Sustainability and How Game Creators Can Play Their Part — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:10hello everyone thank you so much for
2. 0:13joining us today my name is trista
3. 0:15patterson i'm director for gaming
4. 0:17sustainability at xbox and i'm
5. 0:20accompanied by my esteemed colleague dan
6. 0:22jacobs who is program manager
7. 0:24extraordinaire for sustainability at
8. 0:27xbox today we're going to talk about
9. 0:29sustainability and how game creators can
10. 0:31play their part
11. 0:33the
12. 0:34way in which we are going to go
13. 0:36through all of these topics is to talk
14. 0:39about first the xbox sustainability
15. 0:41commitments
16. 0:42what our user research shows about what
17. 0:45the gaming community wants
18. 0:48what projects are underway across xbox
19. 0:51and if you're a game developer or
20. 0:52publisher wondering what you can do the
21. 0:54answer is a lot find out more with us
22. 0:58and i want you to specifically listen
23. 1:00for there's three groups that are really
24. 1:02active in game development not just in
25. 1:05xbox but across the developing community
26. 1:07worldwide and this these are places
27. 1:09where everyone can get involved
28. 1:11regardless of their skills or
29. 1:13experiences regardless of their
30. 1:15backgrounds and talents there's place
31. 1:16for everyone and we hope you'll come
32. 1:18along
33. 1:20with the next slide i'm going to talk
34. 1:22about why there's a sustainability talk
35. 1:25and if you're here it's because you
36. 1:27already know and are aware perhaps
37. 1:30concerned about different sustainability
38. 1:32elements whether it's climate or waste
39. 1:35or water or the way in which all of
40. 1:38these things have come into play habitat
41. 1:41biodiversity in your daily lives and so
42. 1:43on and this is something that you can
43. 1:46also create new experiences and be able
44. 1:49to integrate all of these concerns in
45. 1:52the way in which you're approaching game
46. 1:54development and get joined up with
47. 1:56others who are working on the same
48. 1:59with
49. 2:00awareness it's a special place for the
50. 2:02way in which we have the ability to
51. 2:05influence in the gaming community you
52. 2:08can see that we've chosen some of the
53. 2:09keywords from 343 and halo in the values
54. 2:13of hope and heroism and wonder and
55. 2:16community all of these things that are
56. 2:18really lit up with the gaming experience
57. 2:21and problem solving
58. 2:23and there's efficiency
59. 2:25if you're thinking about moving into
60. 2:28energy efficiency in game development
61. 2:30whether it's in engineering of hardware
62. 2:33or software or bringing up these topics
63. 2:35and narratives in game development this
64. 2:38area you have a bright future ahead it's
65. 2:41one of the fastest areas of jobs
66. 2:44creation in game development that i'm
67. 2:46aware of and it's one of those those
68. 2:49topics that is increasingly opening
69. 2:51opportunity time and time again
70. 2:53it's also a pioneering place because the
71. 2:56sustainability front is constantly
72. 2:59evolving and it's evolving in lock step
73. 3:01with the greatest technological advances
74. 3:04applied to the greatest challenges in
75. 3:07human history it means that because in
76. 3:10the past many of these game narratives
77. 3:12have never included all of these
78. 3:14challenges it leads to a vast space of
79. 3:18creativity and collaboration for you as
80. 3:20a developer and lots of people are
81. 3:22really getting excited about this and
82. 3:25that's true also of our gaming community
83. 3:27who can then leverage all of these
84. 3:29wonderful games that you create and turn
85. 3:31it into rewarding gaming experiences for
86. 3:33them
87. 3:34and that's part of the behavior element
88. 3:36we know that that
89. 3:38gaming intersects with all areas of our
90. 3:41lives and gaming is also
91. 3:44play is also a sustainability engine for
92. 3:48change it keeps things positive it
93. 3:50allows us to activate
94. 3:52all areas of our brain not just the
95. 3:55logical ones but also the emotional ones
96. 3:57and helps us create connectivity with
97. 3:59others who are engaged in the same
98. 4:01challenges as we are
99. 4:03together working with cognitive
100. 4:05psychologists and the way in which user
101. 4:07interface creates areas of agency and
102. 4:10action we can create rewards for gamers
103. 4:14all across the board not just related to
104. 4:16direct sustainability activity and but
105. 4:19all in the gaming experience but also in
106. 4:22their daily choices whether that's
107. 4:24choosing renewable energy at home having
108. 4:27conversations with friends choosing
109. 4:29greener products and so on the
110. 4:31possibilities are truly endless
111. 4:35let's turn now to some of the more
112. 4:36technical topics and we're going to talk
113. 4:39right now about carbon footprinting
114. 4:42if you haven't gone in depth into the
115. 4:46the carbon footprinting experience there
116. 4:48are guides and assistance available for
117. 4:51you one guide i'll point out right now
118. 4:53is the yuki green game guide and that
119. 4:56has a stepwise illustration of all of
120. 4:59the ways in which you can think about
121. 5:00the carbon footprint to you as a
122. 5:03developer and also your studio and some
123. 5:05steps of how you can get started as well
124. 5:08as some communities you can hook up with
125. 5:09in order to make the fastest progress or
126. 5:12identify the lowest hanging fruit
127. 5:16when we think about emissions microsoft
128. 5:19has talked about its commitment to by
129. 5:222030 aiming for these moonshot goals and
130. 5:26those are engaging the highest
131. 5:28technology and all of the workforce
132. 5:30toward achieving carbon negative water
133. 5:34positive zero waste and protecting more
134. 5:37land that is used by 2025.
