PlayStation to Combat Climate Change With United Nations Partnership

PlayStation wants to change the world for the better. And you can't do that with video games alone. That's why they've announced a new collaboration with the United Nations to fight climate change.

According to Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan, the company will be joining the UN Climate Summit. There, they plan to make formal commitments toward the UN Environment committee through a new program, known as the Playing for the Planet alliance.

"We believe that careful stewardship of natural resources is of utmost importance and are aligned with the mission and objectives of UN Environment. Earlier this year, they created a new Youth and Environment Alliance and quickly realized partnering with the video game industry would help them reach their sustainable development goals."

Ryan expands on how they can make a difference through reduced power consumption. By advancing the PlayStation console architecture, improve performance and implement energy-saving methods, such as Suspend-to-RAM mode, they can reduce overall power consumption and the carbon emissions therein.

Additionally, these efforts will be an important factor in the development of the next-generation PlayStation console. Ryan announced that the next-gen console will feature an improved suspension mode, which uses notably less power.

"I am also very pleased to announce the next-generation PlayStation console will include the possibility to suspend gameplay with much lower power consumption than PS4 (which we estimate can be achieved at around 0.5 W). If just one million users enable this feature, it would save equivalent to the average electricity use of 1,000 US homes."

Ryan continues with various ideas for how to help improve the climate situation, including internal energy efficiency evaluations, informing consumers, and looking into potential PSVR applications that can raise awareness.

"The gaming community is diverse and growing at a fast pace. There is an undeniable opportunity for leaders in the games industry to take a stand and support the UN Environment team by communicating the importance of preserving natural resources for generations to come. At PlayStation, we believe games have the power to ignite social change through educating people, evoking emotions, and inspiring hope."

This is a very noble thing for Sony and PlayStation to do. Climate change has been an increasingly important issue in modern politics. And while Sony's efforts won't solve the problem alone, it both helps and puts pressure on other major organizations to follow suit.