GTG Links 38 – 2023 hardware numbers + nuclear data centres ++ the end of discs?
David Lumb’s CNET article is out
I think he worked on this one for most of last year. We first chatted about the topic pre-GDC last year, a lot has happened since. Nice to see it out finally.
See full bio
The end of Xbox physical distribution???
Could the rumour of Xbox removing physical Starfield copies from stores be the first step towards an exclusively digital distribution model? Whether it's for sustainability reasons (as I argued for in DGACC), or for business/platform/control reasons (which would get me a lot less excited tbh!) the change would avoid tons and tons of plastic every year.
I saw this memo earlier as well (not through these same exact screenshots) - Walmart will prep to remove Starfield Xbox physical copies from their stores but you could get very lucky and get it for 3 cents on Monday (the memo says the system will block the purchase) https://t.co/LUBIq0sbaq
— Wario64 (@Wario64) January 19, 2024
I've heard rumours for a while that the PS5 was originally intended as a fully digital-only console but for ~business reasons~ pulled back from that late in the piece. I think that particular rumour is at least plausible, as it explains why the disc-based PS5 looks like a console with a tumour).
Videogame hardware sales numbers up in Europe
Across tracked European markets, 7.4 million video game consoles were sold in 2023, which is a rise of nearly 42% over the year before. This is mostly due to the PS5, which saw a 177% increase in sales year-on-year. PS5 suffered severe stock issues during 2022.
I don't think we've seen an LCA for the PS5 yet, but if it's the same as the Ps4 (~50 kg CO2e each) then manufacturing European PS5's sold year has cost the carbon budget at least another 370,000 tonnes of CO2e.
Christopher Dring
Monthly active user split across publishers
It's a pity this report only has the %age shifts, rather than absolute numbers for reach. I was hoping it would let us make some educated guesses about total MAU on consoles? Still, Epic has been at the forefront of end-user emissions reductions, so maybe that's good for end-user emissions?
Ampere Analysis Limited
Company boards not addressing their own climate risks
I completely agree with this – at least as far as the games industry goes – having read so many TCFD disclosures for the Games Industry Sustainability Benchmark. The general level of awareness of very real and very predictable physical risks from climate change is deeply worrying.
"nearly all firms have board-level governance" of #ClimateRisk", according to a new survey by @GARP_Risk...
— Climate Risk Economics (@climateconomics) January 15, 2024
.. yet physical risk of own operations remains the least-discussed topic at the board level, with around half of boards not addressing it in 2022https://t.co/tKzWt7bmzi pic.twitter.com/XLo0fGMxi8
Semiconductor supply chains in areas of high water stress
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224000129
RMI report on saving from shifting away from FFs
Super interesting dive into Apple’s “Grid Forecast” model
Which seems like it leaves a lot to be desired.
Grid Status
Discounting the Future
It argues that our relationship to the future has been trapped in the gears of a device called discounting. While its incidence remains little known, discounting has long been entrenched in market and policy practices, shaping the ways firms and governments look to the future and make decisions accordingly. Thus, a sociological account of discounting formulas has become urgent.
Liliana Doganova
New climate denial research from The Center for Countering Digital Hate
Pexapark’s overview of the biggest PPA deals in 2023 has some interesting details
The largest deals of 2023, aggregating 3GW of contracted volumes, reveal some patterns. First, the lion’s share is linked to solar pv assets, with the technology taking up over 80% of the volumes with 2.4GW. This contradicts last year’s picture, where onshore wind dominated… Second, the top deals are concentrated in two countries: Spain and Germany. That’s yet another interesting insight, as it’s the first time Germany appears in the Top 5 Deals list. IT conglomerate Amazon holds two spots, both linked to solar pv sprees in Spain. Nonetheless, the balance between corporate and utility offtakers in the Top 5 deals is relatively even, as two of the largest deals were catalysed by utility offtakes assuming price risk. The 600MW solar pv deal in Germany between Shell Europe Energy and Hansainvest Real Assets is the largest publicly announced back-to-back PPAs, where a utility contracts large volumes with an asset owner, having the certainty that part or whole volumes can be contracted back-to-back with a corporate offtaker. In this case. Shell Energy Europe will sell a 323MW stake to Microsoft. This practice gives confidence to utilities to assume larger risks, knowing that not all risk will be deposited in their books for a long time.
Read here: https://quote.pexapark.com/#/ppa-times/20 (requires a login)
Zendesk has its new SBTi targets approved
Including this very ambitious supply-chain target:
“Zendesk further commits that 68.4% of its suppliers by emissions, covering purchased goods and services, and capital goods, will have science-based targets by 2027.”
https://www.zendesk.com/au/newsroom/articles/science-based-targets/
ASML makes the machines that make chips
Absolutely fascinating detail about how ASML produces the machines that everyone uses to make semiconductors.
The Economist
Microsoft planning SMR’s for data centre power
This makes me deeply, deeply uneasy.
Dan Robinson
Been a super busy January, lot's more coming up in 2024. Help spread the word about Greening the Games Industry by sharing it with someone who might find it interesting.