135. 5:39it's really notable to think about the
136. 5:42ambition of the carbon goals in
137. 5:44particular because that includes not
138. 5:46just by 2030 being carbon negative but
139. 5:49then by 2050
140. 5:52sequestering all of the carbon that has
141. 5:54been emitted by microsoft since company
142. 5:57inception in the 1970s
143. 6:00so as a consequence you can see how
144. 6:02transformative these goals are we have a
145. 6:04vision of success and as a consequence
146. 6:08it's really crucial that we engage all
147. 6:09of you in being able to actualize on
148. 6:12those goals
149. 6:14this diagram on the right illustrates
150. 6:16the three different scopes of emissions
151. 6:19the dark blue arrow in the middle
152. 6:21illustrates all the direct
153. 6:24emissions from
154. 6:25microsoft and xbox
155. 6:27activities
156. 6:29under are that are being emitted from
157. 6:31our owned infrastructure
158. 6:34scope 2 refers to all of the indirect
159. 6:37emissions that occur from electricity
160. 6:40purchased and used from that owned
161. 6:42infrastructure that's the gray half
162. 6:44circle on the left hand side of the
163. 6:45diagram and then scope three is all of
164. 6:47the indirect emissions that are
165. 6:49occurring from sources not owned by
166. 6:52microsoft or xbox what that means is all
167. 6:56of those services and infrastructures
168. 6:58that occur upstream of xbox so that can
169. 7:02be in production or mining of materials
170. 7:05or in transport of materials
171. 7:08to
172. 7:09to our manufacturers
173. 7:10or
174. 7:11downstream that right hand side of the
175. 7:14diagram and the bright blue there
176. 7:16everything that happens once the product
177. 7:18line leaves xbox so that is in transport
178. 7:21of the materials to the purchaser or to
179. 7:25what happens in emissions when gamers
180. 7:27are playing in their homes or what
181. 7:30happens in
182. 7:31what happens with the missions when a
183. 7:34gamer discards of their product are they
184. 7:37able to figure out with our help best
185. 7:40possible practices for uptake and reuse
186. 7:43of that material
187. 7:44and also responsible
188. 7:46responsible recycling practices
189. 7:48microsoft has a mailbag
190. 7:51program right now that dan is going to
191. 7:52be talking to you about which is one of
192. 7:55those ways which you can can responsibly
193. 7:57dispose of your your device
194. 8:00with the next slide we're going to talk
195. 8:02about what we currently know about
196. 8:05customer research and gamers
197. 8:09right now one of the things that's
198. 8:11challenging is that we're still looking
199. 8:12at at sustainability from a fairly
200. 8:15limited lens of all of the different
201. 8:17actions that gamers can take place on
202. 8:19the right is one of is a list of the
203. 8:21most common actions listed by gamers
204. 8:24whether it's downloading games instead
205. 8:26of using physical disk unplugging or
206. 8:29using power strips when you're not using
207. 8:31them trading in games to reduce waste or
208. 8:34changing the settings in order to
209. 8:37use less power that can be some really
210. 8:39important places
211. 8:41we can all minimize impacts to the
212. 8:43gaming experience while we still make
213. 8:45significant sustainable strides toward
214. 8:49forwards
215. 8:50and together xbox and microsoft have
216. 8:52understood that this is not a burden to
217. 8:55be placed on the shoulders of developers
218. 8:58but hand in hand we can create the tools
219. 9:01the data the interfaces that help you do
220. 9:04more with all of the
221. 9:06the experiences and understanding that
222. 9:09you have and do so in such a way that
223. 9:11also offers the most
224. 9:14the kind of world-class gaming
225. 9:16experience that people have come to
226. 9:17expect from xbox
227. 9:20at xbox we're gaming we're aiming high
228. 9:23and we can do this best when we do this
229. 9:25together right now games reach between
230. 9:282.5 and 3 billion players across the
231. 9:32planet and the best collective impact we
232. 9:35can have is at scale
233. 9:37inspiration in games can translate to
234. 9:40real world action there's a sense of
235. 9:42purpose and path forward around which we
