Gaming consoles sourced in mining and drilling With its engaged and discerning consumer base, the gaming industry could be primed for an eco-revolution. Like other electronics, gaming consoles are linked to a range of environmental threats, from the metals and plastics required to manufacture them, to the fossil fuel-derived electricity that powers them, to the challenges of recycling the devices after the rapidly deployed next generation displaces them.Īlthough these problems aren’t unique to consoles, the meteoric growth and sheer scale of the industry make it an obvious target for environmentally conscious improvements. Since then, electronic video gaming has blossomed into a graphically stimulating multibillion-dollar-a-year industry, entertaining more than 3 billion gamers globally.īut with explosive popularity has come problems.
What started as an arcade game in 1972 entered homes during the 1975 Christmas season.
It began with Pong, an early home video game involving two pixelated paddles and a ball that introduced millions to the thrill of gaming. Awareness of gaming’s oversized environmental impact has grown, and major manufacturers have promised to reduce the environmental footprint of their consoles over the next two decades, but consumer demand for longer console life spans and greater repairability will be key.The rapid replacement of one generation with the next has also led to a path of designed obsolescence, which has resulted in complex waste and disposal issues. While the newer devices have built-in energy efficiencies, their added features and performance upgrades often eat up those savings.gaming consoles churn through roughly 34 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, associated with an estimated 24 million metric tons of carbon emissions. The latest generation of consoles use around 200 watts of electricity, placing them at the upper end of household appliances.Like other consumer electronics, game consoles require complex supply chains that rely on the mining of metals and rare-earth elements, the production of new plastics, and highly specialized manufacturing processes - linking the industry to oversized carbon emissions.
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