Green Gaming: Video Game Firms Make Climate Promises At UN

Gaming is going green — and some of the biggest game companies hope players will, too.

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The companies behind PlayStation, Xbox, Angry Birds, Minecraft, Twitch and other video games and platforms pledged this week at the U.N. to level up efforts to fight climate change and get their throngs of users involved.

The promises range from planting trees to reducing plastic packaging, from making game devices more energy-efficient to incorporating environmental themes into the games themselves.

“I believe games and gamers can be a force for social change and would love to see our global community unite to help our planet to survive and thrive,” Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders.

Ryan said Sony’s plans include outfitting the next-generation PlayStation system with a low-power, suspend-play mode. He said if 1 million players use it, they could save enough electricity to power 1,000 average U.S. homes.

Some games already are set in drowning coastal cities, educate children about wildlife or otherwise address environmental issues. Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon anointed the Angry Birds character Red as an “honorary ambassador for green” in 2016.