No game needs manuals. Anyone who says otherwise seems to be forgetting that all the information in a manual can be put onto the disc. No one will be going without any crucial information, it's jut going to be another format to view it in.

Also. No doubt it will save money bit it's not just the paper saved that's good for the environment. Printers inks and chemicals are still awfully harmful for the environment.

People need to roll with the times and stop being so negative.

So this means that EA will pass on this savings to their customers in the form of lower game prices, rrrright? o_0

I'm ok with it as long as Rockstar doesn't jump on this bandwagon.

Sure EA, I believe you that this has everything to do with the environment and nothing to do with saving money at the expense of the product.

Many people are fine with losing all physical aspects of video games but there are also many people who are not. In the offering me less for my money and making the physical product more and more pointless makes me less and less likely to buy your game at release.

I couldn't give less of a shit. I think developers should have some sort of design on the inside of the case to make up for it... Or would the ink be killing mother Earth as well?

A very sad day indeed.

Aren't trees practically grown like friggin corn and potatoes? As soon as they cut down fields they always replant.

The only thing this helps is EAs bottom line. I call bullshit, make the games cheaper if you are removing something that has always been a part of the games we buy.

Every time I buy a game I look through the manual on the way home on the bus.

You're a complete tool if you think that this is really an environmental initiative. Consumers don't read them any more, and they cost money. "Hurr durr we're protecting the environment!" is just what they're using as an excuse for cutting costs.

I'm not a fan of digital manuals... mainly because of ubisoft's failure of one for acb's multi-player. Sure it tells you the info on the characters or the location of info on the HUD, but they completely ignored to tell you how to stun your pursuer in order to escape. I was on level 30 until i figured out how to do it...

EA has always been earth conscious. After all, the recycle Madden every year.

"Green" my ass. They're trying to save a buck.

"Thank you for supporting our efforts to significantly reduce paper in our products,"

Translation: "Thanks for supports our efforts to cut costs while keeping prices the same."

Seems like a nice cover to say where a bunch of cheap fucks. Oh well I guess. I always prefer a physical copy over a digital one. I also enjoy a good manual. Games like MGS 1, 2 and 3 and God of war series all had great manuals. Too bad

I swear nobody reads the whole article as it says EA is only doing this with the EA Sports games, which granted you really only need to know what the controls are. And as Nick stated in the article already the manuals have been getting smaller and smaller anyway. Print out a reference sheet with the controls on it yourself if you really need. I own NHL11 and maybe have looked at the manual all of 5 times, not including the time just now to see that the information in it already told me nothing.

I miss the days when a video game manual meant something(Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda, etc.). =/

I support the cause, but they really should drop the prices a bit to reflect the change.

Whats this "In-struct-tion Man-Eul" you speak of? Im a man damnit, I dont have time for this kind of witchery!

"Help the environment"? More like save printing costs, but whatever. The last game with EA's name that I bought on it was Mass Effect 2, and after ME3 I doubt I'll be buying any more.

Yeah, lets go green everyone! Then lets take the print off of cds, and take the paper out of cases so then we don't know what the fuck were going to play!

This actually started with the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2. I was stunned to find there wasn't a manual inside.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I actually looked at a manual. This is a very easy way of helping out the Earth, hope more companies start taking this route.

I'd only be excited if this lowered the price tag of games.

Hey, EA, you want my money? Too fucking bad.

Save the environment? Right! Is that why corporations such as yourself will mow down trees to prop up your latest and greatest building. This "save the environment", "global warming" bullshit is an assault on us, that's all.

Wow, did you guys recycling paper is actually worse for the enviro (due to the bleaches and acids used) than just burning paper for energy. Not sure if that's 100% true, coming from the net and all, but if it is, wow.

Each manual probably at most costs .10, now if you're game sells a million copies that's 100000 back in their pockets. Which can be used to finance more dlc! Day one dlc @ that! Time to rejoice!

Reduce paper waiste? Trees are renewable! The only thing they are accomplishing is destroying our economy by trying to kill off paper plants.

That kinda sucks...I liked reading them at times and every now and then it would be somewhat useful...

But I do agree with "Pokota" They are just trying to money -_-

That kinda sucks...I liked reading them at times and every now and then it would be somewhat useful...

But I do agree with "Pokota" They are just trying to save money -_-

Meh, Looks like I'll just start buying USED.

AKA FUCK YOU EA/Ubisoft.

Manuals are good for people who are new to a certain game.....or have no internet connection.

Man, Fuck trees!

