Anyone Still Finding Eco-Friendly Cases For New Games?

[The 1 2 P]

Awhile back we had a discussion about the eco-friendly cases that basically had a disc like whole with blades cut out of new game and dvd cases on both sides, supposedly to use less plastic. But of course all they did was make it easier for games to get damaged, even before they were opened. Back in late 2010 thru early 2011 I saw alot of these but ever since last year they seem to have done away with them. There is still a disc shape imprinted in new game cases(manual side) but they are no longer cut out like before where you could stick your finger thru the entire case front to back. I'm glad they are gone. Has anyone seen the old eco-friendly cases for any new game purchases the last 6 months or so?

[geneshifter]

I think my NSMBU case had this. I sold the game so I can't be for certain. I really hope they stop doing that.

[Robocop2]

I haven't seen it on the last few 360 releases I have bought new. They are still thinner than I remember but the silly holes are gone.

[Bazoo]

If it was actually eco-friendly & the rates of damage were few, I would not mind no matter the aesthetic consequences. That's the benefit I see from digital releases: more eco-friendly, & I think ultimately that's way more important than collector's value. However, it sounds like these had high incidences of damage, and thus any supposed "green" intention would be negatively impacted by wasted materials or returns.

[Gameguy]

They were never really eco friendly, they just saved manufacturing costs by using slightly less material. They would only help the environment if you were the type of person who throws out cases just to keep loose discs.

[BlastProcessing402]

All the 3DS games I've bought have holes in the hard part of the plastic, though in a different pattern than the typical "eco friendly" garbage. Kid Icarus acutally put the stupid holes to good use, with pictures on the back of the insert that show through the holes.

The two Bluray movies I got for Christmas didn't seem to have the eco crap holes.

Hope they really are done for, I'm so sick of getting inferior products so some CEO somewhere can make a bogus claim about how much he/she "cares".

[DK1105]

Those eco cases were garbage and really were no more eco friendly. They were a mostly manufacturing cost saving and cooperate image thing like more corporate green movements. I didn't know about the DS cases. I haven't bought a DS game in a long time.

[kedawa]

They were stupid right from the start. If they had placed the cutouts on the manual side, it wouldn't have been such an issue.
The same shit happened with CD jewel cases. They were obviously a faulty design, and all that needed to be done to make them durable was to extend the front cover all the way to the left edge, but no, we had to put up with flimsy little tabs for two decades.

[AceAerosmith]

They were never really eco friendly, they just saved manufacturing costs by using slightly less material. They would only help the environment if you were the type of person who throws out cases just to keep loose discs.

If eBay is any barometer of that, then there are plenty of douchebags (Disc Only sellers) who throw out the case.

[Ponyone]

not sure if we are talking about the same thing... but wiiu cases have a hole through them in the shape of the recycle symbol

[Gameguy]

If eBay is any barometer of that, then there are plenty of douchebags (Disc Only sellers) who throw out the case.
They probably find old ex-rental discs digging through dumpsters or sell discs stolen out of the cases from retail stores. I can't see why anyone would bother to throw out the case if they were just selling them, I would think it just makes it harder to ship the discs without damage. It's not like the cases would add to the cost of shipping, they're thin enough for letter mail and would fit in a regular bubble mailer.

There are people who throw out the cases but there's really not many who do this. I knew someone in high school who threw out the cases for PS2 games just keeping the discs so it does happen, but it makes them pretty much worthless. I actually know someone who threw out all of his DVD cases while keeping the discs, I forgot about him telling me this but I still think only a few people bother to save storage space this way.

[BlastProcessing402]

I remember when looking for a specific GBA game it seemed futile trying to find one with the box on Ebay. Even "new" copies the sellers (who somehow had dozens of copies) would be all "cart only to save shipping costs!" like a GBA box would cost anything extra to ship. Of course something like 90% of GBA games on Ebay were bootleg anyway, that's the real reason they didn't have boxes.

Not that I think that's what's going on here, I think Gameguy's on point about former rentals and such. The odd caseless games I have tend to have been rentals in the past.

Yes, some people do throw out the cases, but it's not nearly as common as it was back in the days of the cardboard boxes and cart games. Particularly when games started coming in standard CD/DVD style cases people were already used to for music/movies. I would imagine that a lot of the people who threw out the cases also eventually threw out the games.

[Cornelius]

The one Wii U game I've had, NSMBWU, is an eco case with the recycle symbol punched out of the front, and the punchouts behind the disc as well.

[The 1 2 P]

The one Wii U game I've had, NSMBWU, is an eco case with the recycle symbol punched out of the front, and the punchouts behind the disc as well.

Punched out as in indented/imprinted or punched out as in the holes have the plastic completely cut out where you can stick your finger thru the case?

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

What do these look like, I don't think I have ever seen one.

[InsaneDavid]

Personally I hate these but I thought it had more to do with getting the shipping weight per carton down (and thereby saving fuel and cutting emissions cost per piece to transport) above using less plastic.

[Cornelius]

Punched out as in indented/imprinted or punched out as in the holes have the plastic completely cut out where you can stick your finger thru the case?

A picture is worth a thousand words:
http://i707.photobucket.com/albums/ww75/evanwink42/Snapbucket/8DC94174-orig.jpg

[The 1 2 P]

A picture is worth a thousand words:
http://i707.photobucket.com/albums/ww75/evanwink42/Snapbucket/8DC94174-orig.jpg

I can't believe Nintendo stuck with those horrible things. Those were the first eco cases that started appearing in late 2010 for most new games(console and portable) and dvds/movies. But around late 2011 they were redesigned(atleast for 360 games) so that where the plastic is cut out in Cornelius's picture was actually filled in but the cut out lines/blades were still imprinted. So in 2010 COD: Black Ops had the cut out case but in 2011 COD: MW3 had this new case:

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr306/THE-1-2-P/GEDC2249a.jpg

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr306/THE-1-2-P/GEDC2250a.jpg

Those are both pics of the the MW3 case without the disc sleeve. Notice that in both it looks like plastic has been cut out but that design was simply imprinted from the previous design. I don't like the new cases either but I would rather have those over the older ones that Nintendo is still using with Wii U games, especially because of how easily damaged your games can get like that.

[Nz17]

I still see newer Wii games that have the recycling symbol cut out of them (behind the manual) and the spoke-wheel backing (behind the game) like Cornelius posted for the Wii U, except of course the Wii ones are white.

The 3DS ones look like the image from this GamesRadar post, "Nintendo's eco-friendly 3DS game cases are slim and full of holes." (http://www.gamesradar.com/nintendos-eco-friendly-3ds-game-cases-are-slim-and-full-of-holes/)

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Daily/2011/02-Feb/15/Holy%203DS%20case/FullOfHoles--article_image.jpg

[AlphaGamer]

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[kedawa]

Having to replace one of these would be most ironic.

[Rickstilwell1]

I can see it now - people buying the cheapest old Xbox 360 games and Wii games just to gut the cases, swap them and resell them on ebay so their new Xbox and Wii games have the old style cases.

[davidbrit2]

Personally I hate these but I thought it had more to do with getting the shipping weight per carton down (and thereby saving fuel and cutting emissions cost per piece to transport) above using less plastic.

Has anybody compared the weight of the two? I can't imagine that there would be much of a savings. You could probably get the same results by not hiring fat drivers.

[Camp]

Some of the later DS releases had an eco case design with a recycle symbol cutout and a removed GBA slot. I would assume some of the newer DS releases still have this, even though there are not that many anymore.

http://i46.tinypic.com/13yoveq.jpg