Do you remember when every game came with a manual? Those days are long gone – most games don’t come with a printed manual today, either because the publisher is trying to save some money, they’ve been purchased digitally or second hand, with the manual lost. Luckily, there are three ways of accessing game manuals digitally: On the PlayStation website, the PlayStation 4 itself or the PlayStation app for iOS or Android.
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Access PS4 game manuals on the website
At Docs for PlayStation Sony offers digital game guides and manuals for a variety of games. However, the selection is rather limited – but it’s definitely a start. To access the manuals, please follow these steps:
- Open the Docs for Playstation website
- Filter for PS4
- Select the game
- On the next page select View Doc
You can now read the manual or digital game guide online. Please be aware that this process works on every computer, mobile phone, tablet but also the PlayStation 4 browser.
Access PS4 game manuals using the PlayStation App
If you have the official PlayStation app installed on your mobile device, you can also easily access game manuals and guides from the app itself. To do so, you simply have to do the following:
- Launch the PlayStation App
- Press Links in the lower right corner
- Select Docs for Playstation
- Search for the manual you’re looking for and open it
Given that many PlayStation owners already have the app installed, I think this is the most useful way of accessing the game guides. Whenever you need to look something up, you can quickly load the app and find the information there.
Access PS4 game manuals on your PlayStation 4
Like mentioned before, you can simply use the PS4 browser if you want to access Docs for PlayStation. Additionally to that, some games offer the possibility to access the game manual or digital guide directly from the PlayStation home menu. To do so, just follow these steps:
- Open the Home menu (the overview of installed games)
- Press the Options button on your PS4 Controller.
- Look for the Manual / Game Guide menu point in the menu
- If the option does not exist in the menu, try again after you launched the game. For some games this menu point is only available if the game is active. Unfortunately many games don’t offer a manual
Given the limited amount of game guides and manuals available, I think that the game industry itself is moving away from them. As many games now come with a in-game tutorial, manuals are often not needed anymore. However, I often have the feeling that the in-game tutorial is lacking depth and it’s up to the player to actually understand all functionalities. Back in the days (.. good I feel old now) it was always handy to have a look at the manual to find all required information to play the game. Would you personally prefer to have game guides printed and attached to the games again?
I’d like it if developers stayed consistent with including digital manuals when I’m required to install EVERY GODDAMN GAME.
Seriously, even the Vita, despite its many horrible problems, not the least Sony strongarming publishers to remove all paper from physical copies, still had discernible digital manuals for every game.
The lack of manuals on the PS4 is plain unacceptable. Obviously, someone’s getting WAAYY too lazy and I’d like to know who to blame.