Physical games are worse for the environment than digital games. It almost certainly won't surprise you. What may shock you is how much more damage you are doing to the planet by choosing to buy a physical copy of a new game rather than a digital one.
A study conducted by carbon accounting firm Greenly and shared by GamesIndustry.biz, called The Carbon Footprint of Gaming, found that physical gaming is more than 100 times worse for the planet than digital gaming. This is due to the production of the materials needed to make a game and the transportation required to ship that game around the world.
Each physical game emits the same amount of CO2 as 100 digital games.
Studies estimate that producing one million discs produces a whopping 312 tons of carbon dioxide. By comparison, the production process required to create one million digital games produces only three games, leading the report to conclude that physical games are more than 100 times worse for the planet than digital releases.
You might think that digital games produce zero carbon emissions, but that's not entirely true. 3 tonnes per million games downloaded depends largely on the power required to power the data servers from which the games are downloaded. Not to mention the extra energy you'll use at home when you download games.
But as the numbers show, the environmental impact of digital games is nowhere near the impact that physical games have on the planet. As also noted in the report, there is no additional risk of contributing to the planet's growing landfill problem if you purchase digitally. On the other hand, millions of discs and plastic cases sold end up in landfills over the years.
The takeaway from all of this, even though we may not want to, is that we're forced to give up on physical games and instead only buy them from digital stores. But that's not the case. The message Greenly hopes to convey through his findings is that we, consumers, and perhaps more importantly, the studios that make games, need to make a concerted effort to revive the used game market.
Unfortunately, the used video game market has been damaged by the advent of game key cards and, in some cases, physical releases that do not include a copy of the game at all. If your card contains a one-time download, or the server that requires you to download the disc is no longer active, you cannot sell that physical game because the person purchasing it will not have access to it. That almost certainly won't change. What's more likely to be the endgame is that, like movies or music, actual video game releases become increasingly rare until they eventually cease to exist.
