Microsoft Trying To Make Xbox “Carbon Aware” Console?

We live in a world where changes are needed everywhere. That sounds grim, but it’s true. Whether you’re talking about the people, the government, the perception of genders and races, the environment, and everything in between, some things need to be changed so the world can continue and people can live in harmony. You might not think such “global topics” would tie to video games, but you’d be wrong. One that Microsoft is trying to help with is the global warming and energy crisis. So how are they trying to help with that? By making their Xbox line of systems “Carbon Aware.”

But you might ask, “What does that mean?” Well, Microsoft was happy to answer that:

“Being carbon aware means reducing carbon footprint by optimizing updates and downloads to run at a time when the console can use the most renewable energy,” Microsoft said.

Not what you expected from a video game console, right? But it shows that Microsoft takes this seriously, and they’re doing it not only for the environment, but they’re also doing it for you:

“This decreases fossil fuel dependency and CO2 emissions and could potentially save you money,” Microsoft said.

There isn’t a human out there who doesn’t want to save money when possible, so you’ll enjoy this. But when can you expect it to happen? An update is coming that will help set the Xbox systems to a “carbon-aware” status. The system will attempt to determine when the electric grid is in a place where the energy source comes from “lesser” emitters in terms of fossil fuels.

Furthermore, when the Xbox Series X/S gets the update, it’ll get put into “Shutdown” mode to save energy when it’s not being used. Should you not get the difference between the “powered down modes,” if you put it into Sleep Mode versus Shutdown mode, you’re wasting about 20 times more energy. That’s a lot, and over time, that can seriously affect your power bill.

Those who are part of the Insiders program will get to test out even more features that could help the “Carbon Aare” state of the systems. That includes being able to configure your system more so it’ll be primed during “active hours.”

It’s refreshing to see Microsoft take a stab at helping the energy crisis via their consoles. It’ll be interesting to see if Sony and Nintendo also try to jump in on this to establish a united gaming front once again.

Source: Xbox Wire