PlayStation Joins With the United Nations; Next-Gen Console to Consume Less Power Than PS4 in Rest Mode

PlayStation, Microsoft and a number of other key leaders in the gaming industry have joined the “Playing for the Planet” alliance at the annual UN Climate Summit.

The alliance aims to promote sustainability in the games industry through power conservation in consoles and data centers, as well as promoting sustainability through games.

As part of this initiative, SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan detailed in a blog post that the next-generation PlayStation console will consume less power than the PS4 when suspending gameplay.

Ryan estimates that a million consoles using this feature would save energy equivalent to 1,000 U.S. homes.

He also confirmed SIE’s commitment to internal energy conservation, stating that the company will report the energy efficiency measures employed at data centers in the future.

Beyond Microsoft and Sony, other key players involved in the alliance include Google Stadia, Niantic, Ubisoft and Twitch.

On Playing for the Planet’s official website, the organization describes itself as the following:

“The Playing for the Planet Alliance is a group of private video game sector member organizations who have made voluntary, ambitious, specific, and time-based commitments for people and planet.”

As part of this goal, the alliance lists possible commitments as reducing corporate carbon footprints by shifting to sustainable energy sources, offsetting emissions (either internally or through consoles) and implementing recycling to control plastic and e-waste.

The alliance also lists “insertion of green nudges in games” as a possible commitment, meaning incorporating themes of sustainability and conservation into game titles.

An upcoming example of such a game could be the adorable 3D platformer Tamarin, which promotes environmental awareness.

For more on the developers involved with Playing for the Planet, check out everything we know so far about the PlayStation 5, Microsoft’s partnership with Sony to grow the gaming industry, and the new Unova Pokémon added to Niantic’s Pokémon Go.