236. 9:45can unite already at xbox we've heard
237. 9:47from 75 percent of our german and u.s
238. 9:50gamers surveyed want gaming companies to
239. 9:52make more specific statements about
240. 9:55their ga their sustainability efforts
241. 9:57and also show the ways in which
242. 9:59developers and gamers alike can take
243. 10:02action on the issues that gamers care
244. 10:04most about
245. 10:05as game developers you are in a
246. 10:08remarkable place to have the ability to
247. 10:11tap into the brains of all ages and
248. 10:14execute with creativity reward and
249. 10:17discovery on creating a shared
250. 10:19experience that is better both for each
251. 10:22of our gamers to you as developers and
252. 10:25radiate out all of these impacts all
253. 10:27across the world to create a better
254. 10:29future
255. 10:30right now i'm going to hand off to my
256. 10:32colleague dan he's going to tell you
257. 10:33about the in-depth details of all the
258. 10:36different ways in which we are offering
259. 10:38the sustainability experience across the
260. 10:40business groups at xbox and then also
261. 10:43different ways in which you can get
262. 10:44involved dan i'll hand it to you
263. 10:47thank you trista yes my name is daniel
264. 10:49jacobs as you heard at the start and i'm
265. 10:52also a gaming sustainability pm here in
266. 10:54xbox
267. 10:56so we want to be as transparent as
268. 10:58possible during this presentation and
269. 11:00given that xbox is making major
270. 11:02investments in the sustainability space
271. 11:05i wanted to take a couple of minutes
272. 11:07exploring how our sustainability project
273. 11:10is built inside gaming now maybe you can
274. 11:12reflect these ideas in your own
275. 11:14organization
276. 11:16so if we go clockwise from the top of
277. 11:18the screen uh both trista and i sit in
278. 11:21xps top right
279. 11:23and our initial task was to help
280. 11:25assemble carbon accounting tooling to
281. 11:28track the progress of gaming towards
282. 11:30carbon negative
283. 11:31now without the correct reporting in
284. 11:33place you obviously can't monitor our
285. 11:35progress
286. 11:36now these same tools provide incentives
287. 11:38for other groups inside xbox because it
288. 11:41gives them a way to better understand
289. 11:44their trajectory and return on
290. 11:46investments for their products and their
291. 11:48projects rather
292. 11:50now although reporting is always a work
293. 11:52in progress we are getting there bit by
294. 11:54bit and before she asked yes we are
295. 11:57planning how we can expose game
296. 11:59sustainability telemetry direct to
297. 12:02publishers and developers in that
298. 12:03self-service capacity
299. 12:05so next on the right side is geo who are
300. 12:09our third party publisher accounts team
301. 12:11now our friends in geo maintain the
302. 12:14relationship with all publishers and
303. 12:15developers including most of you in the
304. 12:18audience today
305. 12:19and you are on hand for any feedback
306. 12:21that you might have back to xbox now
307. 12:24marketing comms and social outreach at
308. 12:26the bottom are responsible for telling
309. 12:29our sustainability story so if you have
310. 12:31ideas for future sustainability
311. 12:33marketing collaboration between
312. 12:35yourselves and xbox these are the people
313. 12:37who would love to hear your ideas
314. 12:40xgs are obviously our studios who build
315. 12:43and release games and you'll hear a
316. 12:44little more later on from what the
317. 12:46outreach and educational narratives that
318. 12:49some of these studios have already been
319. 12:51weaving into their games
320. 12:52we also have other studios preparing to
321. 12:55tell their sustainability stories and
322. 12:57participate more with the un led
323. 13:01playing for the planet alliance
324. 13:03we'll discuss that more later and the
325. 13:05penultimate team here is gxp and gxp are
326. 13:09the engineering teams who build our
327. 13:11hardware and software and perhaps
328. 13:13leverage our reporting the most
329. 13:15now they are hard at work finding new
330. 13:17and exciting ways to lower our usage and
331. 13:20manufacturing carbon footprint with
