The chill in the air. The John Lewis advert making us cry. Your neighbour Janine putting her Christmas tree up way too early… it can only mean one thing – the festive season is upon us.
As we settle into the season, millions of us will enjoy sitting down with our favourite video games and diving into immersive worlds, fantastic stories and thrilling multiplayer adventures… but how often do we consider the environmental impact of gaming?
I’m Grace, one of graduates of the Sumo Digital Academy, an apprenticeship programme creating new pathways into the games industry. The Academy is part of Sumo Digital – a Sheffield-founded game developer which now has 17 studios all over the world.
At the Academy, we’ve been working on creating our own Green Game Jam – inspired by Playing for the Planet’s annual event to encourage game developers to think green. We’re incredibly proud to have created two eco-friendly titles (Biome Man – a Bomber Man inspired flower planting battle – and Plant It – a crazy golf game where players hit seeds across a course) as a result of our Green Game Jam, and it was a great exercise to get us all thinking about the environment and video games.
Hard truths in hardware
The reality: All consoles and PCs include a number of components made of ‘critical elements’ – materials important to the hardware of modern technology which need to be mined, and then assembled in an intensive manufacturing process. These elements are predominantly made from rare earth minerals, the mining of which causes extensive environmental damage, require large amounts of power to process and is mostly carried out in developing nations ungoverned by employee regulations
What can we do? This is not a situation unique to games consoles and PCs, these elements are used in the technology we use every single day, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do our bit in making our use of tech more sustainable and eco-friendlier.
With the hottest new tech appearing on the market less than every decade, it’s important SUMO DIGITAL that tech be disposed of correctly. Most games retailers offer a trade-in system where they will either ethically recycle or upcycle your old machine. If you’re carrying around cartloads of composing consoles, why not check out recycleyourelectricals.org.uk to take your first step into tech recycling.
Powering up
The reality: We are all guilty of putting our tech into ‘rest mode’ rather than powering down – whether it’s for convenience or to constantly get the latest and greatest updates – but leaving your machine always prepped to activate can be a huge energy drain.
What can we do? In 2022, Xbox became the first ‘carbon-aware’ console by introducing its Energy Saver mode, which uses around 20 times less power than ‘standby’ or ‘rest’ mode when the console is not on or updating. They also released an update that schedules game installation and updates to happen at night when off-peak energy is activated, cheaper and more likely to come from renewable sources. Good for your bank balance, and the environment!
If you’re looking for ways to make your gameplay greener, consider powering down your machine when it’s not in use. The majority of tech now features a low-power or power-saving setting which can be an easy win when it comes to curbing your consumption.
Save our software
The reality: The games industry has been making a progressive shift towards a digital future, and we’re seeing fewer boxed games on the shelves and more gamers relying on the network to download, install and update their games. While this shift is positive news for plastic waste, production and shipping emissions, it does mean we’re more reliant on data centres… which come with their own plethora of concerns!
- When you purchase a digital download of a game, two things happen: 1) your console and energy consumption gear up to ingest a huge amount of data, which can take a lot of time and require a lot of power, 2) somewhere, a server will kick into gear to provide you with the data to download your game.
- Servers require colossal processing power and constant cooling – so not only do they drain huge amounts of energy from the data centres they reside in, but the fans needed to cool them down do too. These cooling fans are so powerful, that residents living in areas with data centres have reported a constant, low-pitched humming noise ranging between 55-85 decibels.
- What can we do? It’s good practice just to remain educated when it comes to data storage and transmission. Through education, we’ve seen some great changes come about in recent years – like data centres utilising their wasted thermal energy to hear up nearby swimming pools… cooler machines, warmer water for locals to splash around. It’s a win-win!
Green Games
The reality: You like the games you like, and that is absolutely fine. Whether it’s hopping on with your mates for a round of Call of Duty, stepping into the immersive world of Balder’s Gate 3, taking a trip back in time with a retro experience like Zool: Redimensioned, or removing the pool ladder in The Sims (if you know, you know) – we all have our favourites. But did you know there are countless games out there to inspire conversations about the environment?
Here are just some of my favourites:
- Loddlenaut: An ocean clean-up adventure where you play as an interstellar custodian sent to clean up a polluted ocean planet. Pick up trash, explore the waters and take care of creatures!
- Alba: A Wildlife Adventure: Join Alba as she sets out to save her beautiful island and its wildlife, and maybe even start a revolution on the way.
- Garden Story: You play as a tiny plant working with the community to protect the village from a pollution infection by healing, growing, and planting.
- Terranil: An intricate environmental strategy game about transforming a barren wasteland into a thriving, balanced ecosystem.
- Coral Island: Be who you want and create the idyllic farm of your dreams, where you’ll tend crops, nurture animals, and build a bond with the natural world around you.
- Spilled! A relaxing & satisfying cosy game where you recycle, earn coins, upgrade your boat, and explore new areas with more waste and new challenges.
Sumo is proud to be constantly optimising its policies and processes to improve its environmental impact, including through its partnership with Playing for the Planet, optimising its energy usage in its offices, recycling its hardware, offsetting its travel and reviewing data storage and cloud infrastructure.
For more information one Sumo Group’s environmental initiatives and targets visit: sumogroupltd.com/esg/environmental
