SUSTAINABLE TRANSITION FOR EUROPE’S GAME INDUSTRIES

Project Information

STRATEGIES

Grant agreement ID: 101132538

DOI

10.3030/101132538

EC signature date 6 November 2023

Start date 1 February 2024

End date 31 January 2028

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 735 266,53

EU contribution

€ 2 735 266,53

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STRATEGIES (SUSTAINABLE TRANSITION FOR EUROPE’S GAME INDUSTRIES)

Reporting period: 2024-02-01 to 2025-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Europe’s game industries represent a vital cultural and creative sector with over 4,900 video game studios employing 98,000 people (€23.3 billion revenue) and a growing board game sector ($4 billion). With 52% of Europeans aged 6-64 playing video games, the sector's cultural reach is enormous. Initial project findings suggest game development contributes up to 50 million tonnes of CO2 annually (substantially higher than previously estimated) making urgent climate action essential.This urgency is compounded by the 2025 Omnibus package weakening the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which raised reporting thresholds and removed 80% of companies from mandatory requirements. With regulatory frameworks retreating, industry-led initiatives and practical support become critical. The challenge is acute for small and micro enterprises (over 90% of developers), which lack resources to assess impacts. Yet these companies are innovation leaders. STRATEGIES addresses this by supporting the game industries’ climate transition while leveraging their potential as drivers of societal change.

Strategic Objectives

Evidence: Gathering comprehensive data on working conditions, business infrastructure, skills, attitudes, and environmental impacts through quantitative and qualitative data collection and GHG emissions accounting.

Policy and Business Model Innovation: Producing evidence-based business model recommendations and policy frameworks that embed sustainability in funding, employment, management, and governance.

Tools and Training: Developing and testing toolkits for environmentally conscious design, leveraging games for broader CCI climate transitions, and embedding sustainability in developer training.

The project synthesizes environmental science data collection and analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, eco-critical approaches from the humanities, and critical-creative methodologies, addressing both material impacts (emissions, resources) and cultural-political dimensions of Europe’s game industries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP1 Management: All planned deliverables were submitted on time. Technical portal issues following our amendment in august 2025 required re-uploading but this did not affect project timeline. Technical resubmission included ‘Pending’ notifications for D1.7 D5.1 D8.1 and 'late’ notifications for D1.2 D1.3 D1.6 D2.1 D3.1 D8.2 D9.1. Additionally, the financial report for GoatGamez is missing from this Periodic Report due to pending EU Horizon legal action after the beneficiary ceased all communication and effectively withdrew from the project.

WP2 published "State of the Art Report on the Environmental and Social Sustainability of Video and Board Games Industries" (July 2025), providing systematic overview of sustainability frameworks, EU policies, and critical analysis of liberal sustainability paradigms within industry initiatives. To-date, collected over 50 interviews from game companies across Europe; data transcription and analysis underway for synthesis in 2026.

WP3 Sustainable Production completed first GHG Emissions Report (D3.1) combining early findings from case study companies with scientific literature. Established close cooperation with Sustainable Games Alliance, leading to the launch of Sustainable Games Standard in October 2025.

WP4 Policy Innovation: Hosted inaugural policy innovation workshop with supranational and national policymakers, generating findings that informed survey instrument design, now live and gathering responses. Second workshop focusing on SMEs scheduled for November 2025.

WP5 Game Design for Sustainability: Compiled canon of 600+ relevant ecogames, incorporated into Green Mediography web repository developed in collaboration with IGDA Climate SIG. Completed comprehensive ecogames literature review identifying research gaps (D5.1 July 2025), establishing foundation for subsequent analyses and design pattern library development.

WP6 Hacking Games: Completed cross-sector literature survey establishing game hacking as educational strategy, with comprehensive report ready for delivery (D6.1 M24). Reviewed existing carbon literacy materials and conducted collaborative design workshop at MMU and the UW, testing initial materials with game development students and educators.

WP7 Game Design for CCI Training: PhD student hired to support tasks. Completed needs assessment with BABLE partnership, identifying SME participants and European Green Deal priorities (energy consumption, travel/CO2 emissions). Established best practices for participatory game design, generating new knowledge documented in two submitted journal publications (under review). Identified game specifications: Cozy Ecogames, browser-based, single-player with potential gamification elements.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Critical gaps in the SoA are: (1) lack of accurate data on game development emissions; (2) absence of board game emissions data; (3) fragmented ecogame research; (4) lack of carbon literacy training for game developers. Our results to-date address these gaps as follows:

Gap 1: Scientific findings reveal emissions may approach 50 million tonnes CO2 annually (ten times initial estimate). Empirical data includes WP2’s 50+ company interviews across Europe providing systematic evidence on sustainability awareness in video game industries.

Gap 2: Empirical data collection from case studies provides lifecycle evidence for board game materials, addressing evidence gaps in this sector.

Gap 3: WP5 compiled a dataset of 130+ digital and 500+ analogue ecogames, creating a foundation for analyzing design patterns.

Gap 4: WP6 synthesized critical literacy frameworks with game studies, establishing game hacking as actionable educational practice.

Economic results have been generated in WP3, which advanced the carbon accounting tool from TRL5 toward TRL9 through Sustainable Games Alliance collaboration, producing a public free-to-access assessment tool (October 2025). Societal results have been generated in WP6, which is adapting carbon literacy training (TRL6) for game development through collaborative workshops, creating a draft version of sustainability training for this sector to be further refined. D8.5 (Policy brief) synthesized findings on sustainability discourse and games’ cultural potential for collective action. WP7 established participatory design best practices for game design for CCI Training purposes.