Starting with the release of Shaun White Skateboarding this holiday season, Ubisoft is to begin including in-game, digital instructions and instructions manuals with the publisher’s range of physical disc-based PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 games.

This initiative will be in an effort to save production costs on games and, more importantly, save the trees that are used to create paper manuals currently found in all videogame boxes.

Ubisoft estimates that the process used to manufacture one ton of paper in order to create game manuals for its games requires two tons of wood from thirteen trees, 13 000 gallons of wastewater, 6 000 pounds of carbon dioxide and enough energy to heat an average home for a year.

Quite a waste I’m sure you’ll agree - and that’s just for one ton of refined paper! If the only ‘price to pay’ for circumventing that whole process in the future (and for all games) is the use of a digital manual instead of a paper version, personally I’ll pay that price.

If the cost of Ubisoft’s games is reduced (even slightly) as a result of foregoing an expensive manual production process, that’s a nice bonus.

Ubisoft will also be introducing a new 100 percent-recycled polypropylene ‘ecoTech’ DVD case, which was developed with Technimark, Inc. The first game to feature this new case will be the PC version of Splinter Cell: Conviction.

President of Ubisoft North America Laurent Detoc commented on these new initiatives thus:

“Ubisoft is often recognized for making great games, but it’s a special privilege to be the industry leader at saving trees. 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.”

As for why Wii games won’t feature the new in-game instruction initiative just yet, Ubisoft ‘explained’:

“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.”

While this is a great effort, it’s a little strange that Wii titles won’t benefit from the initiative right off the bat.

Source: Kotaku