Ubisoft Continues Green Gaming Push

Ubisoft is introducing a pair new initiatives for packaged games that will cut down on waste and improve the company’s green factor.

First, the company will eliminate the process of packaging paper game manuals in with their games, a move that would save about 180 tons of paper per year, or 2,300 acres of small forest, reports FastCompany. Manuals will go the digital route and will be able to be accessed through a game’s menu, which, in turn, will open up the design to become more interactive, as, "It will be up to individual developers making the games how rich the digital manuals will be."

This procedure will become the norm with the introduction of Shaun White Skateboarding this fall.

The company will also begin using 100% recycled polypropylene plastic for all of its PC titles, beginning with the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction on PC later this month. Rich Kubiszewski, Ubisoft's VP of Operations, added, “It is the first DVD case in the industry that is 100% recycled. The cases we previously used were recyclable, but they weren't made from recycled matter."

The same cases cannot be used for console games however, because the recycled plastic emerges black or gray, and dyeing it white is not an option. Selecting only recycled plastic that would result in a white case is also too cost-prohibitive.

Since the 2009 holiday season, Ubisoft has also been utilizing “Enviroshell” cases that use 30% less plastic than normal cases.

Kubiszewski indicated that the company is still looking for additional ways to go green, “We are also looking into other materials, such as corn- or potato-based. The technology isn't quite there yet, the hinges are a little flimsy, but we keep pushing these kind of initiatives.