You might remember that back in January, the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) published a report about the energy consumption of next-gen consoles, sharing a fair few concerns in the process.
Since then, a representative of the NRDC has been talking to GamesRadar, notably highlighting the ‘Instant On’ mode of the Xbox Series X. The NRDC’s biggest concern with ‘Instant-On’ is that it’s “pre-selected in everywhere except Europe”, which could lead to a lot of unnecessary energy wastage.
Here’s what the NRDC’s Noah Horowitz had to say about the issue:
“Game consoles around the world consume well over a billion dollar worth of electricity and cause millions of tons of carbon emissions annually. Given all the millions of game consoles installed, any energy savings measures they take can really add up.”
“[If Microsoft switched the Xbox Series X’s default energy mode around, it could] “save the equivalent of a large coal burning power plant’s worth of electricity.”
If you’re confused about what this actually means, Horowitz is referring to the standby mode you select when setting up the console for the first time, with ‘Instant-On’ promising quick start-ups and features such as Remote Play, while ‘Energy Saving’ removes your ability to access these luxuries in return for significantly less energy usage.
It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will choose to make the ‘Energy Saving’ mode the default option in the future, but ultimately it seems like it shouldn’t be too difficult to put in place with an update.
Here’s what Dr. Ben Abraham of the Sydney’s University of Technology had to say on the matter:
“To make these consoles more sustainable, I would want to see commitments from both Microsoft and Sony to make this the last console generation, at least for a long time, or until a completely carbon neutral, environmentally responsible production process is in place.”
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