Ubisoft to ditch instruction manuals

Environmentally-friendly initiative to reduce paper consumption

23 April 2010 11:44 GMT / By Duncan Geere

How often, when you go and buy a new game in a shop, do you excitedly read the instruction manual on the way home? If Ubisoft has its way, soon you'll be stuck staring out of the window or reading Pocket-lint on your phone instead.

The company has announced that it's going to stop printing instruction manuals entirely, claiming that it's doing so as a "green" initiative. We're sure we don't need to point out that it also saves the company quite a bit of cash in authoring, printing and shipping costs, so perhaps the motivation behind the move isn't entirely altruistic.

We'll miss reading the manual on the bus, but for many years now, most game manufacturers have been cutting back on their printed manuals - filling a couple of pages with nothing but a list of health warnings, the most basic of controls and an inexplicably useless page for "notes". Gone are the days of chunky manuals that offered backstory, in-depth explanations of the functionality and hints and tips for gameplay.

You know what? We miss those days.

Via: thegamersblog.com

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Gaming, Ubisoft, Eco