Climate deniers are lashing out against Sony for trying to use less power in the PlayStation 5.
First of all, climate change is real and it will eventually lead to catastrophic changes in the environment. We’re not going to debate this point because the finest scientific minds the world over already came to this conclusion checks watch about 15 years ago. The fact there is still a debate at all is probably the reason why speeches by climate activist Greta Thunberg are just getting angrier and angrier.
And she should be angry. It’s her generation’s lives that will be cut short if climate change continues at its current rate.
Although world governments are still dragging their feet on climate change, game makers seem to be taking climate change at least a little seriously. At the UN Climate Conference earlier this week, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that the next generation console they make will be even more energy-efficient than the PlayStation 4.
In a statement on Sony’s blog, they noted that the PS4 is already a triumph of technology when it comes to saving energy. The PS4 is able to reduce its power consumption thanks to “utilizing efficient technologies such as System-on-a-Chip architecture integrating a high-performance graphics processor, die shrink, power scaling, as well as energy-saving modes such as Suspend-to-RAM.”
Sony estimates that the PS4 has already prevented the emission of 16 million metric tons of CO2, with that number rising to 29 million metric tons over the next 10 years.
The PlayStation 5 will be even better thanks to a low-power suspension mode that uses just 0.5 Watts. Sony says that if 1 million consoles enable this feature, it will save the equivalent average power of 1,000 US homes.
Which is great news. Lower power consumption means lower energy bills for players and less noise from fans thanks to less heat generated. However, some idiots are so in love with denying climate change that they’re lashing out at Sony as though they’re doing something wrong.
The largest complaint seemed to conflate power usage with graphical power, even though the two aren’t actually related. Although a few users had excellent points and noted that low-power mode is still not no-power mode, which uses zero Watts (and is also known as simply turning the console off).
Sony also plans to tackle climate change by performing a carbon footprint assessment along with trying to teach gamers about climate change. At least Sony is buying into the facts, even if some of their fans aren’t.
