The gaming industry is the highest-grossing entertainment industry, outcompeting both music and film – but it accounts for about 3.7% of global GHG emissions. Consoles are very power-hungry pieces of kit, but there are many other environmental impacts of playing games that often go unnoticed.
Data centres (or the ‘cloud’) are both water and energy intensive. For example, a data centre typically uses ‘about 3-5 million gallons of water per day’ for their cooling systems.
Consoles require mined minerals including copper, gold, and zinc, and often the extraction processes foster environmental destruction and human rights abuse. On the flip side, Nintendo has made an effort not to source its materials from areas of concern. At the other end of a game’s life comes the issue of electronic waste from obsolete hardware and peripherals.
However, gamers themselves have autonomy in working towards a sustainable future. For example, ensuring consoles are switched off when they are not in use, buying digital rather than physical copies of games, upgrading only when necessary, and avoiding unnecessary accessories are all methods to both reduce energy consumption and reduce waste heading to landfill.
Gamers themselves have autonomy in working towards a sustainable future.
According to the UN, 50 million metric tons of e-waste are produced around the world each year, which is projected to worsen. But gaming companies are now striving for energy efficient and easier to recycle products. Microsoft, for example, aims to make products and packaging fully recyclable by 2030.
Xbox announced at the GDC 2023 that they have a new toolkit to reduce the carbon footprint of their games. This makes Xbox the first console maker to release a dedicated eco-friendly development tool, which can identify where energy consumption can be reduced based on where the player doesn’t need it, which means the user experience isn’t impacted.
In some situations, user experience is even improved. Mobile game developers consider battery life to ensure devices don’t overheat in the hands of the players. This simultaneously reduces energy consumption whilst also improving experiences for gamers. Energy optimisation of consoles can meet sustainability goals whilst being entirely imperceptible to the gamer.
Energy optimisation of consoles can meet sustainability goals whilst being entirely imperceptible to the gamer.
Individual consumers have a responsibility to make conscious ecological choices when buying, playing and disposing of games. Equally, firms must also make changes to their production of games – and game designers already consider ways to reduce energy for efficiency, but now the environmental positives of that optimisation have never been more significant.
