AI-powered cloud gaming as a potentially sustainable technology of the future (PhD project)

Sustainability science investigates how industrial production processes and the behaviour of companies and consumers can be optimised from an ecological perspective. While the focus is usually on traditional sectors such as the energy and automotive industries, the steadily growing gaming industry as part of the entertainment sector is also increasingly becoming the focus of the sustainability debate (Kessel, 2024). Two technologies will be particularly relevant in the coming years: firstly, cloud computing or cloud gaming, in which the computing power for computer and video games is shifted from local devices such as an Xbox console to data centres, and secondly - in combination with this - generative AI, which could revolutionise game development through its ability to generate new content (Möhring, 2021; Mukherjee, 2024).
From a sustainability perspective, however, it should be noted that both technologies have so far consumed enormous amounts of energy (Bashir et al, 2024; Cloud Gaming, n.d.). In view of their expected economic growth, a comprehensive investigation of their sustainability potential is therefore highly relevant.

Research questions

Central research question:

1. Can environmentally sustainable cloud gaming models - with or without Generative AI - be designed to meet both the technical requirements of sustainable development and the expectations and preferences of users?

   Further subordinate questions:

2. What CO₂ emissions and water consumption result from the execution and use of different cloud gaming variants compared to locally downloaded game files on different end devices - with and without Generative AI?
3. What expectations do gamers have with regard to the quality and availability of games on the one hand and the consideration of sustainability on the other?
4. What overlaps or discrepancies arise between the results on the sustainable development and implementation of new forms of games and the results on the perception of these forms of games by users?

Methodology

In order to address the technical questions of this dissertation, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is carried out to analyse the individual development and usage phases of cloud gaming and generative AI with regard to various environmental impacts (Ren & Toniolo, 2020). These include energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.
On a social science level, surveys of customers and gamers are being designed to make statements about their attitudes to sustainability in general and to cloud gaming and generative AI in particular. The aim is to clarify, for example, to what extent it is a problem for gamers that they no longer own the games in cloud gaming, but access them via a service - and to what extent this influences the potential of this technology.

Transfer & goal

The combination of a large-scale quantitative survey of gamers with an LCA of central digital gaming models allows a well-founded assessment of the question of the conditions under which more sustainable forms of gaming are both technically feasible and socially acceptable. From the gaming industry's perspective, the combination of technical LCA results with user acceptance data can enable well-founded design decisions - for example, the assessment of whether more CO2-efficient cloud gaming models are positively received by the community, especially if they are linked to new forms of digital ownership. The survey can also shed light on the role of generative AI in a differentiated way, e.g. with regard to its acceptance in creative processes versus possible concerns about energy consumption.

For policymakers, the combined results provide a basis for further developing existing regulatory approaches for the gaming sector in a more targeted manner - particularly in the context of the EU Ecodesign Directive, which could be extended to digital services in the future, for example through environmental standards for digital applications. The work also contributes to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - in particular SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 17 (Partnerships).

For science, the key added value lies in the empirically based link between technical sustainability assessment and social science acceptance research. This connection not only allows an interdisciplinary reflection of ecological gaming models, but also the development of scenarios in which technological innovation, ecological objectives and social gaming practices are considered together in an integrative manner.

Literature

Bashir, N., Donti, P., Cuff, J., Sroka, S., Ilic, M., Sze, V., Delimitrou, C., & Olivetti, E. (2024). The Climate and Sustainability Implications of Generative AI. An MIT Exploration of Generative AI. mit-genai.pubpub.org/pub/8ulgrckc/release/2

Bharadwaj, C. (2025, February 20). How AI in Gaming is Redefining the Future of the Industry. Appinventiv. appinventiv.com/blog/ai-in-gaming/

Cloud Gaming (n.d.). Berkeley Lab. Retrieved 21 March 2025, from greengaming.lbl.gov/cloud-gaming

Kessel, A. (2024, September 13). The Global Video Game Market Could Soon Approach $500 Billion, New Report Says. Investopedia. www.investopedia.com/global-video-game-market-could-double-in-10-years-report-says-8712136

Möhring, C. (2021, November 25). What is cloud gaming? Tips-Tricks. www.heise.de/tipps-tricks/Was-ist-Cloud-Gaming-6276641.html

Mukherjee, S. (2024, August 28). The Future of AI in Game Development | TalentDesk. www.talentdesk.io/blog/the-future-of-ai-in-game-development

Ren, J., & Toniolo, S. (Eds.) (2020). Life cycle sustainability assessment for decision-making: Methodologies and case studies. Elsevier.