Atari, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. What do they all have in common?
Producing pretty darn good game consoles over the years that have provided us with countless hours of fun and memories.
Forget downloading digital copies of games. Nothing beats unwrapping a brand new physical copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons or FIFA 20 that I just bought for my birthday. But along with the plastic wrapping I just threw into the bin goes my ignorance about the environmental impacts of these physical games.
Although I’d much prefer owning a physical copy of a game than a digital one (sentimental value perhaps), sadly, the environment would prefer I do the opposite. According to a study titled the Console Carbon Footprint, it was revealed that 95.6% of console gamer’s carbon footprint could be reduced if they switch to downloading digital copies of games. I know the percentage seems too large to be true but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense given the manufacturing process required by physical games.
While digital downloads of games result in 0.017kg of Co2 emissions, the manufacturing process of physical games produces 0.39kg of CO2 emissions thanks to the need for an aluminum polycarbonate disc, plastic cover (made of polypropylene and polyethylene), and glossy paper for the printed cover and leaflet. To put things into perspective, FIFA 20 alone, generated 595,395kg of CO2 emissions due to the manufacturing of its physical game copies, which is comparable to the CO2 emissions of 129 cars per year.
Apart from the carbon footprint of physical game copies, let’s not forget their physical waste too. According to the same study, if all owners of the previous FIFA 19 game were to dispose of their discs in exchange for the new FIFA 20, a total of 128kg of waste would be produced.
Maybe you’re still not convinced by the impact of these numbers just yet. But consider this: FIFA is but a single game in a seemingly endless sea of games across multiple genres. Imagine the total waste and carbon footprint of all these games combined! What’s more, game developers regularly churn out new games almost every year, with highly anticipated titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 arriving this November and Monster Hunter Rise planned for release next year.
Sentimentality aside, the wise choice now as a consumer would be to start downloading games digitally rather than obtaining their physical copies, however, there is only so much an individual can do. Could the game developers make game manufacturing processes more sustainable?
Till next time!
Cheers,
Tricia