Xboxist

Death of the Instruction Manual

New games from Ubisoft will no longer feature a paper instruction manual, according to the company. Ubisoft has claimed that the change is for ecological reasons, but it is almost certainly a cost-saving measure. We like to think that because games have become so easy these days, an instruction manual isn't really needed anyway.\n\nGamers won't simply be left to figure out the controls on their own -- instead, an in-game set of instructions will be used to teach players the basics. The new system will affect all of its game releases for the Xbox 360 and PS3. \n\nThe first game to ship without an instruction manual will be Shaun White Skateboarding this autumn. \n\n\"Ubisoft is often recognised for making great games, but it's a special privilege to be the industry leader at saving trees,\" Ubisoft's North American president Laurent Detoc told Kotaku.\n\n\"Eco-friendly initiatives are important to the global community and introducing in-game digital manuals on Xbox 360 and PS3 is just the latest example of Ubisoft's ongoing commitment to being a more environmentally conscious company.\"\n\nThe company states that two tons of wood from 13 trees are needed to produce one ton of manual paper. This uses 28 billion BTUs of energy and creates 6,000 lbs of CO2 and 15,000 gallons of wastewater.\n\nFuture releases will be packaged with environmentally DVD cases from Technimark that are manufactured using 100 per cent recycled polypropylene.\n\n\n\n\n\nTurn to page 60 of your snowboard user's manual.\n\n\n
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