Console wars revisited: Sony dominates this one

When it comes to console sales and exclusive content the PS3 is certainly not currently the king of the hill, so perhaps all you PS3 fanboys and girls out there can take some consolation in the fact that Sony is faring much better than its competitors, Microsoft and Nintendo, in one important area – environmental friendliness.

According to Greenpeace in their 2007 Guide to Greener Electronics Sony fared the best out of the 3 console manufacturers in terms of their environmental practices. Sony products are actually some of the best in the market when it comes to low toxic hardware content, and takeback policies on obsolete/damaged hardware. Sony scored a respectable 7.3/1o. Microsoft scored a lowly 2.7/10, while Nintendo has the dubious honour of being the first company ever to score 0/10. There must be some nasty stuff inside a Wii.

Of course, it’s not just what hardware is made of that’s potentially harmful to the environment. Energy consumption is also related to environmental impact. In this department, the Wii is far superior to the 360 and PS Triple, using only about 18W of power during gaming.  A word of advice to environmentally-conscious Wii owners, though – disable Wii Connect 24. It uses 9W of power even when the Wii is “off” compared to the 2.5W of a 360, and the 1.9W of a PS3 in standby mode.

Last Updated: December 4, 2007