Ubi Cutting Out Game Manuals

[Joust Williams]

Evilmog nailed it. The days of big manuals are over (and they really didn't exist on the console anyway). I haven't read one in a long time because they:

a) are short
b) never answer my questions that I might have

But obviously you aren't going to see a discount on games. Those things cost about 2 cents to print. They could save a lot more money by not designing a tutorial level.

[kingoffighters]

They should stop doing CE/LEs too, but they won't because they can make an extra $20-30.

[Diff-chan]

I'm fine with this move. Ubi's manuals are consistently terrible and, really, not worth the paper they are printed on. At least it's now official.

Even if they were good, I probably wouldn't read any of them. Nowadays every game has a detailed in game tutorial (MOVE THE LEFT STICK TO MOVE) so they aren't necessary at all.

I never, ever take the manual out of the case, so it's a non-issue for me. However, I think Ubisoft is covering up blatant cost cutting with the guise of environmentalism, which is bullshit.

FWIW, environmentalists have long said that the two go hand-in-hand.

[Frogacuda]

Games haven't put necessary information in the manuals since ever. Most of the time when I try to look up something useful in the manual it's not in there anyway.

[icarusfall]

faggoty ass french escargot

What is with you and France?

Sir, you have a problem.

[Prince Planet]

I always liked going through the manual on the john (or at work, or on the john at work). But, I agree that manuals nowadays mostly suck and have sucked for a quite a while. Once in a while there's still some nugget of worthwhile info. I don't know. I also liked seeing a nice insert in DVD movies...some liner notes, or what ever. Same with LPs (way back when) and CDs. Opening up a nice new game and just seeing the disc and some shitty promo materials kind of sucks, imo.

[Joust Williams]

I'd take slimmer DVD cases (like those old demo disc things) myself. Harder to make out the spine I guess, but I could fit twice as many in my game storage

[Razor Ramon]

I've played games where the control scheme isn't in the manual nor is it in the options of the game. Fix that shit.

[gameoverDude]

I never, ever take the manual out of the case, so it's a non-issue for me. However, I think Ubisoft is covering up blatant cost cutting with the guise of environmentalism, which is bullshit. And I totally agree with Dyne. There won't be any savings passed on to the consumer.

Something like 2/3 of the games I own are digital now, so I'm way more environmentally friendly than Ubisoft without supporting that piece of shit company.

I'll usually try to jump in without reading the manual first thing. Instead I usually take a look at the control configuration screen for a quick overview.

The fact that the games will still cost $60 without a manual goes right into Sherlock's "no shit" file.

IMO, they could just show hints in the first level (i.e. "Use LT to aim down the sights", "Hit B to use melee attacks").

Let's hope they don't make us sit through ads for other games before playing. Imagine putting in Assassin's Creed 3 and seeing "Coming in 2012... Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3" then being forced to sit through a 2 minute trailer right after the Ubisoft logo disappears. Fuck... looks like I probably gave these guys another really lame idea. I'd better get off that.

Downsizing the cases to Turbo-Grafx 16/PlayStation 1 CD jewel case size would be fine if they aren't going to bother with manuals.

[dhowerter]

April 19, 2010 - In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, Ubisoft announced it is eliminating all paper game manuals from its Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC products

Wait, does this mean they will continue to do paper manuals for DS, PSP, and Wii games?

If they are, interesting that they continue to do the paper manuals for the games on the systems with the lower development costs. (compared to 360 and PS3 at least, don't know about PC..)

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