New Videogame Packaging Helps Save the World

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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New Videogame Packaging Helps Save the World



With new Eco-Boxes, you can now save the world with every Xbox 360 game you purchase.

In an effort to reduce waste and the amount of CO2 emitted in the production of disc cases, the Viva Group designed the Eco-Box. The new packaging, already in use by movie companies for the last two years, reduces the amount of plastic used in traditional boxes by 20%. The Eco-Box is being used by Microsoft for Xbox 360 games and Viva is in talks with Sony and Nintendo to provide the packaging for PS3 and Wii games.

Kyle Sheppard, Manager of Business Development at Viva, claimed that retailers like Walmart actually spearheaded the initiative to curtail the amount of waste that packaging creates all over the world. "Walmart even introduced a packaging scorecard with certain criteria that must be met, including reducing all packaging by 5% by 2013," Sheppard said. "The Eco-Box already exceeds this goal for the entertainment industry."

Oddly, the Eco-Box doesn't have much to do with reducing the bottom line for game manufacturers. "With the rise in material prices over the past few of months, if anything, the Eco-Box has allowed publishers to maintain the price they were paying for boxes during the first half of this year," Sheppard said. "This really isn't a cost cutting move, at least not at this point." It's actually about saving the world.

As Sheppard puts it, "A hypothetical new Xbox 360 release of 1 million units would have a 31,000 lbs reduction in CO2 [emissions] by switching from the standard Xbox 360 box to the Xbox 360 Eco-Box." That's 31k lbs less CO2 in our atmosphere for each million Xbox games made.

This is the kind of story which warms the cockles of my heart. Now if we could abolish the frightfully wasteful practice of wrapping Christmas gifts, the human race might last on this planet a few years longer.

Source: IGN [http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/105/1050097p1.html]

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Quadtrix

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Dec 17, 2008
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Pretty cool. I expect this to become standard amongst the big 3. I don't see any reason Nintendo or Sony will turn this down.
 

YurdleTheTurtle

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Mar 23, 2009
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So that's why my Assassin's Creed 2 box looked and felt different!

Pretty good work so far, let's hope we can continue to waste less. Got to admit, the holes in the box is a pretty simple and effective idea.

@Greg Tito: This is kind of picky, but buying more games would actually 'destroy' the world at a faster rate, since you're still contributing to CO2 emissions. Yeah...
 

Cousin_IT

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Feb 6, 2008
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Cunning. They cut some holes in a normal box, & are now flogging them to companies on the basis of not saving money, but that if their product sells well they'll feel less guilty about carbon emissions. Green guilt woooo
 

Starke

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Mar 6, 2008
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YurdleTheTurtle said:
So that's why my Assassin's Creed 2 box looked and felt different!

Pretty good work so far, let's hope we can continue to waste less.
I remember picking up a DVD a couple months ago that had one of these, can't remember which off hand. I'm kinda on the fence about them because the cases feel more fragile, and if the case breaks and has to be replaced, that's actually more resources spent than with the original. I'd actually have prefered a return to the plastic and cardboard hybrids over the new low plastic cases.
 

LeonLethality

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Mar 10, 2009
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Sounds good to me if it isn't more expensive and I don't have to pay more AND if it is just as sturdy then there is no downside and sounds like a goo idea.
 

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
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Furburt said:
SirBryghtside said:
What if they just resort to the old ays, when they were like audio CD cases?

They worked just fine!
Hell, why not vinyl sleeves?
Those didn't provide enough protection. Jewel cases on the other hand, kick ass.
 

Pielikey

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Jul 31, 2009
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Does that mean buying it online and downloading it through steam saves even /more/ trees?'

contribution to topic: It's actually a cool idea. I remember buying the DVD of WALL-E was made of like, cardboard (Which was gimmicky).
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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I'm glad its good for the enviroment and all, but honestly, why not just make the box smaller? And make instruction booklets thicker to fit in the case. Like...The old PS1 style.
 

sirdanrhodes

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Nov 7, 2007
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Pielikey said:
Does that mean buying it online and downloading it through steam saves even /more/ trees?
Saying that, how much longer are our computers on whilst we download the games. My internet is sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Some time later...

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.
 

cobrausn

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Dec 10, 2008
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Ooh, 31k pounds of CO2 emissions per million Xbox games.

Something tells me the amount of CO2 emitted powering the Xboxes and massive TVs that play those games dwarfs this number.
 

Korten12

Now I want ma...!
Aug 26, 2009
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"And becuase of this games are now 10 dollars more!" yay....

thats the only thing im afraid of...