The ecological question is on everyone’s lips today, and the video game is also thinking of taking measures. At least, that’s what’s happening at Microsoft, which is announcing an update to allow its Xbox consoles to significantly reduce the impact on the environment. Several objectives are indeed set up to be exemplary on the ecological level by 2030, with a negative carbon footprint, a positive water footprint and a zero-waste policy. The American giant announces that it has rethought its methods of design, manufacture, delivery and use of its products. Concretely, this means that Xbox consoles will benefit from an update that will allow users to configure their console in another way, and thus reduce their impact on the environment when playing video games. This means that Xbox consoles can now choose time slots to reduce carbon emissions, via downloads and updates in time slots during which the console will be able to use the most energy possible. renewable. Microsoft will indeed take up the principle already in place with Windows Update, which takes carbon into account since last year on PCs equipped with Windows 11.
By applying the data on the Xbox consoles, we can thus schedule any update during the nightly maintenance window, which will have the effect of reducing carbon emissions, because the use of electricity will be on low levels. carbon from the power grid. For example, instead of waking up at a random time during the night, between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., our Xbox will choose a time when it can use as much renewable energy as possible depending on the region where it is located. This will reduce fossil fuel dependency and CO2 emissions and potentially save money. Note, however, that this update is currently only available for Insiders using Shutdown mode (energy saving), but it will be available very soon for everyone. To do this, you will have to change your console settings and put the console in “Shutdown” mode (energy saving), knowing that it is possible to reduce energy consumption up to 20 times compared to Sleep mode. .
To select Shut Down (Power Saving) mode on your Xbox, go to Settings > General > Power Options.
