Ditching Discs For Downloads May Be worse for environment!

[garyoak99]

The Journal of Industrial Ecology (via Science Magazine) brings word that—in many cases—downloading video games actually harms the environment more than buying them on the ruthlessly manufactured ecological death frisbees we call discs. Crazy, right? Yeah, I'm skeptical too.

According to the researchers, the energy intensity of the Internet is the main culprit, followed (rather distantly) by consoles' energy usage. Between download time and gameplay, consoles (or at least the PlayStation 3, which was used in the study) are responsible for more carbon emissions than the whole game disc production/delivery process—from factory to store to your living room.

Here's how it all breaks down:

"For an average 8.80-GB game, carbon emissions varied depending on whether the game was downloaded (21.9 to 27.5 kg CO2-eq) or distributed on a BD disc game (20.8 kg CO2-eq). Gameplay accounted for the largest share of carbon emissions (19.5 kg CO2-eq) [and was equal regardless of distribution method]."

"Overall, the results indicate that the hypothesis—that downloading data will be more carbon efficient than distribution by disk—is not likely to have been correct in the case for PS3 console games sold within the EU since 2010 (except for games downloaded of less than 1.3 GB). Similar results can be expected for larger-than-average files in the United States, although by a smaller margin because carbon impacts of production and distribution of optical discs are estimated to be almost 3 times more than in the case of PS3 BDs within the EU."

That last part, especially, is interesting. Downloading is only significantly worse for the environment in EU territories. In the United States disc production makes an ecological footprint that's three times bigger, reducing the gap between the two by leaps and bounds.

Ditching Discs For Downloads May Not Be As Eco-Friendly As We Think

[Yuki_Windira]

I rather have discs over digital.
Takes up a whole lot less space on the consols.Especially when some of us have older models and need as much space as we can get.xP

[Holidazed]

very interesting thnx for posting.

[Pawlas Cathena]

Meh. I don't give a ******** about the environment and that has no effect on helping me decide whether to get the physical or digital copy of a game. It usually comes down to "How much will it cost? Do I want to make the trip to the store? How soon do I want it?"

[X_of_Pentacles]

I don't have much of a choice at the moment, but I prefer disks for everything. That Internet program? I have to do a search for patches, download the patch, install the patch..the disk came tested and approved. The same with games, and optional skills like art programs. I guess I took it for granted that there'd be less emissions, but I was proven wrong. Learned something new today.

[A mali]

Wow. I didn't realize the impact of this.

[BlackRose_Jefe]

and yet another thing to add to my "idgaf" list. always something...

[Glorious Leader Luna]

So what about disposal then?

because optical discs don't degrade and burning them creates toxic fumes

[BerserkLeon]

I smell BS.
Digital:
nrg to make/dev game[done once] + nrg to DRM/pkg game (probably less than a half hour on most modern computers)[done once]+ nrg to put package on server and list in PSN store (probably an internet transfer)[done once] + nrg to get it to your console [done ntimes]
Then, nrg to run it from hard drive, which will ALWAYS be less than it would to read from the disc drive.

Disc:
nrg to dev game, nrg to press discs (how many times depends entirely on the game), nrg to make cases, wrap cases, print manuals, art. nrg to ship them to all the stores, nrg to go to store, buy game, bring it back... and of course the nrg to read from the disc.

It sounds like their entire argument is the "energy intensity of the internet" stuff... and how does one measure that? I guess you'd need to measure the emissions of each computer resulting from a tracert, which is entirely dependent on where you run the tracert from, and then figure out precisely how much energy is being spent facilitating the transfer...
Yeah, I have a hard time believing they got permission from everyone involved to measure EVERYTHING.
I do know that actually playing the game on a hard drive or flashdrive/memory chip (in the case of portables) will always be less power-consuming than playing from an optical drive.

[El Frito Bandito]

I buy all my games on Steam, now, anyways...
Digital is more convenient for me.