Microsoft may give Xbox Series S/X owners the opportunity to sacrifice some of the consoles’ best features, in order to save a little money on their energy bill and lower emissions.
In a questionnaire currently available within the Xbox app (spied by Windows Central), the company is surveying on users on their willingness to sacrifice graphical features like frame rates and resolution, visual effects, and GPU performance.
It’s far from an assurance Microsoft will offer these new energy-saving features, but it does show the company is at least thinking about given gamers the option, considering many will be gravely concerned about their energy bills and the company itself has carbon neutral pledges to live up to.
The survey asked users how concerned they are about the amount of energy they use while gaming and how they would feel about in-game features that can optimise settings to save energy.
The survey also asks users to rate their response to statements like “I am worried that turning on energy saving features may negatively impact my gaming experience” and whether the presence of opt-in energy saving settings would impact whether they purchase a game.
While the opt-in saving settings would be a good idea in theory, the energy saving settings would, in some ways, walk back the advancements made by the new generation of Xbox consoles, especially if features like frame rate and resolution are on the chopping block.
Would you be ready to lessen the graphical performance in some games in order to save a few quid on your energy bill? Or would you rather just ration the use of the console itself and cut into your gaming time? Or are you going all in on your gaming passion, enjoying it to the fullest and living with the consequences when the energy bill lands on the doormat?
Does climate change come into your thinking when you fire up the Series X for a few hours gaming at 4K HDR at 60 frames per second? Let us know your thoughts @trustedreviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.