Xbox seeks to reduce climate change impact with new settings
Additional energy saving options are rolling out on Microsoft’s consoles at the moment as the company seeks to reduce its carbon footprint and wants to minimize Xbox climate change contributions.
Microsoft claims that Xbox is now the “first carbon aware console” and wants to take further steps towards making gaming a more sustainable hobby.
While you could already save some energy by using certain options during your Xbox console's set up like disabling the “Instant On” feature, a range of brand-new settings are supposed to provide a more significant impact.
Xbox Series X|S consoles will automatically resort to using the “Shutdown (energy saving)” power option, which saves about 20 times more energy than the “Sleep” option according to Microsoft:
“For example, for every 2 consoles that switch to Shutdown (energy saving) for one year, we will save the equivalent amount of carbon removed by 1 tree planted and grown for a decade. This is based on an average of Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles on Shutdown (energy saving) for 20 hours per day for 1 year; actual energy savings and avoided emissions may vary by console and other factors.”
Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One devices will also be able to automatically receive updates for their system, games, or apps at times when the grid provides a lot of renewable energy.
For those players who don’t want to miss out on the “Sleep” option, Microsoft has implemented a setting called “Active hours”, which allows them to set a daily timeframe in which the console will use the “Sleep” mode for super quick start times. Outside of that window, such as when they’re at work, at school, or sleeping, the console will use “Shutdown (energy saving)" instead.
“Your Xbox will boot quickly and will be available for remote wake during your selected active hours. When your Xbox’s active hours are done for the day, it will fully shut down and will draw 0.5 W vs. 10-15 W while active”, Microsoft says about this new option.
