A little over one year ago, some of the biggest gaming companies from around the world joined together to form an alliance committed to combating climate change. The United Nations’ Playing for the Planet Alliance launched during the Climate Summit in New York in 2019, and recently Sony published an annual report to share some of the progress that PlayStation has made in its efforts.
The Sony Interactive Entertainment blog post, while revealing some of the positive moves that gaming has made in reducing emissions and supporting a healthier environment, also uncovered the fact that playing video games via online Cloud streaming can potentially leave a bigger carbon footprint than using either a digital download or a physical disc.
Cloud streaming games emits approximately 0.149kg of CO2 every hour, compared to 0.047kg in carbon emissions per hour when downloading a game to the PlayStation 4 and 0.055kg of CO2 emitted per hour when gaming with a disc. This emission number for cloud streaming can vary greatly depending on the length of time that a game is played, and PlayStation clarified that streaming can have lower emissions than downloads when a game is played for fewer than eight hours.
Ultimately, one of the takeaways from the information shared in the report is that downloading a digital version is best for smaller games, streaming is best when playing a game for a short period of time, and downloading or using a physical copy is most carbon efficient for larger games.
The annual report went on to state that to date Sony has avoided an estimated 17.5 million tons of carbon equivalent emissions with the PS4, thanks to an energy-efficient power supply, “system on a chip” architecture, and the console’s rest mode. Furthermore, the PlayStation 5 will improve upon the energy efficiency of suspending and resuming gameplay, using just 0.5 Watts, which is around 72% less than that used by the PS4.
Sony’s long-term target is to avoid 30 million tons of carbon equivalent emissions by 2030. This number is equivalent to the total carbon emissions of Denmark in 2017, and PlayStation is currently on track to reach that goal. The company plans to continue working with industry and climate experts to help develop a reference and resource pack that can be used by game developers who wish to better understand and consider climate change issues in game development.
To help environmentally conscious gamers take steps to reduce their gaming carbon footprint, a webpage has been created on PlayStation.com that provides advice on how to set up and use Sony consoles to use energy more efficiently.
Source: SIE Blog, PlayStation.com
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