How case studies are structured
Every case study covers:- Baseline — power draw before optimization, captured via PIX Power Monitor or a Certification power report.
- Technique — what the studio changed in the title.
- Result — measured power delta and any frame-time or quality impact.
- Roll-out — default-on, opt-in, idle-triggered, or another delivery model.
Published case studies
Call of Duty: MW II & Warzone
Infinity Ward’s console + PC Eco Mode — three tiers (Off, Minimal, Full) with up to ~50% savings in lobbies. 90% of console players stayed on the default.
Halo Infinite
343 Industries dropped pause-menu resolution to 1080p for a 15% power saving with no visible impact. Also implemented 2.5D menus for ~30% menu savings.
Minecraft
Java FPS limiter for AFK/minimized states (~75% power reduction after 10 min idle), plus a console-side framerate cap on the controller-disconnected dialog.
Fortnite & Unreal Engine
Epic’s Sustainability Toolkit work with Unreal Engine — an estimated 73 GWh saved per year across the Fortnite player base.
Gears of War: Reloaded
The Coalition combined passive Idle Energy Savings (−41% on Series X) with player-selectable Eco-Performance and Eco-Quality modes.
The Elder Scrolls Online
ZeniMax Online capped menu framerate at 30 FPS and applied idle detection — a 5% platform-wide efficiency improvement in the first week.
For Honor
Ubisoft Montreal’s Smart Eco Mode — default-on kept 95% of players enabled; won “Best Green Tech” from Playing for the Planet in 2024.
Star Wars Outlaws
Ubisoft Massive dropped pause-menu framerate to 1 FPS after 30 seconds of inactivity — pause-menu power draw fell from ~75% to 18–20%.
Cross-case patterns
Techniques that worked across multiple titles:- Cap menu and lobby frame rate at 30 Hz (or lower) — nearly invisible to players, large power win.
- Reduce internal resolution in non-gameplay screens — upscale to preserve UI sharpness.
- Idle-timer detection — reduce rendering load when no input received for 30–120 seconds.
- Detect controller disconnect — if no controller, drop the rendering budget.
- Enable Dynamic Power States — single API call, zero-effort win. See Dynamic Power States.
- 2.5D menus — replace fully-3D menus with 2D backplates plus minimal 3D where needed.
- Default power-saving on — defaults dominate adoption. For Honor moved adoption from 5% (opt-in) to 95% (default-on) with the same feature.
Get involved
Email XboxSustainability@Microsoft.com to:- Request a Certification Sustainability Power Report.
- Join the pilot program and contribute a case study.
- Get help with Power Monitor profiling or DPS integration.