Greenpeace targets game consoles

Posted by Kevin in Apple, Articles, Console, Microsoft, News, Nintendo, PC, Sony | 0 comments

In it’s continuing efforts to attack everyone in the corporate world, Greenpeace has launched three new short pieces of stop-motion animation featuring collections of Wii, 360 and PS3 consoles acting as “spokespeople” for their respective companies.

Each ad is basically the same, with a burly English voice asking each console-maker why their machines contain toxic materials that will harm children. The response is a cut-and-paste job from previous statements issued by each company.

The Sony response was that it was “committed to removing all toxins from all of our products as & when we are satisfied that we can produce products of the same quality with new alternative materials.” Which seems quite fair, especially given last year Greenpeace tipped Sony as the best of the game manufacturers in terms of using “green” techniques.

Nintendo’s reply was that they were “continuing our environmental stewardship and hold this as a corporate priority.” The reply from Greenpeace was to ask what Nintendo were actively doing, and Nintendo said nothing.

Microsoft’s was a similar one, but Greenpeace hit back by saying that Apple pursue a similar policy, but actually do remove toxic materials from their products.

Of course what Greenpeace fail to look at here is that these consoles do not compare to Apple products in terms of price. Consumers are barely ready to pay for a PS3, let alone inflated console prices because the manufacturers had to use something other then PVC, which, from consoles, there are no known & confirmed reports of harm to children, which Greenpeace try to suggest. They do, however, accurately depict a nasty scenario after a console is used, whereby the materials damage the environment. However, compared to standard electronic devices (kettles, washing machines, phones, etc.), how many games console end up in the bin? My PS1 still works an absolute charm, as does my PS2, Xbox, etc. There are plenty of Megadrives and N64′s in houses. How many old electronics of other types do you keep in your house?

The ads, funnily enough, are hard to come by, but Kotaku managed to get a hold of them for you to take a look at.