Ubisoft to stop printing game manuals to save trees

In an act of eco-greenery that is likely to disappoint many gamers, Ubisoft have decided to stop killing the rainforest and is due to cease printing physical game manuals for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games, instead opting for extensive instructions to be delivered in-game.

Figures from Ubisoft say that one ton of paper used for the creation of game manuals used two tons of wood from 13 trees, enough energy to heat an average home for a year, 13,000 gallons of wastewater and 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. It’s nice to know the sacrifices Mother Nature makes to give us books that stay tucked away in plastic cases for 99% of their existence.

Not stopping at game manuals, Ubisoft are also looking into creating a 100 percent-recycled polypropylene “ecoTech” DVD case with the help of Technimark, inc. just to save the planet that little bit more. The first game coming in the eco box will be Splinter Cell Conviction on the PC.

Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America said, “Ubisoft is often recognized for making great games, but it’s a special privilege to be the industry leader at saving trees.” He continued saying, “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.”

Kotaku contacted Ubisoft asking why the Wii isn’t loosing games manuals for the good of treekind, to which the answer was, “Ubisoft is implementing its in-game manuals first with its PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 games, and we’re looking forward to eventually having all of our games feature digital game manuals.”

How do you feel about this? Will you miss having a physical game manual to thumb through whilst a game installs or as you struggle to remember the duck button that you should have memorised?

Spotted on Kotaku

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Written by Anthony H

Anthony has been playing games for far too much of his life, starting with the MS-DOS classic Mario is Missing. Since then his tastes have evolved to include just about anything, but his soft spot lies with shooters and the odd strategy game. Anthony will inspire you with his prose, uplift you with his wit and lie to you in his biography.

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