Sybo boss Mathias Gredal Nørvig has gathered the support of leaders from across the games business for the launch of his book, Gaming for Good.
Coauthored by Playmob founder and CEO Jude Ower, the book makes the case for why the games business can and should raise awareness of climate change.
It estimates that the global audience playing games clocks in at around 3bn people, and Sybo says it has been placing climate issues in front of Subway Surfers’ 150m-strong player base and nearly 9m TikTok followers for years.
Gaming for Good features contributions from execs at Xbox, Google, Apple, Sony, Niantic, Playtika, Riot, Miniclip, Ubisoft and more.
We pulled together some of the more notable contributions from well-known games leaders below.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer: “There are 3 billion people who play video games today, which is nearly half the planet, and it’s growing faster than the human population. That’s an amazing opportunity for us as an industry.”
Head of Google Play partnerships in Western Europe Tamzin Taylor: “Thanks to a global relevance that spans age groups and demographics, the games industry has a critical role to help raise awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability, help its users start to discuss the issues with their communities offline and spur them to take action.”
Apple vice president of the App Store Matt Fischer: “Gaming has become a mainstream activity for hundreds of millions of people, even if many of them don’t consider themselves “gamers”, and it’s been wonderful to see how gaming has evolved to become one of the most important forces in mainstream culture.”
Niantic CEO John Hanke: “Our first principle is do something that matters. That means something that’s going to impact a large number of people, even if it’s a very small nudge – a very small change of behavior that, multiplied by a billion, has a really large impact.”
Ubisoft cofounder and CEO Yves Guillemot: “With a potential audience of five billion players by 2030, games are poised to become one of the most impactful forms of entertainment and a powerful vehicle to raise awareness of global issues, like the fight against climate change. I believe games have a unique ability to educate, empower and engage players by immersing players in beautiful virtual environments and showing them how their actions can have a direct impact on the world around them. It is essential we as an industry play our part to continue reducing our environmental footprint while also encouraging our communities to act and lead the change.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment senior director of environment, social and governance Professor Kieren Mayers: “In this crucial period of the 21st century, the world must unite and turn intention into action to avert climate and nature crises. Gaming has incredible global reach and the potential to inspire change.”
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Gaming for Good was released on Kindle and in paperback on February 12, and can bought through Amazon.
