Do you ever bother reading the instruction manual?
When was the last time you read through the manual of your new Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game before popping it into your console's disc drive? We're guessing that, given the chance between playing a new game's tutorial (ever increasingly popular handholding in video games) versus reading about it in a dull black and white booklet, you'd take the first option. That could be the reason why Ubisoft will be discontinuing the bundling of manuals in its Xbox 360 and PS3 games later this year.
Instead, Ubisoft will be integrating the game tutorial and game manual information in the game itself. Ubisoft internal data shows that producing one ton of paper used in Ubisoft’s game manuals consumes an average of two tons of wood from 13 trees, with a net energy of 28 million BTU’s (equivalent to average heating and energy for one home/year), greenhouse gases equivalent of over 6,000 lbs of CO2, and wastewater of almost 15,000 gallons.
Ubisoft is also trying to make its plastic DVD cases friendlier too. Ubisoft has partnered with Technimark, Inc. to release the entertainment industry’s most environmentally-responsible DVD case for all of its future PC titles in North America. The 100 percent-recycled polypropylene “ecoTech” DVD case will make its debut with Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction PC video game on April 27, 2010. Ubisoft has featured digital game manuals in its PC titles distributed in North America since March 2010.
The program for digital manuals for the Xbox 360 and PS3 will start with Shaun White Skateboarding this holiday 2010.
"It’s pretty cool that Ubisoft is making a conscious effort to go green with its new video game packaging," commented Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White. "I’m excited for my new skateboarding game to come out and stoked that it will be the very first Ubisoft game to be part of their green packaging initiatives."
I actually love manuals, they're interesting to read when they have little bits of story, and sometimes even small tips about the game that you might not get if you just pop in the game.
I actually love manuals, they're interesting to read when they have little bits of story, and sometimes even small tips about the game that you might not get if you just pop in the game.
they are being cheap
One thing often missing from simulator games are details eg: from a flight simulation details of the aircrafts and their armament, or a space simulation power of lasers, phasers, shields, etc. Without those vital statistics you can't really enjoy the strategic side of a game.
Of course, everything is about the bottom line, but this makes perfect sense to me, and more and more companies are taking this route. If it means less paper, the better - and while we all know why they're really doing it, it's still a very good thing! In my opinion, anything which doesn't need assembly should ditch the user manual - and if info must be given to the customer, put it on a CD, or better yet, just make them go online!
Now it's going to be a hassle to navigate to the information through the game itself. I hope it is not an online feature as that would be really irritating.
Yep. I'll believe the greener part when they drop the price of the game $3 because of this.
What they're really saying (to me) is "No one bothers looking at our chicken scratch, so let's phase it out and call it 'Green' to increase our share value!!"
Not only because I read this on IGN a few days ago, but also because I now refuse to even aknowledge that Ubisoft exists.
Splinter Cell: Conviction being crippled by this new DRM is making me want to break down in tears over the dwindling of honest, small time - enthusiast game developers.
Oh yeh, and this is just a way for a company to save some money, whilst trying to piggy back on the halo affect of the whole 'green' thing [this isn't to say I'm not concerned about the destruction of our natural habitats, but the mass-media 'buzz-word' nature of the movement.].
Yeah my feelings exactly! I stopped buying Ubisoft games years ago...not worth the headaches...
This is _only_ about chipping away at the value of ownership when you buy a physical copy of a game. Their ultimate goal is to sell you a license that they can control, that has no resell value. One of the ways they are facilitating this digital shift, is by giving you less and less ownership for your money so when the digital future is finally here it'll be harder to remember all the things your money used to buy and you'll be more inclined to embrace their new business model of no consumer ownership and no consumer control what_so_ever.
The fact that they can call themselves green while saving few pennies on each copy of the game by not having to print a manual is just icing on the cake, but it is by no means the cake.
There won't be CD keys because is they'll force you to connect to your server during your play.
Yeah, like that really worked...