EPA calls for greener consoles starting 2010

As you play your beloved Super Mario game tapes, your Nintendo Box drains energy from earth's dwindling supply. It's a well-known scientific fact that at our current rate of consumption, Earth will be returned to an archaic wasteland within thirty years, when feared energy pirates will travel between the planet's ruined cities, plundering precious fuel for their own contemptible settlements. Luckily, the Environmental Protection Agency has a plan to combat our wasteful ways.

The EPA hopes to include modern home gaming consoles in their Energy Star plan which has been regulating the energy usage of certain home appliances since 1992. The latest draft of the plan addresses the power consumption rates of Wiis, Xbox 360s and PS3s, requiring an auto-off function, a sleep mode, and low-energy network settings in all consoles produced after July 1, 2010. We certainly hope the plan is adopted, lest we be left to our seemingly inevitable, Mad Max-esque fate.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/18/ep...starting-2010/

Judging by the power consumption stats between the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 "green" is going to have to mean less powerful.

Somehow I don't see that happening.

In this day and age, not being energy efficient is just not acceptable.

Yes, lets focus on consoles energy requirements, rather than their source of energy. You know, it's not like our energy source is more important than the items that use it...

Looking through some of their requirements and it highlights what a stupid age we live in, auto off mode? it used to be when you pressed the off button that's exactly what it did, now it just goes into standby so you have to pull the plug.

And I have no idea how a sleep mode is going to help- if anything it encourages people to leave it on and use some power than none at all.

But yes, we do need everything to be as efficient as possible today more than ever.