Kotaku: Environment

Homefront PR Stunt Backfires, Ends In Fine

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:40:00 EST

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Back in March, PR firm TrashTalkFCM thought it'd be a good idea to promote upcoming shooter Homefront by releasing a ton of balloons. It wasn't. More »

Meet the Heroes of Okabu

Sam Winstrom — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:00 EDT

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Okabu knows it's not easy being green, but they sure do make it look appealing. More »

No More Manuals as EA Sports Goes Green

Owen Good — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EDT

This is the last printed manual you'll ever see for an EA Sports game. The publisher has joined Ubisoft in releasing games without an instruction booklet, and will instead include a version of instructions that gamers may page through from within the game. More »

Harrison Ford Helps Create Eco-Friendly Facebook Game

Mike Fahey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST

The man that brought Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and countless important men with kidnapped families to life takes a stab at game design, helping game studio Talkie create Ecotopia, a Facebook city building game that's all about going green. More »

A Tower Defense Game With A Climate Change Twist

Mike Fahey — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST

By the time it really hits you that flash-based tower defense game Rizk is actually teaching you about climate change, you might be enjoying yourself too much to care. More »

Consoles From Cashews?

Mike Fahey — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EDT

It may sound nuts, but a new bioplastic being developed by Japan's NEC Corp. using cashews could change the way electronics are manufactured in the future. More »

James Cameron Is Earth's Official Spokesperson

Mike Fahey — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:30:00 EDT

After showing us through the magic of 3D how human beings could potentially screw up an entirely new planet, James Cameron has signed on with NASA to help show how the agency is keeping us from screwing up our own. More »

Who Killed the Solar Console?

Owen Good — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:20:00 EDT

Three years ago someone built a solar-powered video game console. It was a novelty. You couldn't really say it was ahead of its time, because that assumes such a time will come. More »

Nintendo's Weird Environmental Tips

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:40:00 EDT

If you play the Nintendo DS puzzle game Picross 3D long enough, you unearth some advice about how to be more eco-friendly. But the advice is a little weird. Have a look. More »

Nintendo Can't Quit You, Instruction Manuals

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:30:00 EDT

It seems we may have been a little premature in declaring the death of the printed manual, with one of the world's biggest publishers going on record saying that there's life left in the printed word yet. More »

IBM Builds Its Own SimCity Game

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:30:00 EDT

Computing giant IBM will later today unveil CityOne, which is basically SimCity, except IBM made it instead of EA, and the focus is on sustainable cities instead of rampaging UFOs and reticulated splines. More »

Games, And Their Impact On The Environment

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:30:00 EDT

A great report over on GamePro today takes a look at the environmental impact of the video game industry. Those yearning for a brighter future (and can take solace in incremental improvements), you'll like what you see. More »

'Green' Cases Don't Do Much for Greenpeace Rankings

Owen Good — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:30:00 EST

Doesn't look like cutting a bunch of plastic out of the standard game cases did much for anyone's Greenpeace ratings. The environmental advocacy group released its quarterly rankings of electronics companies, again tsk-tsking Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. More »

Here's Nintendo's Enviro-Friendly Game Case [Update]

Owen Good — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST

The TIE Fighter-Wing looking "green" game cases have been out for Xbox 360 since most November releases. Go Nintendo has an image of what they'll look like for Wii games, beginning with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. More »

Oil Giant Greener than Activision, Says Newsweek

Owen Good — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Measuring the 500 largest corporations in America, Newsweek found no video game maker in the top 100 and even rated Activision behind environmental bogeyman ExxonMobil. More »

Spot The Greenest Packaging

Stephen Totilo — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:40:52 EDT

Three console manufactures. Microsoft. Nintendo. Sony. Three ways of packaging the cards sold in GameStop that contain redemption codes for points used on the consoles' online stores. Which one do you think the planet likes best? Get a closer look: More »

Greenpeace Turns PS3, Wii, 360 Into Spokesmen Against Toxicity in Consoles

Brian Crecente — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Greenpeace today released three videos to highlight what they say is the presence of "highly toxic substances" in video game consoles. More »

Greenpeace Once Again Gives Nintendo Low Marks

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Every year that Greenpeace releases its "Guide to Greener Electronics", one company is always at the bottom. That company is Nintendo. More »

Recycle Your Old Consoles At Best Buy

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:30:00 EST

Sometimes, if you're quick enough, you can trade in an old console for something useful. Like money. But other times, you let them gather dust so long they're nigh on worthless. More »

Energy Star To Release Eco-Specs For Game Consoles

Stuart Houghton — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:20:00 EDT

As you know, Bob, Energy Star is a joint initiative of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy tasked with setting guidelines for energy efficiency. There is probably an Energy Star Logo on your computer somewhere, unless you live in the 1980s. More »