332. 13:21constant innovations you might have
333. 13:23already heard of energy saver mode on
334. 13:25the console the low energy standby mode
335. 13:27for all consoles that was pushed out
336. 13:29earlier this year
337. 13:31well gxp are the ones who build that
338. 13:33feature and they're also pursuing many
339. 13:35other improvements such as big changes
340. 13:38in recyclability across our devices and
341. 13:40packaging and last but not least on this
342. 13:43slide is xcloud and game streaming which
343. 13:45is powered by microsoft azure cloud
344. 13:48services
345. 13:50now team x clouds are hard at work
346. 13:52understanding the power and carbon
347. 13:54footprint from start point to end points
348. 13:57and it's a fun challenge because uh
349. 14:00xcloud servers are rather unique but
350. 14:02we're getting there and we still very
351. 14:04much have that commitment to have as
352. 14:05year services powered entirely by
353. 14:08renewable energy by 2025.
354. 14:11so let's jump on to the next slide now
355. 14:14there's a lot of content here but really
356. 14:16much of it are ideas you can consider
357. 14:18applying in your own business
358. 14:20now for context on the left
359. 14:22you can see that xbox's emissions are
360. 14:24almost entirely from the use of our sold
361. 14:27products with the production of our
362. 14:29devices filling up almost the rest well
363. 14:31filling up the rest of the emissions
364. 14:33footprint
365. 14:34now looking further into usage you can
366. 14:37almost you can see that gaming mode or
367. 14:39the gaming mode rather uses the most
368. 14:41power and therefore the most electricity
369. 14:43in our customers homes
370. 14:45so in xbox this is where the most of our
371. 14:47investment is going to improve
372. 14:50but what about developers and publishers
373. 14:52right well the good news is is we also
374. 14:54have tools available for you to assess
375. 14:56your own carbon footprint
376. 14:58now microsoft cloud for sustainability
377. 15:02is an extensible software as a service
378. 15:04solution that helps you record report
379. 15:08and reduce your organization's
380. 15:10environmental impact through what is
381. 15:12really called actually automated excuse
382. 15:15me uh automated data connections and
383. 15:18actionable insights
384. 15:19now all of this allows you to record
385. 15:21your emissions to understand your impact
386. 15:24so what about recyclability commitments
387. 15:26you know a lot of you have merchandise
388. 15:28for example
389. 15:29can you invest in more circular economy
390. 15:32now in contrast to the take make and
391. 15:35waste linear model
392. 15:36a circular economy is regenerative by
393. 15:38design and aims to gradually decouple
394. 15:42growth from the consumption of you know
395. 15:44finite resources
396. 15:45so there's some fantastic industry forms
397. 15:47also for you to join and learn more
398. 15:49which you can see to the right side of
399. 15:51the screen
400. 15:52now
401. 15:52you can see groups like the uk
402. 15:54interactive entertainment or group or
403. 15:57the international game developers
404. 15:59association and the climate special
405. 16:01interest group in that or the plane for
406. 16:03the planet alliance which is led by the
407. 16:05un
408. 16:06now all their content is out there on
409. 16:08the web to find that has lots of
410. 16:10education to jump straight into is an
411. 16:12entirely open for anyone to visit you
412. 16:14know maybe you can use this learn these
413. 16:16learnings to help you promote various
414. 16:18ecological events like earth day for
415. 16:20example
416. 16:21now the key takeaway from this slide is
417. 16:23that we all have our own unique
418. 16:24abilities and skills to help participate
419. 16:27so don't be intimidated because
420. 16:29resources are out there to help you
421. 16:32adopt new goals and commitments and have
422. 16:34the education to uh to get involved
423. 16:37okay so for the next slide probably
424. 16:39thinking about you know so dan give me
425. 16:41some actual real game examples
426. 16:43so we want to encourage you to consider
427. 16:45how you can also participate in
428. 16:47educating the world to help entertain
429. 16:49and educate
