Connect with us

Technologies

Sony’s Horizon Forbidden West Tree-Planting Program Feels Like a Publicity Stunt

Commentary: Play a game. Plant a tree. Save the planet? Not so fast.

Do you want to help heal the Earth’s forests from the comfort of your home? For $69.99 you can do just that! At least, that appears to be the promise of Sony’s Play and Plant program, announced on Tuesday.

The program sees the electronics and video game giant partner with the Arbor Day Foundation, a tree-planting non-profit, to plant 288,000 trees across three reforestation projects in the United States. The catch is real-world trees will only be planted once a player gets through the tutorial in Horizon: Forbidden West and unlocks a specific in-game trophy.

The program received a good deal of press coverage from major video games websites with one outlet suggesting the program allows you to «save the real Earth while you save the virtual one.» Another suggested players have «the chance to do tangible good for the Earth.» Comments have been largely positive, too, with many lauding Sony’s initiative.

«Bout to go so hard in this game in the name of climate restoration,» one tweeter said.

But a brief glance beyond the headlines reveals this is video games greenwashing at its worst.

Reforestation is an admirable goal and the Arbor Day Foundation, which claims to have planted 500 million trees in its 50-year history, is no slouch when it comes to getting seedlings in the ground. But Sony’s program gives the false impression that buying a full-priced AAA video game is the way to help fix the planet and helps cast the company’s environmental actions in a positive light. It equates purchasing Horizon with doing good for the planet — such a simplification is grating and when you weigh this against Sony’s corporate environmental impact, the trophy-for-trees idea seems almost ludicrous.

«It’s a very common, and very effective strategy for companies to direct our focus and attention onto end users and consumers to distract us from the lack of effort from corporations,» notes Ben Abraham, a sustainability researcher and consultant who has been analyzing the carbon footprint of the video game industry.

Sony has committed to a «zero environmental footprint» goal by 2050, but is still emitting almost 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power alone, according to its 2021 sustainability report. The vast majority of this coming from energy used at Sony sites across the world.

The report also details how much carbon dioxide is emitted as a result of consumers using Sony products, like TVs and game consoles. In 2020, these emissions were 19% higher than the year prior — and the highest they’ve been since 2016.

This was, the company notes, due to an increase in average TV screen size and «strong sales of the newly released PlayStation 5.» The PS5 is one of the most energy-intense consoles ever built, which means simply playing Horizon: Forbidden West long enough to get the necessary trophy is actually generating carbon dioxide in the short-term.

Let’s do some quick, back-of-the-napkin math: Unlocking the trophy will take about two hours of play time. If Horizon uses the same amount of energy per hour that Spider-Man: Miles Morales does (and it’s likely to use more considering it’s a brand new game), then you’re looking at around 400 watts of power to unlock the trophy and plant one tree. This is about the same as charging your smartphone 35 times. Now scale that up to 288,000 players and you’ve emitted around 90 tons of carbon dioxide to plant the trees.

That’s not an extreme amount, but is it really necessary? And beyond the planting, there’s also the follow-up. «There needs to be guarantees that number of trees gets planted [and] those trees get cared for and don’t die,» explains David Ellsworth, an ecologist and forestry expert at Western Sydney University in Australia. The benefits of planting trees don’t come when you unlock the trophy, but years or decades into the future. Will Sony ensure the planted trees make it to adulthood?

The tree-planting program is not limited to the US. Sony’s also partnering up with organizations in the UK, France, Germany, New Zealand and Canada for other tree-planting projects with different goals for players to reach. For instance, in New Zealand, a street artist has created Horizon artwork and each social media share will result in one tree, with a goal of planting 1,000. And in Canada, Sony will donate one Canadian dollar to the World Wildlife Fund to rehabilitate seagrass for every copy of the game sold — but only up to $100,000.

Which brings up another point. The first game in the series, Horizon: Zero Dawn, sold over 20 million copies. Why not just donate to the organization anyway, regardless of how many copies are sold, how many trophies get unlocked, how far players progress through the game or how many social media shares a piece of art receives?

Look past the feel good headlines and tweets and you find little cause for celebration. Sony is making inroads into reducing its environmental impact but the pace of progress is slow. It could have immediate and lasting impacts on the environment by rapidly decarbonizing and shifting to renewable energy to power its facilities, for instance. Instead, Sony putting the onus on players: Go buy our game so we can plant more trees.

It doesn’t deserve a trophy for that.

