Ubisoft Eliminating User Manuals

[Snotnarok]

This makes no sense, none of this eco crap with video games. I want you Escapists to REALLY think hard about this. How many games have you EVER thrown out? How many Manuals have you thrown out? This isn't ecofriendly this is bullshit-tastic

"We're saving money till Digital Distribution takes over hurf durf"

I still have my first video game, if I don't want a game I sell it and what happens then? Someone buys it.

Why don't they go back to CD cases?? They were so nice, and they don't break discs like those goddamned Eco-Box bullshit cases. Eliminating manuals, I don't really have a problem with. Very few manuals have any good information in them. The last good one I got was for Metro 2033, and before that, probably Mechassault 2.

If you have an Eco-Box, DON'T USE IT!

Ecoboxes break discs? Since when? I've bent discs in half and they didn't snap(was trying to break said disc)

They don't snap it in half like that. The center of the case is really strong, and I believe when the disc sits in the case, the center pushes out on the disc, and eventually forms small cracks that turn into big cracks, that eventually take out chunks. My friend has had this happen to MW2 and AC2. It is very subtle and slow, but it can happen, and I've read posts on other sites about people having this problem. I don't keep my games in the boxes anymore.

Ooookay because of your post I was like "This guy is out of his mind, there's less plastic in those things and that's less force, let's prove this fool wrong by checking my cases" my fucking Darksiders has a crack in it, I've NEVER had a crack in a game disc. I'm really angry now, not because of you of course, but because of this retarded decision by game companies. This entire console generation has had so many issues it's driving me up the wall.

 

[john_nova]

I want to congratulate Ubisoft for making yet another stupid idea they must work real hard on making the dumbest ideas ever one of the things I like to do is read the manual to my new game, instead of walking around with the family in a grocery store.

 

[Tattaglia]

But what will I have to read during loading screens? THINK OF THE LOADING SCREENS!

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Oh gawd if all of this 'Eco Packaging' keeps up we are just going to be left getting our games in these.

Yeah, I like having hard copies of items.
Not every game needs a manual, but some are enhanced by them. It would be cool if some puzzles in games required you to refer to the manual in order to find clues.

Maybe that will promote more people to buy the game, especially if each manual is slightly different.

Did I just invent a better solution to get people to not pirate games than DRM?

 

[Rack]

While I rarely need to read a manual and most of the time manuals are 1 page efforts saying "read the online manual" I still resent them telling me this is for my own good. I'm not an idiot, I can tell this is to save money and they couldn't care less if the world were destroyed or not as long as it didn't impact their profit margin. If they'd just said "we're doing this to save money and increase our profit margins, as a totally unrelated side benefit it will save a bit of paper. We reckon not enough of you care about this for it to be a big deal." then I wouldn't care.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Who reads the manual, is my question?
The writing is consistently sub-par anyway.

 

[NickCooley]

Gotta love the conspiracy theories that come up when when Ubisoft do... Well anything these days. I mean getting rid of manuals. Clearly their reasons are lies and it's all part of their evil master plan to control our minds with their evil psychic beacon of doom.

 

[ethaninja]

At least it will save the trees =D
And if they are online manuals, it won't matter, because you need internet to play Ubisoft games these days (Fucking Ubisoft, no wonder people pirate their games)

 

[GundamSentinel]

User manuals have become crappier every year. Now I don't even look at them anymore. Still, was always fun smelling the crisp new paper, I'm going to miss that. Otherwise, I don't really care anymore.

 

[Vern]

Current manual's I wouldn't miss. I do wax nostalgic for the old days, when a manual was an actual manual. 90 pages of interesting info about the game was nice. Not necessary, but if you're getting rid of manuals then we should probably stop printing books as well. Recently I bought Final Fantasy 2, and it came with the manual, which had a full walkthrough up to where you enter the underground. Now it's maybe 10 pages which give a rundown of controls in both English and Spanish and that's about it. With all the mass produced adverts I get, I doubt a manual is going to destroy the environment, it's just a change Ubisoft is making because they are hemhorrhaging money and they need to cut every possible cost.

 

[(LK)]

"Ubisoft: Pay more for less (you unworthy scum, we're watching you)!"

 

[blankedboy]

Ubisoft's day is long gone anyway, so why would I care? I already have the old copies of Rayman 2 and 3, and PoP:TT.

Actually, that last one is Pop Titty, in a way.

 

[likalaruku]

Mmmmm.... I don't relaly buy that. I think they just want to save money where they can.

That won't fly well with me. The first thing I do when I get a new game is read the manual in the bathroom.

The only manuals I won;t miss are the tissue-thin ones that tell you little more than how to install it & where to go for troubleshooting.

I remember when I bought the MAD rerelease of American McGee's Alive; it came with a digital copy of the manual that had the most kick-ass story leading up to the game in it & I wanted a physical copy. So did a lot of other people; I was outbid repeatedly on eBay & finally snaged one for $30. Yup, I paid half the price of a game for something that usually comes free with the game.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Hmm...I like having the manual in the menus. It's like the Xbox Live Arcade games, then?

And there will be no manuals for 360/PS3, too, right?

 

[drkchmst]

I like my paper manuals

guess ya can't really blame them for trying to save some money while making a seemingly enviro friendly move.

 

[Rishtaka]

But what will I read while I'm on the toilet?!

THIS.

Sure it's not true now, but when I was a kid I remember reading my (Sid Meier's) Colonization manual on the toilet... It was amazing and one part of childhood that tomorrows kids aren't going to have.

Well I guess they could take their laptop to the toilet. But it's not the same.

 

[Twad]

its just to lower their production cost, not out of a environment-frendly impulse. DAta is free to reproduce, manuals arent.

 

[Rect Pola]

I suppose simply putting in a digital manual is fine. More material, more clearly described, while you're actually holding a controller. Not going online is a big win (who thought that was a good idea?)

 

[Delock]

I miss the good old days of 90's games that came in big pretty boxes with hundred+ page user manuals that had concept art, in-depth exploration of game mechanics and stories set in the universe of the game. Some of them even came with sound-tracks. I mean sure, it was wasteful in a way, but I still have them and look through them now. I didn't just throw them away or leave them in the case.

Hell, I devoted a drawer as a child to game manuals, and mine were the small gameboy ones. What I loved about them was their art, the stories, and some slight hints and previews of weapons/characters you'd meet. Then you had the note section where if you had something you wanted to remember you'd write it down in. Sort of like strategy guides though, they've been slowly losing importance and value to me. Now, I no longer open the box when I'm driving to sneak peeks at the manual (I did it a red lights. I'm not trying to cause accidents). They're black-and-white small brochures that are put behind the ads to games that I probably won't buy. In the old days, I actually took the effort to copy a manual (my friend's) for a game I got used, cut it out and staple it together, and put it in the box because it felt like a part of the game. Now days I don't even mind if it's missing.

 

[happy_turtle]

Half the fun of buying a game is for that "new manual" smell. Also I hate having to alt-tab out of a game to read a pdf file.

Gotta say though I've not bought an Ubisoft game for ages so this'll probably not affect me.