[Initial reporting done by Eli English]
The game manual has been a part of the wide-market retail game near since its inception, but EA Sports, the publishers for titles like Madden and Fight Night, have announced that they will no longer be printing them. Company spokesman Rob Semsey confirmed the continuance of the change, which officially began on March 1 with the release of Fight Night Champion.
“The decision to drop printed manuals is an effort to support more environmentally friendly production of games,” said Semsey. All game manuals will now be included in the game, the change reportedly made as part of a greener initiative by EA Sports.
So Elder Geeks, are you one of the gamers who enjoyed reading through instruction manuals, or are you glad they’re gone? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think!
With sports games, there really isn’t much difference between the games, so a manual for the most part isn’t necessary. I support a digital manual cause it is easy to just open it up wile in game to check it out. It isn’t anything different from the manual on VC or PSN titles, but now on retail games.
No need for a manual anyways… everyone knows how to play sports games… they haven’t noticable changed in 20 years 😉
(slight exageration I know)
Am I the only person that enjoys a good manual these days? Whenever I get a game, the first thing I do is take out the manual and read it (usually in the bathroom).
If its a game where there are characters to read bios for or a backstory to read… I love the manuals. For generic games where the story and characters aren’t that important… I don’t see any reason to even look at it. 😉