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Freebirds slam the games industry

If it’s not the lawyers, papers or concerned parents, someone is always taking digs at the games industry – But Greenpeace? Who would have thunk it!?

I read an article earlier on in the week talking about how Greenpeace have accused Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo of not doing enough to be eco-friendly.

“This is an industry that is changing our way of life and if it does not take these challenges upon themselves to be more green we are going to be in deep trouble very, very soon.” – Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpace

Right, fair enough I assume the millions of gaming manuals and cases used by publishers do make for quite a carbon footprint and I agree, perhaps switching from glossy manuals, the industry could try using recycled paper (if it doesn’t do so already, I’m not sure) but this quote is just a tad alarmist.

I assume the oil, deforestation and fossil fuel business aren’t contributing to this ‘deep trouble’ more so than the gaming industry? I sense a little bit of scapegoating here.

But then again, eco-warriors and gaming execs have famously locked horns many times before:

The great invasion of the first E3 conference in 1969

The biggest concern is the “very high” levels of chemicals in game consoles, namely phthalates, beryllium and bromine, all pretty hefty in the toxin stakes, resulting in 50 tonnes of hazardous waste every year.

Being the good sports that they are, Sony, along with a few other companies such as Braun and Electrolux, have established the European Recycling Platform committed to reducing waste. Microsoft and Nintendo have promised to eliminate the use of pvc and other substances over the next few years – good stuff people!

However, this isn’t the first time the industry has tried to be eco-conscious.

Check out these three examples:

Mick n’ Mack: Global Gladiators – It’s the Megadrive game that promotes saving the planet and recycling!

…and not a multi-national burger chain (obviously)

Chibi Robo, the ankle-high robot with a love of tidying up. This little guy has appeared in two very fun titles on Gamecube and DS and most recently as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii.

And wouldn’t you know it? Nintendo have just announced a new green (gedit?) DS console in the states – Cool!

In all seriousness though, kudos to the developers for making a pledge to help out, It’s nice to see everyone doing their bit 😀

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Comments

6 responses to “Freebirds slam the games industry”

  1. markouk avatar
    markouk

    What next, are gamers going to be held responsible for natural disasters? All those rumble controllers are causing sonic waves that disturb the platonic plates causing them to vibrate out of control….or something! First mass murder, now mass polutionists. Ahh, the joys of gaming. To be fair, they could reduce the PVC in consoles but what other material are they going to use?? Metals have a larger carbon footprint so I suppose recycled paper it is then. Bloody liberals.

  2. Dave avatar
    Dave

    Yeah, it certainly does seem like a classic case of finger-pointing. Fair enough though, anything they can do to help I suppose.

    But indeed, there are far worse offenders. I dobut if the industry churns out the same level of waste over the next few years that we will be in ‘serious danger’ as the Greenpeace wifey suggests.

    :S

  3. Nick avatar
    Nick

    To be honest I hope the industry gets blamed for war next. If there’s a green DS, it’s only common sense to have a Gun Metal Ds next!

    I’ll take 7!

  4. Dave avatar
    Dave

    Well naturally. I heard the sequel to the Gulf War was actually to obtain control of oil supply fields to make the necessary plastics needed to make game cases.

    We are an evil industry and must be stopped at all costs.

    With Jack Thompson looking likely to be disbarred any day now by the Florida law association, maybe all the stigma surrounding gaming will ease off a bit?

  5. Michael avatar
    Michael

    Obviously if that happened, there’d be all this guff about how gamers are being subliminally trained to be soldiers via the use of light guns and squad shooters

  6. Dave avatar
    Dave

    I blame America’s Army for all of this – Marketing this piss-poor title as an army training device is just asking for trouble.

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