Cover

With IGDB being the most comprehensive video game database, we want to ensure that our game covers are original and of high quality.

For guidelines regarding localized covers, visit our Localization guidelines.

Before contributing with a cover we ask you to review the guidelines below:

Preferences

Please note, a cover on IGDB does not need to be the same as the game’s physical box cover.

• 3:4 format ratio, with a minimum resolution of 600x800px
• JPG or PNG format
• The US English title, when available
  • If a US English title isn’t available, the original release title is fine
• Official game logos, when available
  • Official game logos (aka the title) can usually be found on sources such as a game’s homepage, presskit, or social media accounts
• The game title must appear on the cover and be the largest text on the cover
  • Example: Showing an event/mode/character/update such as “Season 1” on a cover is preferred, but this should be smaller than the original title of the game
  • IGDB supports game seasons, expansions, and alternate game editions. Please make sure that you’re adding the correct cover to the correct version of the game!
• We prefer the US/NA official artwork, when available. If nothing else exists then any official artwork is fine. This is good to think about when/if making your own cover.
• No region or platform specific logos¹
  • Example: Age ratings, platform icons, publishers, etc.

Visual Example

Not Accepted

• No watermarks
• No nudity, sexual content, or other violations of our content policies
• No advertisements or calls-to-action
• Covers cannot make use of fanart
• A cover should only be removed if it's invalid. Contributions that remove a cover without providing a replacement will be discarded.
• Adding a DLC/Expansion or Season cover to a main game. Since those game types have their own page on IGDB, the cover for the main/base game should be different.
• Portraits of developers

Arcade Covers

Arcade games can be difficult to find proper cover art. IGDB pages tracking arcade games fall under two scenarios:

• For IGDB pages that only track the arcade version of a game, we accept marquee art or arcade flyers, favoring whichever one is the closest match for our other guidelines.
• For IGDB pages that track arcade and home releases, we go with box art from the home release.

FAQ

• We decided to revamp our presskit and add new marketing material for our game. Is it possible to update our IGDB cover using our new media assets?

Yes! We do allow cover updates based on new marketing materials.

• We just released a massive update to our game and would like to upload a new cover. Is this allowed?

Yes, as long as the update does not fall under the DLC/Expansion and Season category and does not have a different title or additional subtitle. Just make sure the logo remains the same as it was before. We currently do not have a good system in place for organizing updates and patches (especially when more than just the cover needs to be edited), so please keep in mind that some contributions may be rejected.

Adding a cover with a new character is fine as long as the character is a part of a significant update and not a season.

• We just released a new season of our game and would like to upload our seasonal cover to the base game. Is this okay?

No, as previously stated, we want seasonal covers to be part of their own 'season' page on IGDB. This is done to distinguish between the various game types that we have in the database. This also means that if you added a cover featuring a seasonal event or character but kept the original game title (from the base game), that contribution would likely be rejected.

• Tell me about covers for bundles!

Sometimes games are only available as part of a bundle, however in order to properly organize this data, we provide bundle games their own pages. This is decided on a case-by-case basis and is dependent on a variety of factors, including whether the game has its own menu screen and/or achievements. It's essential that the game covers differ in order to distinguish these individual games from the bundle as a whole. As a result, please don't use the same cover for each game. Instead, we'd use official artwork or, in certain circumstances, go without a cover altogether.

Examples:

• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (a bundle)
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Remastered (part of the bundle but not released on its own)

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Any cover can be edited in order to fit our ‘perfect cover’ standard. Partial editing is also acceptable as long as the new version is an improvement of the old upload.

If you have any further questions or concerns about contributing covers, please reach out to us on Discord and we will do our best to help you out.

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¹ Although our goal is for covers to have no region or platform specific logos, we understand that it’s not always possible, especially for older video games. This is also true for resolution and ratio. In these cases, we may be more lenient with accepting cover contributions that go against the guidelines–after all, a cover is better than no cover.