Meet the Man Who Makes PlayStation's Amazing Press Kits

Talking about press kits in a post-Doritosgate era is perhaps a little awkward, but the work of Tim Smith deserves to be appreciated. The Welsh graphic designer and illustrator is behind some of SCEE’s best pre-release packages, which are typically sent to journalists alongside review code prior to a particular PlayStation title’s launch.

While these tend to be miniature works of art, we try not to give them too much attention, as it’s the actual game that we’re reviewing – and not the extra incentives that ship alongside it. Our copy of LittleBigPlanet 3, for example, arrived in a zipped case with a pop-up book earlier this month – and we have many others stored in a cupboard from over the years.

Seeing as many people never get to see these, though, it’s worth acknowledging just how much work goes into them. Smith recalls polishing off MotorStorm: Pacific Rift’s press pack – which shipped in a tyre-styled wallet caked with sand. “We came up with an all new production technique that allowed us to actually embed sand as we vacuum formed [the plastic] into shape,” he told We Collect Games.

On-and-off, the creation of this special packaging took Smith and his team three months to complete – and a similar amount of effort is invested into other titles. Warhawk, for instance, was sent out to the media as part of an authentic journal, while SOCOM: Special Forces employed an aqua drop package. “Yes, it actually does float,” he laughed.

Our personal favourite, though – and one that we admittedly have on display to this day – is the pet carrier employed for EyePet. This comes with a pop-up picture of the titular character performing a raspberry. It’s a miniature masterpiece, but Smith – who works for an independent graphics design company contracted by SCEE – was worried that competitors would all dream up the same idea.

“I knew that this was very obvious and something that I knew that the other agencies we were pitching against would come up with,” he explained. “I spent days thinking of so many other ideas, but none were as perfect as the pet carrier concept that I started with. So I decided that instead of going with a whole new idea, I’d try and make my pet carrier kit idea better than the rest.”

According to Smith, a good press kit should “encapsulate the core aspects and image” of a game while also communicating all of its “great features”. To be honest, we’d happily settle for just the disc – but we can appreciate the work that goes into these. It doesn’t sound like Sony will be stopping them anytime soon either, as apparently there are “even greater” ones to come.