HORROR: PS Vita games will ship without manuals

Necuno

Necuno

The Piper
Finally and about time, not like those 10-15 pagers was of any good use. Now for rest of the platforms to follow...


HORROR: PS Vita games will ship without manuals


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Gamers have lamented the death of the quality game manual for years, but it seems that the PlayStation Vita hopes to truly hammer that final nail in. It appears that Vita games will ship without manuals at all, instead keeping its rules and tutorials strictly digital.

The Vita version of Marvel vs. Capcom was the first to do this, confirming that it would use a digital manual. Inside Games then obtained some other Vita game early and found that it, too, lacked a physical booklet. This would indicate that's a standard practice.

Sounds good to me. Manuals have steadily grown less useful over time, and I find that in-game tutorials are far better at teaching players than an exterior list of directions. Manuals, who needs 'em?

Vita Games Ship Without Instruction Manuals [andriasang]

-DTIOD
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While I certainly miss the good old game manual, I certainly won't lament its passing. In-game tutorials are usually fairly comprehensive, and any history or lore that could be read up about in manuals usually gets posted online way before the game even releases.
 
R.I.P. Gaming Manuals. I have always enjoyed you, but I can see why you are being phased out.

With everything that is moving online, a digital version of the manual seems like a good idea to me at this point in time.
 
I like gaming manuals. The developers aren't phasing them out for the benefit of the consumer, but because it means they have to spend less money to print them. It's not like they're going to charge less for a game without a manual either.

There are also times when you need to refer to a manual in-game.
 
TheAvenged87 said:
R.I.P. Gaming Manuals. I have always enjoyed you, but I can see why you are being phased out.

With everything that is moving online, a digital version of the manual seems like a good idea to me at this point in time.
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judgefredd_za said:
I like gaming manuals. The developers aren't phasing them out for the benefit of the consumer, but because it means they have to spend less money to print them. It's not like they're going to charge less for a game without a manual either.

There are also times when you need to refer to a manual in-game.
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I'm sorry that isn't a valid reply any more, it would have been applicable have you made it on something that was worth while. We've had these 10-15 pagers for a while now and they are a pale comparison to what manuals use to be. It's better not to print and go digital, than wasting money and printing material on these...

Graal said:
While I certainly miss the good old game manual, I certainly won't lament its passing. In-game tutorials are usually fairly comprehensive, and any history or lore that could be read up about in manuals usually gets posted online way before the game even releases.
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Those were manuals, those can be missed. Guess "kids" and I say it loosely to point out a missed out comparison and experience, wouldn't know what a decent manual was and is.
 
Isnt this been happening a long while already, since GT5 had digital manuals included and the book included was a little useless... And honestly i barely look at that book unless there is a code or something in there.
 
One other useless thing that I have noticed is the amount of other crap that gets included in the game case. Product specifications, advertisements for other products, etc...then a five page "instruction guide"
 
I miss the old-school manuals, things you could pick up and read while you were playing the game and still get excited. Manuals these days are basically just there to display the control scheme and then like 5 pages of contact info and disclaimers, I won't lament their passing.
 
Pr⊕phet said:
Those were manuals, those can be missed. Guess "kids" and I say it loosely to point out a missed out comparison and experience, wouldn't know what a decent manual was and is.
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Oh, I remember those real manuals of back in the day. They were standard fare for games back when we got our first PC. I remember my dad bought a flight sim called European Air War, and it had a whopping 300 page manual with a brief history on the aerial aspects of WW2, plus details of every plane available in-game. I actually think I've still got it lying around here somewhere.
 
I still have my copy of Jane's Combat Simulations: Advanced Tactical Fighters and it's basically a pilots handbook to combat aircraft. Has brief intros to concepts of lift and drag, descriptions of air combat manoeuvre's and tactics, and explanations of how the various weapons and counter-measures work.

That was a game from 1996. :)
 
Pr⊕phet said:
I'm sorry that isn't a valid reply any more, it would have been applicable have you made it on something that was worth while. We've had these 10-15 pagers for a while now and they are a pale comparison to what manuals use to be. It's better not to print and go digital, than wasting money and printing material on these...
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Call of Pripyat had a 47 page manual, Dragon Age 44 pages, Tropico 3 66 pages......and I liked reading these manuals. Guild Wars Nightfall had an awesome full colour manuscript which was 144 pages and came with the standard copy of the game, not a CE.
 
I actually used the manual for Dragon Age 2... For games, the online / electronic manual (like with Witcher that I bought online) is a bit of 'n mission if you have to alt-tab the whole time to look something up. I hope they at least reduce the prices of new games in the future since we'll be getting less.
 
wont miss the manuals and will save several tree's by not needing to print the manuals. I think digital is the way to go and in game tutorials should be in every game as they are much easier to go through than reading a manual.
 
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