Green Transition at Play: State of the Art Report on the Environmental and Social Sustainability

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Abraham et al. (2024) estimate that at least 14 million tonnes of CO2 are produced across game development value chains, a figure the authors compare to the emissions of an entire country like Sweden.See it on page 14
02
Citing Aslan (2020), the authors report that for a PlayStation 4 in Europe, the majority of carbon impact comes from energy use (63%), while manufacturing, distribution and retail are estimated at 25%.See it on page 23
03
The authors argue that the individual carbon footprint framing, originally introduced as a PR strategy by British Petroleum, obscures systemic industrial problems and diverts attention from corporate responsibility.See it on page 21
04
Most European video game developer studios are micro and small enterprises, which the report states represent over 90% of the European games industry.See it on page 24
05
The report finds that the Omnibus package would reduce the number of companies in the gaming sector required to report on their impact from 65 to 16 largest companies.See it on page 20
06
The board game industry is described as highly fragmented, and the report notes a notable absence of publicly available sustainability statements among smaller, privately owned companies, including many publishers of the top 100 games on BoardGameGeek.See it on page 54

Summary

The document is the State of the Art Report on the environmental and social sustainability of the European video game and board game industries, produced within the STRATEGIES project, funded by the European Union and UK Research and Innovation, with authors from TH Köln, SpielFabrique and Malta University. It maps frameworks, guidelines, EU policies, design tools and green games, and critically examines the liberal sustainability paradigm. Its stated aim is to help readers grasp the fragmented picture of sustainability in both sectors, and it serves as groundwork for an ethnographic study of developers' work cultures.

On emissions, the authors cite Abraham et al. Abraham et al. (2024) estimate at least 14 million tonnes of CO2 across game development value chains, rising to 80 million tonnes (disclosed for 2022) when including Microsoft, Sony, Google, Apple and Tencent. They also cite an estimate that 6.81 million tonnes of CO2 come from manufacturing consoles sold in the EU.

The report contrasts the device-focused footprint of play with the manufacturing footprint, citing Gordon (2019) that the production and transportation of a PlayStation 4 emits 89 kg CO2. It also cites Aslan (2020), who estimates that in Europe 63% of a PlayStation 4's carbon impact comes from energy use, with manufacturing, distribution and retail at 25%.

For the board game sector, the report notes it is highly fragmented, with many small and mid-sized publishers, and that much of it lacks publicly available sustainability statements. It finds the sector remains under-researched compared with digital games.