First it was Greenpeace picking on the poor old console manufacturers, claiming they are
hindering everybody's sexual development. Now it's do-gooding so-called consumer crusaders having a go at the Xbox 360, the Wii and the PlayStation 3 for "using too much power".
Seriously though, Australian consumer title,
Choice Magazine, has run a series of tests on the innocent pleasure-giving video game consoles, and has come to the conclusion that all three eat more power (thereby killing more of the planet and - importantly - wasting more of your money) than a Regal RL-42XD Plasma TV, an iMac and a Pioneer DVR-310-S DVD player (among other items).
Choice comes to the following conclusions:
"The device that consumed the most power in our test when in use was the PlayStation 3, closely followed by the Xbox 360 and Plasma TV. Even when idle (on, but no in use), these systems consumed the most power of the devices tested. Incredibly, the Playstation 3 consumed over 10 times as much power as the Nintendo Wii."
"Our tests also found that leaving a PlayStation 3 on while not in use would cost almost $250 (£121) a year in electricity bills (charged at 15c (7p) per kWh). This alone is around five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period.
"The Xbox 360 was not far behind the PlayStation 3 in energy usage costs per year, serving as an important reminder to turn off videogame systems after use."
See the full tests over at
Choice.