The new Football Manager packaging is made from recycled material and is entirely recyclable itself Film companies can make the switch just as easily, and the music industry can easily adapt for CD's and change their vinyl shrink-wrap to one that can be recycled." The whole entertainment industry uses way too much plastic in its packaging. "I'm actually thinking bigger than just games. "I just can't think of a single reason why someone wouldn't want to have their work in more eco-friendly packaging. "I would be very disappointed if everyone didn't follow suit, including console manufacturers for next gen," says Jacobson. With its new eco-friendly packaging, Sports Interactive hopes to lay the template for all future boxed games, and not just on PC.
The studio has a track record of overhauling its packaging in the interests of reducing waste - it was the first company in the PC space to step away from the "stupid huge cardboard boxes that games used to come in" in favour of DVD cases. Far from keeping these suppliers to itself, Sports Interactive will be compiling a list of potential partners and publishing it on the Football Manager website. Jacobson says the initiative has been greatly helped by the team at Sega, who worked with suppliers such as Bridge Media Group and Sonopress on sourcing the right materials. So we'd be stupid not to do it, and if anyone from other games or entertainment companies is reading this, you'd be stupid not to do it too." But it has less environmental impact in many different ways. "There currently isn't a silver bullet to solve it, but we know from science that there are things that we can do as individuals and companies to help slow it down or reverse it, so we've been looking at ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint. "There are lots of problems in the world right now, and climate change is definitely one of them," Miles Jacobson tells. Sports Interactive is announcing the switch ahead of the United Nations' upcoming Climate Action Summit and following campaigns by various organisations raising awareness of the issues plastic pollution is causing for our world. The new packaging means each physical unit saves roughly 55g of plastics, with Sega hoping to save up to 20 tonnes this year based on expected sales for Football Manager.
The manual inside will also be made from 100% recycled paper, and both this and the packaging will be printed with vegetable or water-based ink.
Starting with Football Manager 2020 this November, every future instalment in the series will come in a cardboard sleeve made from 100% recycled cardboard that will be shrink-wrapped in fully recyclable low-density polyethylene. Sega and Sports Interactive are dropping the standard DVD case for this year's Football Manager in favour of more environmentally-friendly packaging - and Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson hopes it will become the industry standard.