New Microsoft toolkit to measure real-time Xbox energy use

BLOOMBERG

How much energy does it take to play Xbox? Microsoft Corp is helping developers find out. At the 2023 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the company announced a new toolkit for developers to measure real-time energy consumption from Xbox games.
The toolkit, which Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft calls the first of its kind in the industry, will allow developers using the Xbox platform to monitor real-time energy use of the games they create — “down to the nearest millisecond,” the company noted in a press release. It will also help Microsoft establish a baseline for Xbox games, which could then serve as a benchmark for developers. The company hopes game-makers will also leverage the toolkit to experiment with approaches that cut energy consumption.
“With a potential reach of over 3.1 billion players worldwide, game creators undoubtedly have potential to have a positive impact,” Microsoft said in the release. “These resources are designed to empower and enable developers to understand energy usage in their games and incorporate efficient strategies to help reduce the carbon impact of games.” The toolkit will include, for example, energy consumption averages for game areas like static menus and loading screens.
Some 60 years after the debut of the world’s first video game, the industry has grown into a $214 billion global juggernaut. With that growth comes an increased environmental impact — but one that can be difficult to quantify with precision, particularly as it varies widely by console, game and system setup.
Benjamin Abraham, a gaming decarbonisation advocate at Sydney-based consultancy AfterClimate, calls the Microsoft toolkit “quite a significant achievement” if it can show developers energy consumption in real time. “[Having] actual direct measurement and in real time could be a critical enabler of a whole host of climate-positive interventions,” he said.
Video games’ climate footprint starts with the tens of millions of consoles, cartridges and discs manufactured each year and shipped around the world.