At Microsoft, we’ve set ambitious commitments to meaningfully reduce our environmental impact and become a carbon negative, water positive and zero waste company by 2030.
Xbox plays an important role in achieving this, and today we are proud to share that, in just three years (FY20-FY23), Xbox has contributed to this goal with interventions to reduce energy from console usage. These interventions, which include greening game code and players opting into energy saver modes, have prevented over 1.2 million metric tons of CO2e, compared to usage without interventions. According to US EPA estimates, this reduction prevents emissions equivalent to more than 3 billion car miles (driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle) being released into the atmosphere.
These preventions were only achievable through our collaboration with game developers leveraging the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit and players opting in to using the Shutdown (energy saving) power option, active hours and carbon aware updates on Xbox consoles. These measures highlight some of the improvements we’ve made to reduce our carbon footprint, and we are continually exploring new ways to innovate, learn, and improve our sustainability efforts at Xbox.
Making Game Code More Energy Efficient with the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit
Xbox is the first major gaming console to create energy and emissions measurement tools and make research insights and case studies on reducing energy and emissions publicly available via the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit. These tools, which include power consumption dashboards, case studies and telemetry data, have enabled developers to gain insight into how much energy their games are using and identify opportunities to reduce energy usage in ways that are imperceptible to gamers. These techniques can also be used to prolong battery life in battery powered gaming devices.
In just three years (FY20-FY23), we’ve seen implementation of the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit from studios like 343 Industries for Halo Infinite, Activision for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone, and others. Thanks to the collective effort and support of our developers, these latest emissions prevention measures were made possible. We eagerly look forward to seeing the positive impact of the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit continue to grow, as new tools are introduced such as Dynamic Power States API, the latest platform technology made available in June that allows developers to deliver increased energy savings without compromising graphical fidelity.
We’re constantly looking for ways to empower developers to leverage tools and resources that help reduce energy and emissions in game development. Developers interested in accessing these tools can visit the Xbox Development Kit (GDK), with additional resources available on the Xbox Game Dev Docs website. Developers can also contact their Microsoft point of contact or participate in conversations on the Xbox Developer Forums to learn how to get started.
Making Xbox Consoles More Energy and Emissions Efficient
One of the most powerful ways players have contributed to energy and emissions savings has been through adoption of the latest Xbox energy efficiency features. In 2023, Xbox became the first ever gaming console to offer carbon aware game downloads and updates, reducing carbon footprint by optimizing updates and downloads to run at a time when the console can use the most renewable energy. We also introduced the Shutdown (energy saving) power option, a one-time update to power settings that reduces power consumption while the console is turned off and can cut power use by up to 20X when it’s off compared to Sleep, and active hours, an energy setting update that allows players to adjust their console’s active hours.
To ensure you’re taking advantage of the latest energy efficiency features on console, go to Settings > General > Power options and confirm that Shutdown (energy saving) is active.
More Achievements to Unlock
While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made at Xbox to reduce our environmental impact, we know that the work towards a more sustainable future is never complete. Gaming brings joy to players, but we recognize it also has an impact on our environment. Our commitment to our players and the industry is to work to improve that impact in a responsible way.
Innovative solutions continue to emerge through deep collaboration with our players, developers, and the industry. It won’t be a straight path to 2030, but we’re committed to empowering game creators with cutting edge analytics and bespoke tool kits. We are inspired by the enthusiasm among our studios and players towards exciting new technical applications. It is this spirit of community and dedication to exploration which encourages the best in the industry and brings ambitious, meaningful goals within reach.
To learn more about our efforts to improve our environmental impact, visit xbox.com/sustainability.