Ubisoft Going Greener by Ditching Game Manuals
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."
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and by "greener" they mean they get to keep the extra green
Jeez, why cant you just like, turn the lights off in the studio at night or something?
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.
going greener or cutting costs??
they are being cheap
I do not own a game console so i can't really comment there. But for the PC it is usually a good thing to have, especially when there is a story behind. It is like a book and it gets you flamed up and ready to go into the game and play it. I almost never read or go through the options and menu descriptions as they are useless. You will come across them in the game menu anyway and they don't help at all in the manual with descriptions of: "GRAPHICS-From here you can change your graphics options of the game", REALLY???
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.
sorry, but I am one of those view that actually reads the manual. Loads more stuff in there than just how to play the game.
Then where to the CD keys go?
and by "greener" they mean they get to keep the extra green
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!
If they ditch their stupid new DRM they'll be able to stop wasting electricity running all those DRM servers. But that would make life easier for their paying customers, so they probably won't...
I pretty much read through the manuals for the 4X and other strategy games I enjoy. Shooters, not so much.
I must be one of those odd balls that almost always reads the instructions first before playing a game. They're great for the downtime while installing new games, or when playing multiplayer when there are always questions about the controls.
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.
and by "greener" they mean they get to keep the extra green
Yep. I'll believe the greener part when they drop the price of the game $3 because of this.
I would actually read the god damn manual if they had anything decent in them. Remember when games used to come with COOL STUFF that wasn't just a shiny box or a useless in-game item?
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!!"
I read only the comments here.
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.].
But prices will stay the same, despite the savings.
Digital manuals are still nice, as long as I still get the art work and other stuff.
Nah, this is not really green. They're just cutting costs. And unless you put something substantial in the manuals, you can't really expect gamers to read that.
I read only the comments here.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 isn't about money or the environment.
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.
Then where to the CD keys go?
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...
More money for DRM.
I also read the manuals. I really don't like playing the tutoriuals, they seem to be a waist of time. WIth a manual I can look through it and get the info I need much, much faster. I also like reading books on paper rather than using the computer to read books. I'm just that kind of guy I guess.
It is better for Ubisoft to drop the DRM instead of droping the manual book.
3 things will happen here with this, 1 the CD key will go on the Disc its self and the other is you have to print out a manual if you want to read it during the game for any reason. and last but not least the price will stay the same of go up because i can bet my life that it wont come down in price even though they are saving money on the produstion cost's.
its all bullshit if you ask me just another was to screw us gamers and give us less for our money yet again
The game manual was one reason not to pirate a game. i guess they figure since they've got 'uncrackable' drm, they dont' need to bother with any more manuals. some games need a manual, especially if they are complex.
Now when I come home from the store where I buy a video game I won't have anything to read when I have to use the restroom right away.
The game manual was one reason not to pirate a game. i guess they figure since they've got 'uncrackable' drm, they dont' need to bother with any more manuals. some games need a manual, especially if they are complex.
Uh, it will have a manual.
There will be a file on the disc.
I'm not entirely sure a game manual of either type would help you much anyway unless it only contained pictures. Do you read?
Why not make ALL games available online at sites like D2D? Now that'd be green. Maybe they can make a game that can run on Linux, now, considering they got Linux installed on a potato.
I read only the comments here.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.
First of all, from what I've been told that Conviction is supposed to have about 5 hour single player but there's supposed to be some form of multi-player.
That aside, for enthusiast game developers there aren't that many around, though some games like 'Melty Blood' were done by small individual groups. Problem is that you wont find it on any shelf at all and I dare say what method you'd have to get it least I want the RAA (or something like that) to get dudes in black suits to knock on m'door but I think you understand what I'm talkin' about
I have friends that prefer to buy games because of having the dvd, the box and the manuals, they don't even consider buying games on Steam...
Bottom line:
Without the manuals, there's less value in holding a physical copy. Anyway, it's Ubisoft... I'll never buy anything from them until they remove that retarded DRM
The days where the manual was a part of the game are gone. No longer do you open it and find easter eggs or little snapshots of development, or the prologue, or even the interesting stuff. Just stats, control buttons and stupid warnings about epilepsy (hint; if you know you have a life threatening brain defect, you should probably already know that video games trigger it)
If anyone seriously thinks they will pass savings onto the MSRP of the games, you're so wrong it's sad.