430. 16:51so with the examples on the screen
431. 16:52you'll see i picked two for microsoft
432. 16:54and one for our friends in ubisoft
433. 16:56now mojang obviously got minecraft have
434. 16:58built things like sustainability city
435. 17:01and climate futures
436. 17:02just taking climate futures it takes
437. 17:05players through a series of lessons
438. 17:07which focuses on a different set of
439. 17:09sustainable development goals and offers
440. 17:12students and players alike an
441. 17:13opportunity to build collaborative
442. 17:15solutions
443. 17:16now minecraft have partnered with
444. 17:18institutions like the met office here in
445. 17:20the uk uh unesco the wwf the nature
446. 17:24conservancy and lots more
447. 17:26and with more than 100 million downloads
448. 17:29of the education collection content in
449. 17:31minecraft in the first six months after
450. 17:33it's released it's safe to say there's a
451. 17:35strong appetite for this kind of content
452. 17:38so turn 10 and playground games in the
453. 17:40middle would be full forza also doing
454. 17:42something similar with electric cars in
455. 17:44the forza franchise
456. 17:46allowing gamers to enjoy the benefits of
457. 17:48electrical vehicles and improving their
458. 17:50discoverability
459. 17:52now there's a good time to also mention
460. 17:54that minecraft before i move on play a
461. 17:56large part in xbox's involvement with
462. 17:58the un facilitated playing for the
463. 18:00planet alliance which includes you know
464. 18:03numerous publishers and developers who
465. 18:05work to introduce what we call green
466. 18:07touches into gameplay
467. 18:09so on the subject of playing for the
468. 18:10planet
469. 18:11excuse me
470. 18:13they also have the green game jam and
471. 18:15the aim of the jam is for studios to
472. 18:17innovate on games with existing player
473. 18:20bases or those which are soon to be
474. 18:22released so in 2021 i think nearly 30
475. 18:25studios which includes some very big
476. 18:27names
477. 18:28ranging from pc console and mobile of
478. 18:30which xbox is a part of entered into
479. 18:33that jam and the winners are announced
480. 18:35across multiple categories so the winner
481. 18:37of the unex 2021 choice was a really
482. 18:40cool game from anno 1800
483. 18:42released by ubisoft mainz
484. 18:45now in anna 1800 it takes place in the
485. 18:48era of industrialization and players
486. 18:50interact with and take advantage of the
487. 18:53environment around them without
488. 18:54repercussion but to highlight the
489. 18:56importance of sustainability in the
490. 18:58interdependencies of ecosystems
491. 19:01the team introduced a new game mode
492. 19:03called eden burning with an upside down
493. 19:06game rules focused on these themes now
494. 19:09in this mode players were really cool it
495. 19:11was really cool how they were carefully
496. 19:13had to choose resources that they used
497. 19:16to build an industrial project whilst
498. 19:18preserving the natural ecosystem so
499. 19:21place decisions to use renewable or
500. 19:23non-renewable resources will directly
501. 19:25impact their environments fantastic
502. 19:27example delivered there by ubisoft
503. 19:30and then as we jump into the summary
504. 19:32slides to finish this all too brief
505. 19:34presentation um i just want to kind of
506. 19:36say that you know behind trista and i
507. 19:38and all of xbox that you know we just
508. 19:40want to impart that no matter how small
509. 19:42or large your influence in your
510. 19:44organization
511. 19:45you can absolutely make a difference you
512. 19:48know maybe you can be a pioneer or maybe
513. 19:50you can join a wider team but the first
514. 19:52step is always the hardest but there's
515. 19:54lots of resources out there to read and
516. 19:56get involved and if you want to learn
517. 19:58more about what xbox is doing or you
518. 20:01want to offer suggestions or you want to
519. 20:03log requests for how we can help you
520. 20:05either at a technical level or a game
521. 20:07narrative level then please do get in
522. 20:10touch and we'd love to hear what you
523. 20:11have to say
524. 20:12so thank you for that and goodbye
525. 20:21you