I reached out to Sony to clarify how tree growth, development and maintenance would be handled and whether this will be followed up by Sony in the future. I also asked whether players will know, in-game, that the trophy has contributed to the Play and Plant program. Sony did not respond to our requests for comment.

Related Topics:

Technologies

Marvel Rivals Season 2 Adds New Vanguard Emma Frost, Krakoa Map

Emma Frost and Ultron are joining the Rivals roster in season 2, and developers are upping the pace to one new hero per month starting with season 3.

After surviving the endless night in New York City with the Fantastic Four, Marvel Rivals players are getting invited to the shores of Krakoa for the start of season 2 on April 11. The game dropped the first trailer for the new season, giving us our first official look at the new heroes, and a developer vision video dropped major news about the future of hero releases. 

The trailer features the former foe and sometimes-leader of the X-Men, Emma Frost, inviting people from across Rivals’ various timelines to the mutant nation of Krakoa, where everyone gets dressed up for a fancy gala — even Wolverine puts on a white tux. The event, however, is unceremoniously interrupted when Ultron shows up preaching extermination. 

We also got a look at some of the cosmetics in season 2, though it’s unclear which are from the shop and which might be in the battle pass. In addition to the dressed-up Wolverine, we also got looks at Magik and Psylocke in the traditional X-Men blue and yellow. Nonmutant guests are also getting in on the fun, with fancy attire for heroes like Cap, Widow and Luna Snow. 

New Heroes and balance changes in Marvel Rivals Season 2

Emma Frost joins the roster as a Vanguard who can project a shield forward, give herself damage reduction by going into her diamond form, and also choke-slam people while insulting them. We got a glimpse at her abilities in her hero trailer, but we don’t have detailed information about her abilities yet — expect that information to drop ahead of next week’s season launch. Ultron is coming in the season 2.5 update, which should be in late May. 

Some team-ups are changing in season 2, including three new team-up abilities that were previewed in the newest developer vision video. 

  • Emma Frost allows Magneto and Psylocke to create illusions of themselves.
  • Doctor Strange teams up with Scarlet Witch allowing her to use small portals to seemingly increase her damage output via a rapid-shooting alternate fire.  
  • Cap finally teams up with Bucky, allowing the Winter Soldier to leap to allies.

A few existing team-ups are getting adjustments, with Psylocke, Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange being removed from older team-ups in favor of new ones, and Namor moving from working with Luna’s anchor to Hulk’s to empower his ultimate with gamma energy. Two team-ups are being removed entirely: Magneto can no longer team up with Scarlet Witch, and Thor is no longer anchoring Cap and Storm.

Rivals announced the full list of season 2 balance changes, including buffs to Peni, Mister Fantastic and Moon Knight, with Strange losing some damage for more survivability (via his new anchor buff) and Rocket getting several adjustments, while Loki and Adam Warlock receive nerfs to their Regeneration Domain and Soul Bond abilities.

Future seasons will be shorter, which means more new heroes

One of the most surprising moments in the developer video was the announcement that, beginning with season 3, seasons will be two months long instead of roughly three. There has been a lot of discussion online about whether Rivals’ pace of new heroes (about eight per year based on three-month seasons) was sustainable. Well, apparently the Rivals devs took that personally and are cranking up that pace to a new hero every month, meaning 12 new heroes per year. 

This feels borderline ludicrous compared with other hero shooters that average about three new heroes per year, or even MOBAs like League of Legends, which has averaged about four new champions per year over the past five years. Rivals benefits from having an overflowing stable of Marvel characters to pull from rather than inventing their own hero concepts, and compared with Overwatch, the developers seem less worried about mechanical overlap in their heroes, as seen with many support ultimates. Still, a new hero every month feels unheard of for a hero shooter.

New Krakoa map and competitive changes

Season 2 is adding two new maps, including a Krakoa-themed domination map at the season’s start. Yggsgard: Royal Palace (domination) and Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya (convergence) will rotate out of the map pool for ranked modes, though they’ll still be available in quick play and custom games.

The threshold for competitive picks and bans, which currently only happen in diamond-ranked lobbies, will be lowered to gold 3. Players in Eternity or One Above All ranks will only be able to duo queue, instead of queuing with larger groups — a measure that’s likely intended to keep high-level teams from stomping lobbies. 

Speaking of ranks, season 2 will drop everyone by 9 divisions, which is equal to 3 ranks. That means players in Eternity will drop to diamond, and any players at platinum 3 or below will start their climb from bronze 3 again. (AGAIN… AGAIN.)

