Xbox Update aims to help console owners reduce their carbon footprint

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A new update sent to Xbox Insiders today aims to help console owners participate in reducing carbon emissions while their consoles are shut down or running scheduled updates and maintenance.

Announced in an Xbox Wire post, Xbox Insiders’ Xbox Series X and S consoles will automatically be upgraded to the “Power Off (Energy Saver)” power option. Microsoft claims this update reduces power consumption by up to 20x while the console is off without impacting performance. “Remote wake” will not be available while the Xboxes in this setting are turned off, although all other remote features will remain available when the console is turned on.

In this mode, Xbox consoles that are turned on and connected to the Internet will also use available regional carbon intensity data to schedule regular maintenance and other updates during times when more renewable energy is available on the network. For Windows users, this feature is very similar to the one that launched in Windows 11 last year.

A similar feature will also roll out to Xbox One owners, though opening Shutdown (Power Saver) will presumably cause a slower boot time on the older system.

Finally, Xbox Insiders will also start to see a new “active hours” setting that will allow them to choose when their consoles will boot up quickly and be available for remote wakeup – outside of that window, the Xbox will automatically shut down. if not in use. Series X and S owners will have active hours automatically enabled when this update rolls out based on previous usage time, while Xbox One owners will automatically be set to “always on” until manually adjusted.

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For now, these features are only available to Xbox Insiders, but Microsoft has promised that the feature will be open to all other console owners at a later date.

Microsoft has been moving towards carbon neutrality in recent years, joining the Playing for the Planet Alliance in 2019 and pledging carbon negativity, water positivity, and zero waste by 2030.

Rebekah Valentine is a reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

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