Going Green: The End of Manuals

Ubisoft, one of the not-so-famous but still quite productive game companies, has announced that they're going to stop including printed manuals in all their games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Instead, they'll be including the manuals in the game. They claim that placing the manuals in the game will allow more intuitive access and more content.

What do you think of this move? Is it a good idea or would you prefer having a traditional paper manual? Have in-game manuals ever been done well enough that they make a good replacement for the paper kind?

Will other companies follow Ubisoft's lead and ditch paper manuals? Nintendo games weren't mentioned in the announcement, so Nintendo is likely forcing Ubisoft to continue to include paper manuals in Wii and DS games.

I think it's a great idea. Games have enough memory these days to handle including an electronic copy of the manual in the games themselves. They could also make the manuals more interactive, which might help some people understand the directions better.

When you press Wii's "Home" button, it has an option for "operations guide" or something like that. I can't remember without looking right at it. Anyway, it's basically the manual for whatever game you're playing. I've downloaded quite a few titles from the Virtual Console feature and am already used to not having a printed manual for many games.

We also try to buy our games used as much as possible, and half the time they no longer have a manual. When it does, the kids are notorious for losing them, anyway.

It is a good idea especially if you wanna cut back on printing paper, when games sell millions of copies and manuals range from 10-40 pages long that’s lots of paper. But a manual made the game feel like a complete package for me :/

Personally, I like the paper manuals. I always read them on my way home, getting myself pumped to play the game. Heck, I've read the manuals for about 80% of all my games. ^_^

Though I will say one thing, it is a smart move because now nobody will lose their manuals.

Nah I like having the real thing man...

Yeah, I'll always prefer having the real thing handy. I don't forsee this as being a trend that's going to catch on with the other game publishers. Most of the print paper products we buy today are made from 60% or more recycled paper anyways, so this also isn't all that big of an impact enviromentally either.

Manuals use trees. I have a feeling though that the company is thinking less of trees and more of the green.

I really like the manuel that come with the game. I always love to watch and read the manual before I play the game for the first time. I'm against the ''going green'' movement for the games manual.

I like the paper manuals better. I have saved almost all my manuals from the games I have purchased and wouldn't part with them for anything. It is tough when you buy a used game and the manual is no longer there.

I am a little torn on this subject. Personally, I can see the advantage of both sides. On one hand, the paper manuals are almost a tradition looked forward to, and on the other hand, there would be less danger of losing the manuals and you would always have it handy right where you need it, when you need it. Sometimes change takes some getting used to. It would be great if they could do both, but I guess that would be overkill.