding this.

Added this to the guide.

@marino: The PSN Store section only applies to games with multiple editions. Games with no other editions don't have an image like that.

@glik: Ok. I'll check it out again.

@glik: Okay. I've updated it. The PSN Store really is a pain in the ass for this.

Even though this is mostly about the Releases section, there's also the Game Details section that has release data such as "First release date", so I figure this is as good a place as any to ask this.

For Early Access games, should "First release date" transition to final release date upon exiting Early Access, or should it remain the date the game entered Early Access?

@kamasamak: A while back, it was decided that if a game is taking money to buy it, it's out. That's a release. So, the release date on the main wiki page would be that. The Releases section of the game's page would have the Early Access and the "1.0" release as separate entries.

@marino: Thanks for clarifying. The releases section was explained well enough, but I checked a couple FAQs and didn't see that information for the main infobox. I did not want to assume that "a release" was the same as "the release". Especially when other sources like Wikipedia use the release date of the full launch in their infobox.