Digital game downloads are worse for the environment than Blu-ray discs

There is nothing we can do in life anymore without leaving a footprint. I however think this article leaves a lot to be desired.

Yes, Anna you are on top of that one. They skew their argument to guilt trip people attributing the download time as increasing your carbon footprint. Seriously are we to swallow the notion if we are not downloading a game the computer is off? Please, it's just another attempt to sell their fraud based upon "Doctored" unproven science. The tipoff is shown in the last paragraph.

"If you’re (perhaps overly) environmentally conscientious and worried about the carbon footprint your gaming hobby will have on this planet, you might want to stick to physical retail purchases for now. If you’re all-in on the digital revolution but still feel guilty about (barely) negatively impacting the environment, you can purchase some carbon offsets from us here at ExtremeTech and we’ll stop downloading bad games when we’re bored."

Right, after we guilt you the gamer can redeem themselves by paying them for carbon credits bought from them.

All this addresses is carbon emissions... a very simplistic and misleading conclusion. Where are the SOx and NOx calculations involved in the electricity need to manufacture the discs? Where are the Solid Waste calculations in the disposal issues? From a environmental waste website:

Analysts estimate that American consumers buy about a billion compact discs (CDs) every year, most which eventually end up in landfills or incinerators. Since CDs are a mix of polycarbonate, plastic and aluminum, they don’t easily break down and are not easily recycled. They are also not biodegradable, so they won’t break down in landfills. And when incinerated they release toxic fumes into the air.

As a field inspector, I used to regulate this stuff. A carbon footprint is just the tip of the so-called iceberg.

You do realize they're kidding, right?
They're just looking for an excuse not to download bad games.

I get very tired of hearing the assertion that global warming is man-made from carbon emissions.

I would seriously ask the politically correct brigade which holds this view, "How did the Ice Age come to an end?; do you think it was due to the emissions from Fred Flinstone's and Barney Rubble's motor cars?"

Love and Peace to All. I'm now off to hug a tree

Bernie

Were did "Donald" go

Just an observation but why first start this Topic and then just "hide" ?

To be honest the title and what it says is just ........... (as been stated by others)

I can only see this as a prank

Cheers

Donald has been here for years and regularly shares articles he finds interesting so others can see. He doesn't generally participate in discussions and it isn't because he is hiding, we just all have different personalities.

Okey BrownEyedTigre "mystery solved"

Thanks for your input.

Cheers

French philosopher Pascal Bruckner jokingly calls carbon footprint the new original sin, because whatever you do, you are guilty of it
I guess it's true for computer games too.

Jenny it is really hard to tell if these politically correct robots are kidding or not. Their whole religion is based upon falsified science. Who can believe a word they say? The entire article read like pandering to the true believers. Some here have pointed out they intentionally omitted components that contribute to the "problem" and disproves their argument. The whole report is the real joke. Unfortunately, low information true believers won't question it. Fortunately, many here saw through the fraud of their submission. Now if you can believe the entire article was written intentionally as a joke that's one thing. I submit that when the PC crowd states something like this the backup plan for when they are caught out is always, "we were kidding."

Is your problem with the ExtremeTech article or the original study?
The original study doesn't pretend it's about anything other than "carbon emissions." They tell you exactly what they looked at, and problems with estimation, so you can decide for yourself whether their conclusions about carbon emissions have any merit.

The ExtremeTech article had an inflated "attention-getter" headline that overstated the scope of the original study.
Then toward the end of their article they included a self-promoting line saying

"Read our featured story: I went all-digital with the PS4 and loved it – RIP physical media"

and an obviously tongue-in-cheek remark about buying ExtremeTech offsets at the end -- which of course none of their readers would do -- especially not for such a silly reason as "stopping them from downloading bad games when they're bored."

It's pretty obvious the people at ExtremeTech aren't too concerned about carbon footprint and games.

According to ***this article*** there is a Kieren Meyers who is "Environmental Manager at Sony Entertainment Systems, a company that strongly supports the individual producer responsibility (IPR) principle..." If this is the same Kieren Meyers who was the lead author of the ***article in Journal of Industrial Ecology***, the study may have been commissioned by Sony Entertainment -- and that may explain why it focussed on PS3 games and not computer games or movies.