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The Sustainable Games Alliance (SGA) is a non-profit cooperative working to give game companies a shared way to measure environmental impacts and identify ways to reduce them. Its games-specific Standard covers emissions across activities such as development, servers, advertising, distribution and gameplay. SGA makes the Standard and application materials available publicly; using them is voluntary guidance, not a certification or a guarantee of legal compliance.
What is the Sustainable Games Alliance?
SGA is a member-governed cooperative formed by game companies, trade associations, entrepreneurs and sustainability researchers. It announced its launch in Helsinki on August 14, 2024, with an ambition to make the games industry a sustainability leader. The Alliance says common methods and comparable data can help companies understand their footprint and act on it, rather than treating sustainability reporting as an isolated paperwork exercise.
Its work combines a sector-specific reporting framework with data collection, benchmarking, research, knowledge-sharing and developer-efficiency tools. SGA describes its Standard as based on the GHG Protocol and adapted to activities and value chains specific to games. The Alliance is not a regulator, and its Standard does not itself establish that a company meets any legal disclosure requirement.
What does the SGA Standard measure?
The Standard is intended to cover environmental impacts across a game company’s operations and value chain, not only the electricity used in its offices. Public materials include examples across Scopes 1, 2 and 3, including office energy, purchased advertising and data-centre services, downstream distribution, end-user devices, and players’ use of mobile, console and PC products.
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- Company operations: Office energy use is an example of emissions in Scopes 1 and 2.
- Purchased services: Digital advertising and data centres are examples of Scope 3.1 activity.
- Distribution and play: Game installs and updates, downstream distribution, end-user devices, and use of mobile, console and PC products appear in the Standard’s downstream categories, including Scopes 3.9 and 3.11.
The practical value of this wider boundary is that it can put choices about infrastructure, distribution and product design alongside office operations. The extent to which a company can measure each activity depends on the data it can obtain and the reporting boundary it applies.
How can companies use the data?
SGA’s stated aim is to make measurement useful to the people who build and operate games. A footprint estimate can help a studio identify where to seek better data and where to investigate resource use, energy consumption or efficiency. The Alliance also describes optimization plugins and tools intended to improve energy use, game performance, player experience and cost efficiency. These are intended benefits, not independently established emissions reductions attributable to SGA.
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Spend estimates versus supplier data
SGA’s application materials show that methods can differ in both effort and specificity. For digital advertising, one option estimates emissions from spending; another uses automated supplier data based on Ad Net Zero’s GMSF V1.2 specification. A spend-based estimate may be more accessible when detailed activity records are unavailable, while supplier data can provide a more direct basis for understanding the activity being reported. The latter depends on access to supplier data and the required software, so it may take more coordination to implement.
When choosing an approach, a company should consider which activity it covers, the quality and source of its data, the time and access needed to collect it, whether the result can guide operational improvements as well as disclosure, and whether the method fits its reporting obligations and boundaries.
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- THE ADULT VERSION OF CLUE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR: Lie to your friends, get away with murder! The Clue Conspiracy game is a secret role strategy game of shifting suspicions—with a party vibe! Ages 14+. For 4-10 players
- AN ISLAND SETTING, A NEW VICTIM: You're invited to the tropical Black Adder Resort, where a guest (maybe even you!) is trying to murder its manager, Mr. Coral. Deadly traps are spread throughout the resort grounds—and someone is armed
- PLAY ON SECRET TEAMS: Players play as Clue characters and take on secret roles on opposing teams: Friends vs. the Conspiracy. Friends try to keep Mr. Coral alive, while Conspiracy members secretly try to set up his murder
- WHO CAN YOU TRUST?: Lie, bluff, sabotage! In this mystery game, it's all about mind games as players conspire, gather clues, share info (or not), and call each other out to stop the other side
- MULTIPLE WAYS TO WIN: The Conspiracy wins by pulling off the murder Plot at a specific location or secretly sabotaging and setting off traps. The Friends win by disarming all the traps, or if that fails, solving the WHO, WHERE, and WHAT of the secret Plot
How does the Standard relate to CSRD and ESRS?
SGA says its initial regulatory focus includes the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Its worksheets, guidance and training are intended to help games companies work with sustainability disclosures through methods tailored to the sector.
That does not mean using the SGA Standard automatically makes a company compliant with CSRD, ESRS or another law. Whether a particular company has reporting duties depends on its circumstances and jurisdiction, and the applicable requirements can change. Companies should assess those duties separately and use qualified advice where needed.
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- CATCH THE CHAMELEON: A bluffing board game where players must race to catch the chameleon before It's too late
- ONE SECRET WORD: In this board game for adults and family everyone knows the secret word - except for the player with the chameleon card
- DON'T GET CAUGHT: Use hidden codes, carefully chosen words, and a bit of finger-pointing to track down the guilty player... Before the imposter blends in and escapes!
- EASY TO LEARN, QUICK TO PLAY: Like all good family board games, it takes 2 minutes to learn and only 15 minutes to play. Recommended for 3-8 players and ages 12+
- MULTI-AWARD WINNING: "Best Party Game" At UK games expo. "Seal of excellence" From dice tower games. A perfect board game for adults and teenagers
Is the SGA Standard available without membership?
Yes. SGA’s published Standard components, methodological specifications and input sheets can be viewed, downloaded and applied publicly. Its application page directs users to make a copy of the input sheets and enter organizational data. Membership is a separate route for organizational participation and access to the Alliance’s member activities and services.
The Standard is developed iteratively. SGA says members, reporting experts and research partners can contribute to methodologies, data formats and boundaries. Near-final components are reviewed by experts in carbon accounting and public-standard development from the STRATEGIES project’s WP3; members can then provide final feedback, and the SGA Board approves new versions.
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- INGENIOUS CARD GAME: Experience the ingenious and highly addictive card game that's making waves everywhere. The Mind offers simple rules but a challenging test of your mental synchronization.
- ASCENDING ORDER CHALLENGE: Work together with your friends to play cards in ascending order, but here's the catch – no speaking or communication allowed. Can you beat the Mind's tricky levels.
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Who can join, and what does membership cost?
SGA’s membership is for organizations, not private individuals. The membership page lists studios, publishers, service providers and associations as eligible applicants, with applications subject to Board approval. The fee schedule published on that page ranges from €1,000 to €5,500 according to annual turnover; associations are listed at €500. These are the published fees on SGA’s membership page, and prospective members should check that page for current eligibility, benefits and rates before applying.
What can be concluded from SGA’s published emissions figures?
SGA’s Standard page reports that a dozen of the largest game companies disclosed more than 14 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, and that adding technology companies including Microsoft, Sony, Google, Apple and Tencent raises the total to 81 million tonnes. The passage says “in the same year,” but does not clearly identify that year. Without a clear reporting year and confirmed underlying boundaries, those figures should not be treated as dated annual industry totals.
Likewise, SGA’s 2024 launch release describes the games industry as generating “almost 200 billion in annual revenues” without specifying the currency or an underlying source in the passage. It is not a sufficiently specified figure to use as a current market statistic.
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