Ubisoft has announced an 'environmental initiative' to eliminate paper game manuals included with its games.

Starting with the worldwide launch of Shaun White Skateboarding this autumn, the publisher will replace all physical game manuals with in-game digital equivalents on PS3 and 360.

Ubisoft says including game manuals directly in games will offer players "easier and more intuitive access to game information," as well as allowing itself to provide gamers with "a more robust manual".

Ubisoft reckons that producing one ton of paper used in its game manuals consumes an average of two tons of wood from 13 trees, with a net energy of 28 million BTU's, greenhouse gases equivalent of over 6,000 lbs of CO2, and wastewater of almost 15,000 gallons.

In addition, Ubisoft has partnered with Technimark, Inc. to release "the industry's most environmentally-responsible DVD case" for all of its future PC titles in North America, it says, starting with Splinter Cell Conviction on PC on April 30.

"Ubisoft is often recognized for making great games, but it's a special privilege to be the industry leader at saving trees," said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America.

"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."

Maybe it's just me, but with games getting ever more complicated, I'm finding manuals to be more useful than ever for both instruction and characters/plot ops

That's just age my friend, that's just age.

Yes, alright, alright...

You've made me worry now about what I'll do when I start losing mobility in my mouse trigger finger...

Hopefully by then the mind controllers will be far more advanced.

If your brain is starting to slow now, how good are these controllers gonna need to be?