Why is the American box art so dull and uninspired?

[homunyan]

So I stumbled upon this image and I'm honestly kind of baffled: http://i.imgur.com/XRuQwE1.jpg

The Japanese box art, while a bit cluttered, is colorful and interesting and actually gets the message across that this is an mmo you play with friends. It looks fun, and inviting.

The European box art looks kind of awkward and I don't think really works as well as it could but I do like the idea: You and your friends setting off for adventure while the villain looms ahead.

The north american box is just... a screenshot from a cut scene of the villain. It's not even a very good screenshot. The image is pretty monochrome, not much is going on, it's just some guy in an evil suit of armor with a sword. If I hadn't already been interested in ARR seeing this box on the shelf would definitely not have grabbed my attention, I'd probably just assume it was yet another low-budget shovelware German RPG or something.

Why did SE USA intentionally use such a bland, lifeless, boring image for the cover when there were already much better options to choose from? I don't get it.