Let’s face it. Gaming isn’t exactly an eco friendly hobby. Gaming consoles and gaming computers usually don’t have anything like a small carbon footprint. All gaming appliances tend to drive up anyone’s electricity bill. Consoles, large televisions, gaming computers and everything that goes with it sucks and gargles down energy like an alcoholic does whiskey in a cheap harbor bar. And the price of energy is on the rise, the polar ice is melting and, well, gaming does its part in contributing to these things. Let’s not start a discussion about how climate change is manmade or not, let’s just go with the good old magic 8-ball saying “all signs point to yes” here and roll with it for the sake of the argument. At least.
There are alternatives, eco friendly, non energy sucking alternatives that won’t impact your electricity bill in the way that high end PCs and consoles do. Problem is of course, those devices usually don’t run the latest greatest games with all the technical superfeatures. There’s things like the ultrabook I’m typing this on, which is tiny and sleek and just doesn’t consume a lot of energy. There are things like all the big mobile devices, which all are pretty low on the consumption side. Granted, nothing running iOS or Android delivers anywhere close to the gaming experience as a fully blown Alienware PC does. But they do have something going for them.
And then, there’s the handheld market, which I want to decidedly keep separate from the “mobile” devices, even though undoubtedly handheld gaming consoles are indeed mobile. But just look at what can be done with the Playstation Vita. I admit, there are too few dedicated Vita games out yet, but the specs are there, it’s a very powerful little device. And does have a pretty low footprint in terms of energy consumption.
I kept having that idea that our age right now is the golden age of gaming simply because future generations of consoles and PCs just won’t deliver the raw processing power needed simply because it would just be both economically and ecologically unfeasible to have these things running for something that’s just entertainment. While processing power keeps advancing, so do the energy needs. Just think about what kind of wattage a PC PSU needed ten years ago and compare that with today. So how could a future gaming device look like, one that doesn’t bankrupt gamers by electricity costs alone?
Here, I would say the Playstation Vita is a pretty good example. Maybe gaming has to move away from stationary devices and embrace handhelds on a broader scale. That does have its upsides. Handhelds like the DS’s and the PSP and Vita do have some things going for them. For once, you never have to meddle with screen settings or worry if you even got the right cable for it. Also, it’s everything in one neat little bundle. You buy the device, and that’s it. No need for an extra TV. No need for an extra sound system.
And, as exciting as new, better, more close-to-photorealistic graphics might be, those rarely make a game. Just take a look at all the horrible games out there that look pretty. It doesn’t take ultra high specs to run a great game. Which is not to say that games should never even try to look better than anything produced in the 1990s, but since AAA gaming is creatively stale these days anyway, what is it that we pay all that money for anyway, if the games that deliver great new ideas usually come from the indie scene that doesn’t need as much raw calculating power anyway?
It is not very likely that things in the industry will change in that way. Not yet anyway. The next generation of consoles will in all likelihood be again another round of electricity guzzling monstrosities. Oh, and another thing. Have you ever tried playing games on a big console or PC in the summertime in a house without airconditioning? With lower energy consumption we might have a chance to have devices that don’t transform the living rooms of people who – for whatever reason – have no aircondition into glorified saunas. The arguments are on the table. And for everyone’s sake it’s something worth thinking about.