I'm all for conserving the environment, but they're probably using that as a BS excuse so they can save another 10 cents on manufacturing costs. This is EA we're talking about. Money is more important than the environment, period. If they were absolutely positive that "going green" would not reduce costs, boost PR and possibly increase sales they wouldn't even consider it. This is not about them saving the Earth, this is about them keeping another dime in their pocket.

Sadly enough, manuals these days are a joke. It still surprises me a bit when I can't even find a damn button-control schematic in the "manual" because it's all on-disc. I switch between FPSs so much sometimes I forget which button reloads or changes weapons, and it's stupid as hell when the ONLY schematic is at the main menu. It's so much easier to have the manual opened on the schematic page at my side. Can you believe it?! There's somebody out in this world that actually uses his manual WHILE HE'S PLAYING! Crazy, I know!

It's funny, the last two "going green" initiatives for game packaging (360 cases half-gutted, no more manuals) have arguably made it cheaper to manufacture games, albeit on a small scale. Yet more and more companies are STILL trying to squeeze MORE DOLLARS out of our pockets.

Excuse me while I LMFAO as I walk through Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Gamestop or any other store and see shelves and shelves of unsold game walkthrough manuals for EA games printed on...guess what? Way to "significantly reduce paper in your products" EA, good job. *golf clap*

Thats kind of cool, until you open the manual and find out you cant read none of it.Like with everything EA does.

I say leave manuals for collectors or limited editions. While it's cool to have manuals, you can find all your questions on the internet in a snap. Manuals as everything else are super cool if the people putting it together make them with love.

Well, EAs manuals were already awful, so it's no big loss I suppose. Still, I love love it when publishers go to the effort of putting out a beautiful colour instruction manual, and I even wrote a blog post recently about how amazing it is that XSEED can put out beautiful manuals for every game they publish (despite every game they publish generally having awful sales), while EA and Activision etc apparently can't. Love you, XSEED! :D

EA could help save the environment by making their yearly franchises DLC updates instead of a new disk every year. Then people would actually keep their copies of Madden.

I miss the days when if you didn't read the manual you didn't have the slightest clue on how to play, because there were no tutorials. Now you have to go through the stupid tutorial every time you start a new game.

@Rabite

You said it, man, perfectly. Think of all the natural resources EA could save if they didn't try to push a new disc with ALL that environmentally-killing packaging every year. C'mon EA, GO GREEN!

Once upon a time I used to break out the new instruction manual and read it while my brother would pop in the game and play immediately. 20 minutes later we'd be playing and the constant "how did you do that?" would begin, to which I would laugh at him and hand him the manual. Hahaha good times....

As my girlfriend would say, sad-making.

I support this move, I skim over manuals but that's about it.

I like being able to look at the controls while I play to figure out more complicated moves instead of having to constantly pause and then try to remember everything when I unpause. Digital manuals are dumb.

EA doesn't give a flying fuck about the environment. EA wants to save $2 bucks per box in printing cost. If it was up to them, they would hand you the disc with no box at all and the title written on with a felt tip pen. Since they've stop placing any useful information in game manuals anyway, we'll never even miss it. That way they can sell you the game guide for $30 dollars.

Atlus is a Japanese company…. where they care about presentation.

but that looks like a manual to tell you the manual is on the disc. so whats the point ?

I really have no opinion on this anymore. I couldn't care less about manuals anymore. Mostly because they're lame black and white manuals the majority of the time. But also just "because". Because I just don't care, for some reason.

Maybe because everything you need to fully enjoy playing a great game is usually in the game these days?

..... The fact that this is "environmentally friendly" has considerably less to do with this move than cutting production costs.

How management Sees this "So wait we can save how much if we get rid of X or fill our case with holes?"

How the PR division spins it "Hey look we are environmentally friendly!!!!"

Am I glad that it benefits the environment, yes.
Do I pretend that it is their primary intent, lulz no.

EA Sports manuals aren't worth looking at anyway so it doesn't really matter. That doesn't mean I miss the nice colored manuals from back in the day.

This does nothing to "help the earth", trees cut down for paper are a CROP, they are re-planted immediately and do not negatively affect the environment.

This is a 100% money-saving venture.

Good move EA. I'm all for reducing expenses EA. There is absolutely nothing wrong with saving money buy axing an item that is generally unused.

That's cool if they want to reduce paper usage, but for the love of fuck, can we stop getting those shitty eco-cases that break really easily and it takes the might of a gorilla to get the disc out of the case without breaking anything?