All still to play for | Opinion

Sam Barratt – chief of youth, education and advocacy at the UN Environment Programme and co-founder of the Playing for the Planet Alliance – argues that the games industry has an important role to play in the climate agenda.

Solutions to complex and systemic crises often get “othered to others.” But what if we in the games industry can do far more than we think?

If you’re on this website, you already know that the number of people who play video games is big: three billion and rising. Combining these mega numbers with incentives around play, socialising, and active engagement with issues through gameplay gives this industry an edge that could allow it to out-compete the likes of TV, film, or music when it comes to education and action around climate change.

When Playing for the Planet started in 2019, one of its goals was to make decarbonisation and engaging players with the sustainability agenda a “default” setting for the video games industry. It was inspired by those already moving on this agenda, such as Jude Ower at Playmob and Trista Patterson, who at that time was at GRID-Arendal. Along with others, they went on to co-found Playing for the Planet.

Back in 2019, there were many exploring environmental themes in the industry, but it was disparate. Playing for the Planet has helped bring together a collaborative community that shares, learns, and aggregates its efforts around adding green themes and reducing carbon emissions. The challenge was not just to build a coalition, but to create one that was ambitious and resilient to fluctuations of interest.

The recent Playing for the Planet Green Games Summit showed what games can do for nature in terms of education and leadership, with developers like Wooga and TreesPlease Games picking up awards for their work. But games can also make an impact in the real-world, through investments in restoration and conservation. As a result of the Green Game Jam, millions of trees have been planted and hundreds of millions of players have been engaged.

Backed up by science

Connecting the latest science to the video games industry so that it can accurately portray reality is a key bridge that Playing for the Planet is building. Sony’s Climate Station does this well, bringing over 100 years of IPCC climate data into a game that is available for millions of PlayStation players to learn from.

We’re entering an era where the extreme weather events we feared for future generations are now realities for us – and the world of games can help people visualise futures that are otherwise difficult to imagine.

At the Green Games Summit, National Geographic Explorer Dr Tom Matthews shared how Hurricane Melissa has essentially scalped the landscape of Jamaica. He explained that recent snowfall at the top of the Himalayas has smashed all previous records at 22 feet deep, over three times higher than what has been seen before. His message was clear: what is about to come will be a challenge for our imaginations. But if we can’t anticipate and visualise what is coming, then it is harder to prepare – which is where video games can help.

And there is now evidence to show that games can make a difference. While most people in the games sector believe that video games have the power to positively educate and activate players, the evidence to back up such a claim with behavioural outcomes has been thin on the ground. But new research presented at the Green Games Summit by behavioural scientists from the University of Oxford opened the eyes of the audience to what is possible.

Professor Stefania Innocenti has spent the past three years exploring how games can genuinely change player behaviour, particularly around food choice. Working with Media Molecule, her team designed four versions of a game to test how environmental and social messages affected food choices, then measured the results through a simulated online supermarket used by over 4,000 players. The findings were striking: players exposed to “green” game versions bought 20% more sustainable items than those in the control group – without losing any detraction in playing the game.

While the study highlighted that anything that was overly obvious and not in keeping with the game mechanic carries the risk of pushback from the community, it offers compelling evidence that well-designed games can influence real-world decisions, reinforcing their potential as powerful tools for change.

If not us, then who?

The games industry has suffered extreme turbulence, with cutbacks, studio closures, and an ever lengthening list of game cancellations. But amid all this, the commitment to building a greener, cleaner industry has remained largely intact. What is also positive is that other creative and cultural sectors initiatives such as the Music for Climate Pact or Albert in TV and film are starting to reach out and swap notes and ideas.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has facilitated leadership within the games sector, mowing the pitch and painting the lines for others to play on. At Playing for the Planet, what we have seen in the last six years with some 60 games businesses of all sizes has been encouraging, with the industry willing to collaborate with others, adopting and building on their best practices.

“We might be able to build a tipping point of positive action”

Efforts such as sustainability toolkits and emissions-reducing eco modes for gaming platforms have helped to move the whole industry forward. However, with AI and other technology innovations coming online, the industry’s carbon intensity could grow, so more action around energy efficiency is urgently needed.

But the positive news is that research is starting to confirm that studios can mobilise their communities to play a role in conserving and preserving the planet. With a concerted effort, we might be able to build a tipping point of positive action for this one and only planet that we call home.

“Are we the people we have been waiting for?” is a phrase that has stuck with me following the Green Game Summit. Because if not us, then who?