EA drops paper game manuals

Matthew DeCarlo

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
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Following Ubisoft's example, Electronics Arts has announced plans to stop including paper instruction booklets with its games. The publisher initially launched the initiative in January with the PlayStation 3 version of Mass Effect 2 and the change went into full effect earlier this month with Fight Night Champion.

The decision will extend to all EA titles worldwide and games will ship with on-disc manuals that are easily accessible from the main menu and pause screen. Gamers can also download digital pamphlets in multiple languages through a dedicated section on EA's support site, though only for certain titles.


EA expects to reduce the printed materials in packaged games by about 40%. The company will undoubtedly save money too, but it hasn't shared any figures and has decided to focus on the environmental angle. "EA is committed to a healthy and sustainable environment," said EA COO John Schappert.

We're not sure how these numbers translate to EA's operations, but when Ubisoft made the shift last year it claimed that producing one ton of paper for its game manuals consumed around two tons of wood from 13 trees with a net energy of 28 million BTUs -- the average heating and energy for one home per year.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/42961-ea-drops-paper-game-manuals.html

 
Zippa-de-do-dah..... Oh, happy, happy day. And once again the guilt and burden of "going green"" falls on the consumer. The manufacturers pocket the savings, but don't commensurately reduce the price of the game, (or whatever).

It's like the credit card companies expounding on all the, "great things they were doing for you, that is, great things they were doing for you AFTER the Fed cracked down on them.

Still in all, it's no mean feat, getting bull s*** to spin like that.

Nima304 said:
Good. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Click to expand...
Wow, you're a corporate dream child. BP dumps a billion gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, while you save a few pieces of paper, then equate that with saving the world.

"Reduce, reuse, recycle"! Isn't that the same crap they were spouting at "carosel", in the movie, "Logan's Ruin"?
 
I don't know anybody who actually reads the manual. Everything is pretty much explained in-game nowadays. No manuals needed at all, it seems.
 
I'm a little sad to see them go. I have at least flipped through the manual for all the games I own, read several of them. When picking up used games I like to grab ones with the manual.
If its a fighting game I usually look there first for a basic move list.
 
I am sure they will pass the savings on to the consumer by dropping the new game price from $60 back down to $50... not.
 
I am fairly critical on EA and other game distributors/developers... but I am ok with dropping manuals, they should make them available digitally though.
 
Damn...I always love the smell of a new manual.

I hope this don't catch with all the major game companys.
 
ramonsterns said:
Nima304 said:
Good. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Click to expand...

Yes, because game manuals are like plastic bottles, right? You buy one and throw it away the first chance you get?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure he is talking about the first R the reduce. Not reuse or recycle.

I miss the old game manuals that did tell you about all the different things in game. Now they are called strategy guides. I remember finding my Sim City 2000 manual just the other day and was surprised at how big it was.
 
I agree, we need no steakin manual for no video games. Most are crap anyways!

Not like you are trying to build something real.

Not only a waste of paper but a waste of development time in my eyes. Time and money better spent on making the game better.
 
benny26 said:
Damn...I always love the smell of a new manual.

I hope this don't catch with all the major game companys.
Click to expand...

Me too, and yeah I do like to browse over my game manual. Recycling is cool and all but for 60$ I want a damn paper manual. While other people are playing the first day you get a game looking at the manual while you wait is great.
 
war59312 said:
I agree, we need no steakin manual for no video games. Most are crap anyways!

Not like you are trying to build something real.

Not only a waste of paper but a waste of development time in my eyes. Time and money better spent on making the game better.
Click to expand...

They made them crap. Older game manuals were much better. I like being able to sit back and read them first.

I doubt that any cease and dissist of the game manual is going to have us get better games.
 
Matthew DeCarlo said:
The company will undoubtedly save money too, but it hasn't shared any figures and has decided to focus on the environmental angle.
Click to expand...

While I'm happy with the tiny environmental impact this will have, it's clear this has absolutely nothing to do with it. I'm still not fond of the fact that us PC gamers have to pay the 'console tax' and receive nothing in return. No doubt once we go all digital we won't be seeing any of those savings either ;) .
 
negroplasty said:
Sweet. Save some trees!
Click to expand...
Right. Why not plant some trees to make paper from? Does that sound like a plan? No, wait a minute, we need that ground for a housing development and strip mall.

Oh, and before I forget, land for low income housing in furtherance of unrepentant and uncontrolled breeding of the social entitlement set. Wow, they make some paperwork.

In the meantime, why don't you set up a memorial for the trees that died to make your copy book.
 
Sad days ahead

What was better back in the day...opening up that heavy PC game box, the game you were waiting months if not years for inside. As a child you were so eager to see the game that you couldn't wait to get home. You open the box to find the shiny new jewel case inside along with a several inch thick manual that you can read on the way home (or for the adults a bathroom reader) to know exactly what you plan on doing when you get the game first installed.

What class were you going to pick? What play-style were you going to go for? Who were the characters you wanted to unlock? All of these questions were answered with the manual and I'm sad to see them go, even if they are just getting turned into e-manuals. Games used to be hard enough or require a memory that most couldn't hope to obtain so they allowed notes in the back of the book (seldom used of course but games like myst gave you that place to write) Games like everquest were so expansive that a 135 page atlas was actually published and used by many gamers. Even now I see a walmart version of assassins creed sitting on my desk that came in a 4 sided printed piece of cardboard with the cover on it, a Styrofoam insert with the cd (no case) and a single slip of paper saying who the lawyers were for the company in four different languages..... I was sincerely disappointed.

Sorry EA and Ubisoft, I feel you made the wrong move.
 
They'll never change my love for paper and the printed word, not even if they show me pictures of baby spruce trees being clubbed to death in the Arctic......!!! :mad:
 
Well... if they want me to save paper then I guess I should avoid their special edition games. Just think of all that packaging I'll avoid. That'll save some trees... WAIT money is printed on paper! 2 birds, 1 stone. I'm all about saving trees.
 
Save our eyes, reading a paper manual is way better for your eyes, reaching aside Demonlord hit the nail on the head.
 
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