As we look to 2026, I’m optimistic about the games industry’s growing focus on energy efficiency, smarter infrastructure use, and the competitive advantages that come with it. By reducing energy consumption, we can extend battery life, reduce hardware load, and optimise performance, enhancing the player experience. There’s rising demand for systemic and strategic


Maria Wagner – Co-Founder & Managing Director, Sustainable Games Alliance


solutions that address the tools, platforms, and services developers and players use every day. With SGA’s global standardisation of emissions accounting, energy usage and performance data will become more comparable, and data exchange between developers, hardware


manufacturers, and service providers will become significantly easier. By reducing this complexity and resource burden through systemic


implementation, studios will gain better data, and more time and capacity to focus on delivering better games. I expect a wave of innovation, where efficiency will be the new standard. Now’s the time to get on board and drive progress across the games industry and beyond.


What makes me most optimistic is seeing players genuinely embrace games with environmental themes. Recent successes like Terra Nil and our own Alba: a Wildlife Adventure demonstrate that thoughtful, sustainability-focused gameplay resonates commercially. Equally encouraging is the industry’s maturing


Maria Sayans, CEO at ustwo games & Ukie Chair


approach to development practices. Unity’s support for emerging sustainability standards signals a shift from individual efforts to coordinated action. When


major engine providers champion these frameworks, it creates momentum that benefits studios of all sizes. At ustwo games, we’re energised by this convergence. Players want


meaningful experiences that reflect their values, and developers now have clearer pathways to deliver them sustainably. 2026 feels like an inflection point. We’re building games people love while


building them responsibly. That alignment - between player demand, industry infrastructure, and developer commitment - is what drives real change.


The GREAT (Games Realising Effective & Affective Transformation) project, funded by the EU and UKRI, brings together academia and industry to investigate the efficacy of digital games and games cultures as a medium for engaging in dialogue with traditionally challenging to reach audiences of game playing communities. The project has undertaken several case studies


Professor Paul Hollins, University of Bolton and The GREAT Project


to investigate this challenge with large organisations including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Waterwise and in parallel with focussed small groups in Austria, South Africa and Cyprus.


The project has substantial evidence that games can be effective in


supporting the dialogue directly between game players and those involved in establishing policy in addressing climate change challenges. The voice of gamers has been heard and will be acted upon.


Ryan Cameron – CEO, CleanPlay


Gaming is the world’s most powerful demand signal. In 2026, players will help steer culture and markets, proving that collective play can shape real outcomes. At its scale, gaming is a force that goes beyond


entertainment. 2026 will continue to prove that players can channel that power into shaping culture, energy, and community. What gives me hope in 2026 is the scale


of gaming and the fact that we’ll be launching our first VPPA. That collective demand can move beyond awareness campaigns into tangible infrastructure. Even a fraction of gaming’s global energy spend, redirected through CleanPlay, can build new capacity on the grid, proving that gaming can create something bigger than entertainment.


The GREAT Project came together out of a conviction that the games industry and games-based activities help address the climate emergency, by enabling citizens to express their views on climate change, and so to support policy-makers in their decision-making. We have carried out studies in a wide


Professor David (Dai) Griffiths – Researcher at iTED and The GREAT Project


range of contexts to explore this approach, working with both embedded surveys using the PlanetPlay infrastructure, and serious games delivered by SGI’s Dilemma Based Learning platform. The good news is that it works:


the games industry can indeed provide an effective communication channel between citizens and policymakers. We have also seen that the GREAT methodology is not a panacea, working effectively according to the context, the policy issues, and the people involved. Through an articulation of the success factors and barriers to the approach, I am optimistic that the games industry can provide a valuable and sustainable link between citizens and policy-makers.


LOOKING AHEAD: TURNING HOPE INTO ACTION As these perspectives show, optimism isn’t naïve, but it needs to be actionable. If 2025 was the year the games industry proved it could drive


impact, 2026 must be the year we scale it. That means more collaboration between studios, publishers, academics and NGOs. It means continuing to embed environmental thinking not just into our games, but into our production pipelines, our events, and our business decisions. And it means engaging


players – the heart of this ecosystem – not as passive audiences, but as partners in purpose. Let’s make sure that in 2026, every game


PlanetPlay is a not-for-profit platform that empowers gamers worldwide to contribute to environmental action and biodiversity protection through in-game purchases and gameplay with our affiliated game studios. Find out more at partners.planetplay.com


October/November 2025 MCV/DEVELOP | 51


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