Walmart Suggests Cardboard Packaging, Save Games

Mike Fahey — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:30:00 EDT

The official Walmart Check Out blog has an interesting story today about a "green gaming summit" they've just concluded, which featured officials from Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Electronic Arts, and Activision, where they discussed game console power consumption and the wasteful use of plastics in packaging. Did you know that there were around 101 Million games sold in plastic cases last year, which translates into green house gas emissions equal to over 9,000 cars? Apparently we're killing the planet, and Walmart had some helpful suggestions on how to stop our vile murder spree. Among them, using cardboard for packaging instead of plastic, working with console manufacturers to bring down power consumption, and this little gem: More »

The Failings of 'Serious Games': Packaging Man

Maggie Greene — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Ian Bogost has a short little note on a 'serious game' called Packaging Man, which was apparently intended 'to raise awareness about the destructive impact fast food paper packaging has on Southern forests.' Unfortunately for Dogwood Alliance, the creator, the game is a slightly retooled version of Pac-man, and the 'environmental message' seems confined to the (skippable) intro. Ian wasn't terribly impressed: More »

Your Game Consoles Have Hazardous Chemicals!

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:00:00 EDT

Nintendo used to be bad for the environment. Now? Just sorta bad! Last year, Greenpeace singled the Kyoto-based game maker by giving it the lowest score in its "Guide to Greener Electronics" had ever awarded to a company — a 0/10. Part of the reason for this dubious honor was that Nintendo failed to provide any data about its environmental standards. Nintendo issued a response, and Greenpeace still wasn't satisfied. (In comparison, Microsoft got a 2.7/10 and Sony got a 7.3/10). Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpeace's International Toxic Campaign co-ordinator points out: More »

Green Gaming To Save Your Conscience, If Not The Planet

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:30:00 EDT

Care about the environment? Course you do. Post-apocalyptic words are fun to roleplay in, not so fun to actually live in. So how can you, as a gamer, cut down on your impact on this precious little planet of ours? 1UP's Lara Crigger has some suggestions, and while some are a little fiddly (like upgrading to "green" components), others you should be able to manage, including setting your PC to sleep mode more often and actually turning your console and TV off, instead of leaving them on standby. More »

Glupod - A Game About Saving Real Lives

Mike Fahey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:20:29 EST

We've seen plenty of flash games and indie games that address the issue of world hunger and the environment, but Ioannis Tsiokos of Athens Greece and Something, Inc. are launching a game that lets you do something about it. Glupod, which launches May 30th worldwide, is a casual online game where players choose a birdlike creature called a glupod, choose a child or cause to sponsor, and then compete against players from around the world for a currency called glucs, which can be recycled into real money and support for your sponsored cause. It sounds sort of like NeoPets, only with a purpose.

"A Glupod gamer has a real purpose and a human mission," says Ioannis, managing director and co-founder of Something Inc. "Glupod is more than a game. It's a simple, fun way to do good that anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can participate in."

Nintendo Responds to Greenpeace, Greenpeace Not Satisfied

Mark Wilson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:21:13 EST

Not so long ago, Nintendo was singled out by Greenpeace's sixth annual Guide to Greener Electronics. Sure, they were amongst friends like Microsoft and Sony on the graph, but Nintendo was the only company to score a whopping 0 out of 100. Greenpeace felt justified giving Nintendo the lowest score in history by pointing out that Nintendo fails to publish their environmental standards. More »

EA & BP Add Global Warming Threat To SimCity

Mike Fahey — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:40:52 EDT

Here's a fun new addition to the upcoming SimCity Societies game. EA and BP have teamed up to include climate education in the game...effectively adding the looming threat of global warming to the title. Hooray! While the game doesn't force you to power your city in any specific way, using cheaper, carbon dioxide producing sources of energy will raise the town's carbon ratings, causing disasters like droughts, heat waves, and the like. Alternatively, choosing from a variety of BP Alternative Energy low-carbon power options like hydrogen, natural gas, wind farms and solar power, players keep their cities safe from harm and feel all warm and fuzzy about themselves while learning about some of the causes and consequences of global warming, which may or may not exist depending on your viewpoint. BP was one of the first major energy companies to publicly acknowledge the need to reduce carbon emissions and begin taking precautionary measures, as well as being the world's number one source for food cooked on rollers. More »

Chibi Robo Shows His True Colors (and They're Green)

Brian Crecente — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:00:21 EDT

I bet you thought Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol was just a fun adaptation of a carefree Gamecube franchise: WRONG! In fact the DS game that hit Wal-Mart stores today is the "one of the first games based on the growing environmental movement." More »