After outlining the Xbox team’s vision for an ecological future, Microsoft strengthens its commitment to the environmental sustainability of its gaming products and services (but not only) by announcing the arrival of important news for the Power Saver mode of Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox divisionsummarizes the strategy of the house of Redmond underlining on social as “the Xbox team recognizes that, if video games bring joy to many, they also have an impact on our environment. Today we are proud to share part of the work we are doing to offer downloads and game updates that take into account carbon dioxide emissions”.
In the in-depth analysis published on Xbox Wire, the American technological giant explains that it wants to launch a one-off update on all Xbox consoles of this and the past generation for turn them all to the most efficient Energy Saving mode. The update in question will also introduce a new setting for the console’s active hours, which will offer a convenient system for managing aspects such as instant ignition.
Per Blaine Hauglie shares team Xbox“This one-time power settings update will reduce power consumption while the console is off and will not impact performance, gameplay, or the console’s ability to receive nightly updates for games, apps, or system software. Remote capabilities will continue to be available while the console is on, however will not be supported for waking the console from off in Energy Saver mode”.
Activating this mode results in a significant reduction in the energy absorbed by Xbox Series X/S (0.5 watts ‘off’ versus 10-15 watts in standby mode). Thanks to these interventions and the introduction of Energy Savers on Xbox One family consoles, Microsoft states that “Xbox is now the first ‘carbon aware’ console, with actions that allow the console to ‘wake up’ at a time of day in which where they can use renewable energy from a local grid. Windows 11 also offers a similar carbon awareness feature, and both will save you money and help reduce your carbon footprint.”
