So we all know that the hardware we use to play our entertainment products are made of a limited supply of natural resources and that the electricity used to activate this hardware is dominantly run by fossil fuels. Yet there's also the constant push by console and hardware manufacturers to have us buy the newest and latest stuff and to use all these energy-consuming services (online distribution, playing online, high image quality enabled by powerful hardware).

Given our future with climate change and the fact that we have to reduce our consumption of resources and emission of greenhouse gases to a drastic degree in order to be sustainable, how does video games factor into a future where manufacturers, developers, and consumers have to be better? Are drastic measures required? Is it even possible to have this activity?

I feel like the technology-arms race with new consoles, new technology, new products, new PC components, and just the fact that consumers use a lot of electricity for distribution servers, multiplayer servers, and local devices need some sort of drastic reconsideration or revision in order to be compatible with a more sustainable future. Yet this is something that has remained unchanged in over 30 years with console generations, PC hardware, online servers, etc.

So what do you think can be done? Is it even possible for video games as a phenomenon to be environmentally sustainable? Is there inherently something in the culture and the practices of our activity that demands resource and energy consumption to the point of in-sustainability?

a lot of the technology development is driven by things tangential to or completely outside the game industry

digital distribution is obviously more environmentally friendly than printing a shitload of plastic discs, putting them in plastic cases, and shipping them around the world in diesel-powered boats and trucks so that's an obvious one we're moving towards

most components are becoming smaller and using less energy as companies struggle with hitting the wall with moore's law.

You're not going to end entire services because of the use of energy, that logic doesn't work with any type of modern society.

In terms of simple energy usage, like I said things are getting smaller and more energy efficient, but the issues that are causing climate change are not really coming from people playing games. Just because things use energy doesn't mean it's going to continue to use dirty energy in the future. Not to mention we're already going heavily digital in terms of physical production causing environmental damage.

Gaming doesn't need to be environmentally sustainable, there are far more important things to look at that will solve that issue, although turning your console off instead of sleep mode is always a start I guess.

the best we can hope for is a larger supply of energy from sustainable sources alongside improvements in recycling technology i guess. I don't really have any hope of convincing a statistically significant number of humans to change their behavior until it's too late. I can't imagine more than a handful of people actually being like "yeah sure i'll upgrade my pc half as often to produce less E-waste," especially when console markets are trending the opposite direction with mid-gen upgrades. I guess it doesn't hurt to try if you can think of a good way to spin and advertise settling for slower advancement of settings.

Alternatively, do everything in your power to support the retro game scene? It covers "reduce" cause of lower power draw and "reuse" cause anything that isn't hoarded by a retro game fan probably languishes in a basement for a decade before getting trashed anyway.

if the resources needed to manufacture computers ever do become super-rare I'd imagine we'll see gov't crackdowns on production quantities of recreational electronic shit, but in the meantime, most governments are trending towards less economic regulation so any improvements will have to be grassroots.

Cell phones and tablets might dwarf us in total volume of e-waste production anyway.

aeolist said:

a lot of the technology development is driven by things tangential to or completely outside the game industry

digital distribution is obviously more environmentally friendly than printing a shitload of plastic discs, putting them in plastic cases, and shipping them around the world in diesel-powered boats and trucks so that's an obvious one we're moving towards

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Not necessarily. Digital distribution requires content servers, and server farms are notoriously power hungry (all the servers + AC to keep them all nice a cool).

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...-worse-for-the-environment-than-blu-ray-discs

Bio computers

I wonder how many people actually use renewable energy. My company tells me that at least 85% of the electricity i use comes from renewables, mainly eolic. Which is pretty nice, but i imagine that won't be the case for many.

Outside of the plastic. Most parts of electronic devices are recyclable, so the only real important aspect of your hobby is how your energy is produced.

pastrami said:

Not necessarily. Digital distribution requires content servers, and server farms are notoriously power hungry (all the servers + AC to keep them all nice a cool).

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...-worse-for-the-environment-than-blu-ray-discs

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That's a really interesting study that challenged conventional wisdom, but it was based on PS3, and I doubt it would still hold true given the current generation of consoles' ability to download in low per mode. Something that the PS3 was sorely missing.

Buy a little solar panel and use that to power your gaming (and I'm not entirely joking, it's quite feasible nowadays).

Problem is where does your energy come from, and how much CO2 you produce by your general gaming habits (which include where you buy from, when you play, how many devices, what do you do with older ones, etc.).

Even digital vs. retail adds to that.

It's complicated.

TheLostBigBoss said:

most components are becoming smaller and using less energy as companies struggle with hitting the wall with moore's law.

You're not going to end entire services because of the use of energy, that logic doesn't work with any type of modern society.

