Today SEGA Europe announced that all packaging for their future physical PC releases will be fully recycled. The announcement which was made over Twitter can be seen below.
We’re pleased to announce that all of our future physical releases of PC games will be launched in fully recycled packaging!
Total War: ROME II – Enemy at the Gates Edition from Creative Assembly signals our intent to continue with this environmental initiative. pic.twitter.com/SlPcUCikn3
— SEGA Europe (@SEGA_Europe) January 30, 2020
For as long as I can remember, new video game releases have come in plastic boxes. However, plastic is only recyclable a few times and often ends up in the environment damaging natural ecosystems. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch–an island of plastic waste which has formed between California and Hawaii–is a great example of humans slowly destroying Earth and harming animal life.
SEGA Europe using recycled packaging for future physical PC releases is nice, but only made me wonder; why stop there? The PC gaming ecosystem is dominated by electronic storefronts like Steam, Epic, and Origin. Nowadays if a PC game even receives a physical release its typically only packaging with a digital download code inside. The rare physical PC release with a disk still requires players to download much of the game from the internet. Ultimately begging the question, why have physical PC releases at all?
Although I don’t understand the point of physical PC releases, they must be selling if they still exist. Regardless, SEGA Europe’s transition to recycled materials is a positive change. Meanwhile, millions of console games are sold physically every year. Many people enjoy having a physical collection, while others don’t have internet speeds that can support large digital downloads. With the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 quickly approaching, maybe Sony and Microsoft will consider more eco-friendly ways of packaging their games.
The post SEGA Europe Announces Recycled Packaging for PC Releases by Josh Starr appeared first on DualShockers.