Fossil fuel interests are among us
Your latest digest of video game and climate change news from the past two weeks.
Welcome to the latest edition of Play Anthropocene!
Today is Tuesday, April 18, and we’re covering the latest developments in the world of video games and climate change. Happy reading!
P.S. Play Anthropocene will be disrupting its regular two-week programming to give this hapless writer a mini Spring break from news-lettering (not that kind of Spring break) as we head into May.
All going well, the next time you’ll find me in your inbox will be Tuesday, May 16. Hope to see you then!
Oil be damned: Saudi Arabia wants to become a video games hub
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported on the Saudi Arabian government’s concerted moves into the video games industry, as it expects to invest $38 billion (via subsidiary Savvy Games Group) into development, publishing, eSports, and studio acquisition across the sector, with the hopes of becoming a “global entertainment hub” by 2030.
Media coverage of this activity has, rightly, focused on Saudi Arabia’s troubling human rights record, and whether the games industry ought to indirectly associate itself with that. However, for this week’s Play Anthropocene, I wanted to also consider another cause for concern surrounding this development; namely, the country’s continued efforts to obstruct climate action in favour of global fossil fuel expansion.
Interestingly, Bloomberg’s report states that Saudi Arabia’s investment is part of a wider effort to diversify its economy as it transitions away from oil, and it’s certainly true that - domestically - the country is developing beyond oil-dependency. However, its existing government still hopes to sell and promote the burning of oil around the globe, using its political and economic influence to undermine the voices of climate science that stress the need for a full transition to renewable alternatives.
At COP27 last year, Saudi Arabia was a key player in removing language on “phasing out fossil fuels” from the final statement of the global climate talks, before working with Russia to attempt to remove the phrase “human-induced climate change” from another official United Nations document at a separate set of talks earlier this year.
This, combined with the country’s investment in research designed to cast scepticism on the viability of electric cars, lobbying of the US government and American media to promote demand for gasoline, or efforts to develop ‘magic bullet’ carbon capture technology, is part of a concerted move to maintain its status as the second largest exporter of oil, keeping the fossil fuel as a competitive resource despite the urgent need to scale down production and consumption of the non-renewable energy source.
This creates a problem for the games industry, whereby profits made from games in which Saudi Arabia has a stake could potentially be helping to grease the wheels of its climate obstructionism machine. Savvy Games Group CEO Brian Ward told Bloomberg that the company’s business should be considered separately from its parent nation’s political activity, and perhaps he would say the same for those worried about Saudi Arabia’s actions against environmental progress. Suffice to say, I’m not convinced by his argument.
Questions around ethical consumerism, and how players ought to consider the people and platforms that they’re supporting when they buy a game, is a growing conversation across the industry. With these latest slates of heavy investments from Saudi Arabia into the likes of Nintendo, Embracer Group, and more, I’d like to think these conversations can also consider the growing influence of fossil fuel interests such as this one across our industry, and how we can avoid supporting them.
This new Xbox controller is made from old Xbox controllers, so why aren’t all the rest?
Ongoing subscribers may have noticed that we talk about Microsoft rather a lot over here at Play Anthropocene. It’s not, I hope you understand, for any ulterior motives on my part; I’m proud to say that my door always has been firmly shut to the cajolery of corporate lobbyists, especially those who refuse to pay cash in hand.
No, instead Xbox is a regular guest at “Casa del Play Anthropocene” simply because Xbox seems to rather enjoy banging on about its sustainability efforts, week in, week out. And you know what?I’m not even mad about it. Granted, a lot of its trumpet-blowing can be flagged down as greenwashing PR, but I’d rather the company keep the climate conversation high on the industry agenda (albeit in a manner that doesn’t always sit well with me) than say nothing at all.
Case in point: Xbox recently revealed a new version of its Series X/S wireless controller, the Remix Special Edition, to celebrate Earth Day. Not only is one third of the controller made from PCR (post-consumer resins, including those from old Xbox controllers), but it’s decked out in colours, patterns, and textures inspired by nature (read: different shades of green), and even comes bundled with a charger pack to avoid players churning through all those harmful AA batteries in their downtime.
