As mentioned in our Fight Night Champion review, it has been confirmed that EA, or at the very least EA Sports, have done away with printed manuals in an effort to produce games in a more environmentally friendly manner.
Instead of a printed manual we will get an in-game manual to browse, as well as any tutorial the game includes. EA join Ubisoft in abandoning the printed manual, and interestingly enough the retail copy of Top Spin 4 I received from 2K had a reduced sized manual with a link to a much more in-depth booklet online.
Source: Kotaku
SpikeyMikey23
Wankers! Sorry but I likes me manuals! Toilet reading!…and the case just feels empty with no manual.
SpikeyMikey23
no swear filter?? someone wanna filter that out? dan? anyone?
Dan Lee
No, you live with what you’ve done. Filth monger.
theberzerka
Agreed. I like to read whilst having a number 2. There’s nothing better than getting to terms with a game by reading the manual whilst having a poo.
SpikeyMikey23
agree 100% I like to make sure I dont have to make any unexpected trips during the 1st hour or two when starting a new game. ;)
Amphlett
I can think of lots of things better than your reading/toilet combo. How about…
Sitting on a beach drinking a cocktail
Relaxing after a hard workout
Watching your favourite team win convincingly whilst sipping a pint
…and so on. All more pleasurable than the reading/toilet combo.
bunimomike
Amphlett, we can incorporate anything you’ve just listed into the daily “movement”. *digs hole in sand*
theberzerka
Amphlett you severely underestimate how much I enjoy my personal time. :P
It’s similar to how most of my interactions with women go, I tease the wrapper off, open it up, rip out the innards and peruse at my leisure whilst taking a dump. XD
Kenny
This man speaks the truth. The manuals are one third of the experience involved with buying a game, along with an in depth study of the case, and the game itself of course.
scavenga
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOkay then.
Sympozium
Meh a few games are too simple to understand now and er… manuals are pretty much useless
Ben
It’s still nice to have something though, perhaps they could put some of the concept art on postcards instead.
project84music
I think this is a good step in the right direction. Personally, I find that most of the information you need is in the game and very rarely look through the manual as it is. Agreed, it may take a little to get used to not having it there (the empty space in the case), but ultimately I do find them to be a complete waste.
I just hope that by the same token they will get rid of advert inserts (so long as they don’t think it gives them license to put it into the actual game).
toutski
Maybe they will bring the price of games down accordingly?
I didn’t think so either.
carson321
For all the pennies per game cheaper it would be without the manuals?
toutski
There is still a cost assosciated and a few pennies times 1000000 copies soon adds up.
My point is that they are making an issue about saving the planet when they will be hoping to absorb the profits of this as well.
tantalus_blank
True, but they still have to design the in game manual which they need to code. I imagine that would come pretty close to cancelling out the printing of a few bits of paper
hazelam
more likely is that they’ll just have pictures of what have been in the manual viewable from in game.
DrNate86
I can’t remember the last time I read a manual, all publishers should take this on really.
bunimomike
Agreed. A complete waste of paper in my humble opinion. I appreciate it forms part of the “buying new” experience but it’s great to see manuals going online and the video game industry looking to a more environmentally sounds attitude.
djsunna
It’s not so much the environment EA wanna save but they money it costs to buy the paper and the ink and any other costs involved in printing manuals. Paper is recyclable so is the plastic box every game comes in not sure about the discs but if not someone will find a way to strip it dwn and reuse it it’s only plastic with a picture printed on top and a layer of whatever that is read by the laser.
djsunna
also manuals give you something to do while the inevitable 20 minute + install takes place
Mr-Flame-Head
I’m still supprised by the manual in dragon age 2 especially after the size of a manual in mass effect 2, but I’m not too bothered as an ingame manual can be updated to reflect the current state of the post launch
bunimomike
That’s a very good point. Means the manual can be updated if required. Top mention.
Jumping Monks
Admittedly I don’t use manuals that often. However, RPG’s with indepth menu systems and different abilities/bars etc… which are all abbreviated I’ll often refer to the manual to check up on. As long as the manual can be accessed while playing the game, and you don’t have to exit it won’t be too bad. I do enjoy reading the manual on the bus home though, so lets just hope not all companies adopt this!
MaD dOctoR 79
the only good manuals come from rockstar anyway, so it ain’t so bad…unless they follow suit…
hannes_truce
Think of the poor manual writers. out of a job now. My dream as a child was to be a manual writer but now this will never come true. thanks EA for destroying my dream.