Green Ubisoft ditching paper manuals
Digital replacements in effect this year.
Publishing giant Ubisoft has taken a pioneering step towards a greener future by abolishing paper game manuals.
They are to be replaced by in-game digital manuals, the first example of which will be Shaun White Skateboarding this autumn. North American PC games have used digital manuals since March 2010.
Ubisoft has worked out that one ton of game-manual paper costs the planet roughly 13 trees (and all the squirrels and owls and snakes that live in them). And making that amount of paper pumps out 6000lbs of CO2 gas and 15000 gallons of waste water.
Scrapping the paper means Ubisoft can make "more robust" manuals that are easier to navigate and "more intuitive". What that actually means in the real-world we'll have to wait and see.
Also, Ubisoft has decided to make environmentally friendly DVD cases using 100 per cent recycled plastic. The first example of this will be Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, released on 30th April.
Ubisoft US boss Laurent-Detoc said it was a "privilege" to be "the industry leader at saving trees".