Rivals developers also announced that individual player performance will be weighted higher when determining competitive progress after a match, meaning if your stats outperform your team’s, you’ll earn more for winning and drop less for losing. This change can help elevate smurfs and other high-skill players in lower-ranked lobbies by getting them into their appropriate ranks faster. However, it can also lead to players stat-farming, instead of playing in a way that is most effective for winning games. Overall, given that Rivals doesn’t use any sort of competitive placement matches, this should be a net positive for the game.

Other announcements

Rivals is adding new skin recolors to certain hero skins and (finally) giving players the option to gift costumes to their friends so they can surprise someone for their birthday, which you definitely did not forget about.  

Missions are changing a bit, with the addition of weekly missions and a redistribution of where battle-pass-progressing chrono tokens are earned. The devs framed this as creating a «smoother expectation» of how to earn chrono tokens, but the surface-level description sounds like they’re just making it harder to earn battle pass progress over the season by tucking away more progress under missions with shorter time limits.

The developer vision update also gave us our first look at the competitive distribution, showing how many Rivals players are in each tier as of season 1.5. 

The Hellfire Gala trailer says season 2 will start on April 11 UTC. While it doesn’t give a specific start time, expect the between-seasons maintenance to finish sometime in the middle of the night in the US.

For more on Marvel Rivals, check out which heroes and roles you should play and how to get free skins.

Continue Reading

Technologies

Nintendo Switch 2 Preorders: New Tariffs Mean US Customers Will Have to Wait

We’ve got all the need-to-know details about the new console, but Nintendo’s recent announcement has caused some uncertainty.

It’s finally here. Well, almost. The Nintendo Direct event on April 3 gave us our first concrete information about its highly anticipated Switch 2 console. In addition to the official release date (June 5), we also got details about the specs, price and some hot new titles. Preorders were originally supposed to open on April 9, but the new tariffs mean that US customers will have to wait a little longer. Below, we’ve rounded up everything you want to know, including when and how you’ll be able to preorder one of these nifty new handhelds.

Where to preorder the Nintendo Switch 2

When can I preorder the Nintendo Switch 2

Preorders we’re originally set to open on April 9, and for most countries, that is still the case. However, in light of the new US tariffs, Nintendo has delayed preorders in the United States while it assesses «the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.» As of now, there are no details about when US preorders will start, but we’re closely monitoring the situation and will update this page as soon as new information is available.

Read More: How Nintendo is Combating Switch 2 Scalpers

How much will the Nintendo Switch 2 cost?

The standalone console will start at $450, which is a $150 increase compared to the original console. You can also bundle it with Mario Kart World for $500, which saves you $30 compared to purchasing the game and system separately.

When will the Nintendo Switch 2 be released?

The Switch 2 will officially begin shipping on June 5. As of now, Nintendo has stated that the preorder delay in the US will not affect the release date.

When can I preorder Nintendo Switch 2 accessories?

Nintendo and several other retailers already have preorder pages for controllers, cases and other accessories, as well as games. It’s likely that preorders will begin at the same time as consoles, but there’s no official confirmation as of yet.

When can I preorder Nintendo Switch 2 games?

As with accessories, we expect that Switch 2 game preorders will be available when console preorders go live.

Nintendo Switch 2 preorders: What are people saying?

Feeling about the Switch 2 are mixed — to say the least. While the new console certainly offers some nice upgrades over it’s predecessor, including a larger screen, improved Joy-Cons and boosted storage, many are wondering if it’s enough to justify a fairly significant price hike. Especially when you consider with the new $80 price tag of its two biggest launch-window games — Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. CNET gaming expert Scott Stein sums it up as a console that «feels a lot like an updated version of a system many people already own.» Additionally, the confusion about preorder availability has many gamers wondering if they’d be better off waiting a year or two and grabbing a refurbished console at a lower price.

Continue Reading

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for April 5, #1386

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,386 for April 5.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Still recovering from yesterday’s tricky Wordle? Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little easier, although the first letter isn’t one I often guess. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There are two vowels and one sometimes vowel in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: Start letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter F.

Wordle hint No. 4: Under the sea

Today’s Wordle answer is sometimes associated with ocean waves, and also with soap.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to something that is frothy or creamy.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is FOAMY.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, April 4,  No. 1385 was KRILL.

Recent Wordle answers

March 31, No, 1381: BOOTY

April 1, No. 1382: JEWEL

April 2, No. 1383: CURSE.

April 3, No. 1384: SHEAR

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Verum World Media