I was shocked to look at the studio that released SPARTAN--it was Warner Bros, home of the awful snapper case. Instead of a snapper, they had the disc in a Amaray (clam shell) case that everyone BUT Warners uses.

Please correct me, but SPARTAN seems to be the first SINGLE Amaray case that Warners has ever released.

Previously, they have used Amaray cases, but only for double disc sets (such as THE LAST SAMURAI).

Does this mean that snapper cases are gone for good?

Some other recent titles were released in single amarays (Marx Brothers and another recent box set)

The Cary Grant box set. Also, last year Warner Brothers released the Buccaneers Super Bowl Champions DVD in a keepcase.

I want to say Torque was also in such a case if memory serves me correct

The first one, I believe, was Matrix Reloaded. Then we got Terminator 3. Plus Warner has been making keepcase versions of all their snappers for the big rental chains (i.e. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, etc.) for several years now. When they sell their previously-viewed DVD's, you can often get official keepcase versions of their snapper releases. Unfortunately, here in Hawaii we don't have Hollywood Video and all our Blockbusters, unlike elsewhere on the mainland, seem to only sell them in the original snappers.