Microsoft has shared an update on its sustainability efforts on Xbox from the past three years. In that time, the company has reduced its emissions by over 3bn car miles – that’s over 1.2m metric tons of CO2e.
The reduction is largely due to two initiatives. The first is players switching to the Xbox console’s energy saving options to reduce their carbon footprint by optimising updates and downloads to a time when renewable energy can be utilised.
That also includes the Shutdown (energy saving) option, which reduces power consumption while the console is turned off. This can reduce power use by 20 times compared with Sleep mode.
The second is game developers using the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit to identify methods of reducing energy usage in their games.
The toolkit includes a power monitoring system, power consumption dashboards, best practice guides, and more to help developers create games as efficiently as possible.
While Microsoft hasn’t provided specific examples, the toolkit has been used by the likes of 343 Industries for Halo Infinite, and Activision for its latest Call of Duty games.
Microsoft has committed to becoming carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030.
“While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made at Xbox to reduce our environmental impact, we know that the work towards a more sustainable future is never complete,” reads an Xbox Wire blog post. “Gaming brings joy to players, but we recognize it also has an impact on our environment. Our commitment to our players and the industry is to work to improve that impact in a responsible way.
“Innovative solutions continue to emerge through deep collaboration with our players, developers, and the industry. It won’t be a straight path to 2030, but we’re committed to empowering game creators with cutting edge analytics and bespoke toolkits.”
Microsoft became the first console platform to offer dedicated energy consumption tools last year, as well as launching its console energy saving modes.
Share
Print
