Who Spilled Diet on My Instruction Manual?

Crispy Gamer examines the decline of printed videogame manuals.
4/25/2008 1:31 PM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 2

But not everyone is ready for a quick goodbye. Both Nintendo and Microsoft last year waxed a high-gloss shine on meaty booklets that shipped with Super Mario Galaxy and Halo 3, respectively. A handful of third-party publishers continue to do the same.

"You only have to look at the size of the Oblivion manual to know that we still take our manuals seriously," says Pete Hines, VP of marketing for Bethesda Softworks. "I wrote most of ours, so I know how much work went into it."

He's not the only one. "Developers still love these things," says Morell, who has seen the enthusiasm first-hand when collaborating with publishers on printed materials. "They see them as an extension of the product."

Sony, for its part, has taken a hybrid approach. "At SCEA, we have reduced the size of the manual but have kept the color printing to aid readability and deliver on the high-quality feel across all of our first-party titles," says Jeff Reese, director of software marketing at Sony. "Our goal is to get gamers into the game as quickly as possible, and the tutorial and manual work together to minimize that learning curve."

Still, the general consensus by publishers and insiders is that printed manuals will continue to decline but remain in remnant form until digital sales fully engulf optical discs. "Manuals will continue to shrink and move toward a 'quick guide' one-sheeter but won't completely go away for disc-based titles," says the Sony executive. "But I think you will see the demise of the printed manual with the increase in digital sales over the next several years.

Kent, the historian, agrees. "As long as there are games in boxes, I think some sort of manual will also be found in most of those boxes," he says. "Though I also believe that publishers will continue to pare down those manuals in most cases.

"Maybe spotted owls and gamers will be able to coexist after all."