In terms of simple energy usage, like I said things are getting smaller and more energy efficient, but the issues that are causing climate change are not really coming from people playing games. Just because things use energy doesn't mean it's going to continue to use dirty energy in the future. Not to mention we're already going heavily digital in terms of physical production causing environmental damage.

Gaming doesn't need to be environmentally sustainable, there are far more important things to look at that will solve that issue, although turning your console off instead of sleep mode is always a start I guess.

Click to expand...

I don't think this is a solution. And I am not calling for the end of energy, but some kind of measure(s) to help make the industry and activity less harmful to nature. Also, you're basically just saying "gaming is minuscule in the grand scheme of things", which is correct, but not a solution to the fact that the activity and industry do in fact leave a sizable impact on nature and the human condition.

I think gaming should try to become environmentally sustainable. Constant reproduction and consumption are just not sustainable.

Lime said:

the electricity used to activate this hardware is dominantly run by fossil fuels

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I actually didn't know that, seeing as the country I live in produces most of its energy through hydroelectric dams. Isn't reliance on non-renewable, environmentally unfriendly power sources a problem outside of the scope of the games industry? There needs to be a more generalized push towards nuclear, wind, etc., which I'd imagine would require government initiatives.

L Thammy said:

I actually didn't know that, seeing as the country I live in produces most of its energy through hydroelectric dams. Isn't reliance on non-renewable, environmentally unfriendly power sources a problem outside of the scope of the games industry? There needs to be a more generalized push towards nuclear, wind, etc., which I'd imagine would require government initiatives.

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Right, obviously it depends on where you live and how your country's infrastructure is set up. Regardless, it is still a challenge for most countries to not run on dirty energy and your country (and mine) is still in the minority when it comes to sustainable solutions.

It is also correct that this is a governmental (and corporate) challenge that requires collective measures. But the games industry still needs to be part of this push and also try to be more aware and take the appropriate actions.

For example, the energy features that Microsoft, Sony, Valve, Nintendo, etc. need to be designed properly to minimize needless consumption, and at the same time be held accountable for the resources they use for their servers to maintain the online services that we use.

PdotMichael said:

Outside of the plastic. Most parts of electronic devices are recyclable, so the only real important aspect of your hobby is how your energy is produced.

Click to expand...

That's doesn't translate to the parts actually being recycled. A lot of e-waste still gets tossed out in the normal garbage or it gets shipped to and dumped in third world countries.

It's a worthwhile goal, but things appear to be trending in that direction to a degree anyway.

A move to mobile computing (even if high end VR does pull it back towards the power hungry equation for a while) means that per unit device power consumption is steadily decreasing.

But probably the biggest thing about digital entertainment is that the use of it represents opportunity cost for other forms of consumption and activities.

In that sense, how does it stack up to the sort of activity, consumerism that these people would otherwise be doing?

I think, especially in the broader view of things, this is an especially potent argument - when you combine it with VR... good high quality VR, suddenly we're doing things digitally instead of with physical and material goods.

For example, instead of physical cars burning up physical petrol, racing fans can get a lot of that visceral sensory experience virtually.

And if we cast our eyes further - if a critical link to helping society transition to telecommuting, then it has huge potentially positive implications on energy and resource consumption (eliminating commute would be incredible) - and that all stemmed from the technology of gaming.

To that extent... is there much to be done? It's a critical pathway for technology to grow and evolve into something incredibly useful for humanity, and one that will significantly and positively contribute towards sustainable outcomes in its maturity.

Although digital distribution previously drew more power, it's also more subject to Moore's law (and parallel growths in storage, transfer density, and even improvements in renewable electrics - because most of the GHG emission is based on electricity usage more than anything else) than the physical distribution medium is. We should also consider the ancilliary costs of physical distribution - the cost of the physical stores and services needed to distribute these systems... and we quickly see that there's more positive environmental potential for DD then for physical.

As for the suggestion's you're making... they're ok. Improved efficiency, power off modes, etc, can go some way to improving the power efficiency of these devices. Given that we're looking to make them more ubiquitous in the future (as part of an already on going trend), that'll positively impact sustainability in terms of the trends and ethos set.

But on the flipside, they're fairly marginal gains relative to the overall environmental footprint of all these services... which is in itself small compared to the displaced consumption that results from moving away from physical/material goods, services and locations.

The industry could stop charging more for downloads than for plastic discs.

By the way has there been any recent research or studies on environmental aspects related to video games? Most stuff I can see is from 2012 and 2013.

Don't systematically attack lending, borrowing, and used games.

Nothing. It is a consumer product designed with obsolesence in mind and reliant on the use of electricity.

Compare that to a monopoly board that can entertain 6 people simultaneously and last a solid 30 years at least.

Given where we are headed though, if you define "sustainably" broadly, any activity other than fighting climate change is unsustainable at this point. Choosing to game is choosing to ride quietly in the car rushing towards the brick wall (with almost everyone else) even if your foot isn't on the gas.