It’s a rather innocuous product launch at the surface level, but one that leads to some more pertinent questions around Xbox’s overall strategy here. For one thing, why isn’t Microsoft implementing the use of PCR into all of its Xbox controllers, rather than just excluding them to special editions? Granted, a number of Xbox Design Lab options, in addition to two bespoke coloured variants of the controller, also contain PCR materials, but your bog standard Robot White pad (i.e. the one shipped with every Xbox) remains firmly PCR-free. The answer is partly, I imagine, so that Xbox can make a big song and dance about each product launch, garner a few extra bucks on the side, and see if there’s demand for this kind of thing at a level that can justify scaling up PCR production across all of its controllers.
From a business standpoint, that seems fair enough, but outside of that worldview, the big picture optics of such a strategy aren’t great. It reminds me of the time that H&M released its limited “Conscious Collection” of clothing, thereby seeming to openly acknowledge that the rest of its supply line was essentially anti-conscious (and, if you’ve read anything about the fast fashion industry, you’ll know that such an admission is hardly a bombshell).
The same line of questioning can be applied to this product’s spotlighting of the rechargeable battery pack. If Microsoft knows that disposable batteries are terrible for the environment, why is it not shipping the rechargeable pack with every single controller? This is a topic that was much discussed around the time of the Series X/S launch, and Microsoft never really gave a fully convincing argument for continuing to rely on AA batteries for its controllers then, either. That discussion soon died down amidst all the new-gen hype, but when Xbox launches a product such as this one while continuing to tout its own climate record, that battery-strewn blind spot only becomes more of an eyesore.
I’m not trying to be needlessly cynical here; I genuinely appreciate the gestures that Microsoft and Xbox continue to make on top of some of the bolder commitments they are pursuing towards carbon-negativity, circular manufacturing, and more. Instead, it’s the approach that comes across as a tad off-putting here, using Earth Day as an opportunity to flog a special product that, frankly, ought to be standard issue for a company that claims to take climate change as seriously as its marketing cycle suggests.
Ace Attorney meets environment law for All Rise, now officially in production
Like all the great social justice movements of modern history, many of the biggest fights in the struggle for our planet’s future are battled out in the courtroom. This has included landmark moments, such as the Dutch courts ordering Shell to commit to 45% emissions reductions by 2030 (and setting a legal precedent for companies to to comply with global climate goals), or the many court cases fought by Greenpeace and other environmental NGOs to defend the rights of climate protesters.
It’s important work that can shift the lines of battle, define the rules of engagement, and bring about lasting victories for the movement. In short, this space is well deserving of any attempt to spotlight the talented, hard-working lawyers, activists, and other key individuals at its centre, as it can often go unnoticed against the backdrop of public protest and discourse that dominates mainstream coverage of the climate crisis.
As the premise for a video game, however? It’s certainly a novel idea, but not the first that many of us would have come to, especially as the dense subject matter and dry legalese of these kinds of court cases don’t necessarily make for an easy adaptation. The team behind All Rise, however, think they can pull it off, creating an experience where players can both take on big fossil fuel companies in court, but also - and this is important - enjoy themselves.
In a new blog post confirming that All Rise has now been fully financed by the Dutch government’s creative sector funding, the team explain their biggest inspiration for the upcoming project, which won’t come as a surprise to those of us who know a certain video game lawyer all too well…
All Rise aims to break with this trend by combining the wild and playful humour of the Ace Attorney games with the struggles, challenges, heroic actions and emotional roller-coasters of real-world climate politics. The goal is to create a game that is subversive, funny as hell, inspiring and irreverent, while drawing on the experiences of real, successful climate court cases and campaigns.
For those unfamiliar with the Ace Attorney series, Capcom’s visual novel games focus primarily on the courtroom exploits of Phoenix Wright, a charismatic lawyer who brings the energy of a Dragon Ball Z battle (big DBZ energy?) to all of his cases, firmly putting the drama in the ‘legal drama’ genre that Capcom subsequently spearheaded for the video game format. As a result, Ace Attorney games are often surreal, compelling, and even comedic, and so you can understand why All Rise wants to channel that same energy for its reality-inspired law court simulations.
The All Rise development team, supported by researchers at Anticiplay, holds an impressive rap sheet, too. Some notable recruits include Niels Monshouwer, former producer on Horizon: Forbidden West, Meghna Jayanth, narrative designer on Sable, and other talent hailing from the likes of Riot Games, Kaizen Game Works, and more. While All Rise has no firm release date yet, the team hopes to have a playable demo up and ready within the next few months, and you can be sure that Play Anthropocene will be keeping an eye on development going forward, so stay tuned.
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Find me on Twitter: @alexavard95