EA Vows to Reduce Printed Materials in Packaged Games By 40 Percent

Electronic Arts plans to reduce the amount of printed materials in packaged products by 40 percent as part of a global green initiative, it said Tuesday. It’s “committed to a healthy and sustainable environment,” said Chief Operating Officer John Schappert. The move follows similar initiatives by companies including game maker Ubisoft and camera maker Olympus.

EA will replace printed manuals with “easily-accessible digital manuals,” it said. The initiative is being used across all titles for PCs, the PS3 and Xbox 360, EA said. It didn’t immediately say why the PSP and Nintendo platforms aren’t included in the initiative.

The EA program launched early this year with the release of Fight Night Champion on the PS3 and 360 and Mass Effect 2 for the PS3, it said. The initiative “will continue with all EA titles shipping across the globe,” it said.

On-disc manuals will be accessible through the main and pause menus of games, EA said. That “will allow players to conveniently view instructional information on the fly as they play,” it said. Consumers will also be able to get EA digital manuals in multiple languages online, it said.

Ubisoft already said it was cutting paper instruction manuals. In January 2010, Olympus America Product Manager Sally Clemens told us that four of the six new digital cameras that the company bowed at CES featured in-camera manuals, doing away with printed and disc-based manuals in an effort to be green, cut down on costs and provide more convenience for consumers (CED Jan 14/10 p8).

EA also said Tuesday it “embraces new environmentally-friendly, energy-efficient, and water-conserving technologies in the manufacturing and distribution” of its games. Recently in North America, it “executed a full implementation” of Reduced Material DVD Style Cases (RMCs) for PS3, Wii, 360, and PC-DVD retail games, EA said. “RMCs require less material and energy to produce than a standard DVD case, are made from 100% polypropylene, and are easy to recycle,” it said. The company “also made great progress by eliminating bulky shipping materials and implementing recycled materials whenever possible,” it said.