Physical games are worse for the environment than digital ones. That almost certainly won’t surprise you. What might shock you is just how much more damage you’re doing to the planet by choosing to buy a physical copy of a new game as opposed to its digital equivalent.
A study undertaken by carbon accounting firm Greenly, dubbed The Carbon Footprint of Gaming, and shared by GamesIndustry.biz, has revealed that physical games are more than 100 times worse for the planet than digital ones. That’s due to the production of the materials needed to make them and the transportation required to ship those games around the world.
Each Physical Game Contributes The Same Amount Of CO2 As 100 Digital Ones
The study estimates that producing one million discs generates a staggering 312 tonnes of carbon dioxide. By comparison, the production process required to make one million digital games produces just three, hence the report arriving at the conclusion that physical games are more than 100 times worse for the planet than digital releases.
You might think digital gaming produces no emissions at all, but that’s not entirely true. Those three tonnes per every one million games downloaded are mainly down to the electricity needed to power the data servers you’re downloading the games from. Not to mention the additional energy you’ll use at home when downloading the game.
However, as the numbers demonstrate, a digital game’s impact on the environment is not even close to the effect physical games have on the planet. As is also noted in the report, there’s no added risk of contributing to the planet’s growing landfill issues if you buy digitally either, whereas millions of discs and the plastic cases they’re sold in will have wound up in landfill sites over the years.
You might think the takeaway from all this is that, as much as we might not want to, we should all give up on physical games and exclusively buy from digital storefronts instead, but it’s not. The message Greenly wants to drive home through its findings is that we, the consumers, and perhaps more importantly the studios making the games, should be making a concerted effort to revive the second-hand gaming market.
Unfortunately, the rise of game-key cards and, in some cases, physical releases that don’t include a copy of the game at all has damaged the second-hand video game market. If your card includes a one-time download, or the servers your disc needs to download are no longer active, then that physical game cannot be sold, as whoever buys it won’t be able to access the game. That almost certainly isn’t going to change. The more likely endgame is that, much like movies and music, physical video game releases continue to get rarer until they eventually cease to exist.
