Today's Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 event included a brief appearance from the one and only Phil Spencer! The head of Xbox joined the stage to accept an award for "Green Studio of the Year".
Here's what Spencer had to say:
"I'm accepting this award on behalf of an incredible team at Xbox that has worked very hard to put tools in the hands of developers to allow them to see the impact of their code on the energy draw of the consoles. We do this so that we can all play while we continue to make the world a more sustainable place."
In finding a winner for the award, the Playing for the Planet Alliance looked for "bold, system-changing, innovative and creative ways to tackle the climate crisis", stating that "all nominees this year (Xbox, Ubisoft, Frontier Developments) have done an amazing job".
"The way we win on climate change is to stop emissions from happening in the first place, and that's exactly what this year's award winner is actively trying to do."
Phil Spencer also took to Twitter following the event to share a few more thoughts:
The official Xbox Wire website summed up Xbox's sustainability efforts as follows:
"Earlier this year, we announced that Xbox is the first console to release dedicated energy and carbon emissions measurement tools designed for (and with) game creators, The Xbox Sustainability Toolkit. We also became the first console to offer Carbon Aware game downloads and software updates.
Game creators want to make a difference, and the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit provides data, case studies and actionable steps to empower any creator to achieve significant energy savings with small development efforts. Additionally, our console updates help players keep doing what they love, playing, at a lower cost to the environment and their energy bills.
When everyone takes steps to reduce energy and emissions, everyone on the planet wins."