[Industry news] Sustainable Games Alliance drives game engine energy efficiency with new power-saving plugins

This is a press release posted in addition to our usual editorial content.

Just months after introducing the Sustainable Games Standard in October 2025 – a global emissions reporting framework built specifically for game studios – the Sustainable Games Alliance (SGA) reaches another milestone with the release of three power-saving plugins for leading game engines: Unreal, Unity and Godot.

Built through collaboration within the SGA Energy Efficiency Network, the plugins draw on insights from the SGA Energy Efficiency Guide and the highly attended SGA energy-efficiency meetups. During these sessions, companies including Microsoft, Unity, Ubisoft, Deck13 Interactive, Nitro Games, Bold Beetle Games and GOALS shared tools, case studies and optimisation strategies.

Industry partners emphasise that improving energy efficiency can also bring tangible performance benefits.

Ari Arnbjörnsson, Technical Developer Relations at Epic Games, said: “If you’re not considering sustainability for our planet, your users’ device battery life, or even their power bill, then you should at least consider it for your game’s performance. Quicker frames just so happen to benefit all of these cases.”

“Sustainability in gaming isn’t just about how we run our studios, but how our code behaves on millions of devices worldwide. By making these power-saving tools available across Unreal, Unity, and Godot, we’re helping the entire industry reduce its carbon footprint without compromising the high-fidelity experiences players expect.”, says Torbjörn Söderman, Technical Director of the SGA Energy Efficiency Network and Technical Director at GOALS.

Energy efficiency improvements can deliver measurable benefits for players and businesses, particularly on handheld devices:

• Longer battery life
• Decreased fan noise and device heat
• Lower electricity consumption and carbon emissions

“Based on behavioural estimates from the Fortnite case study, where players spend roughly 25% of their time in idle states, these plugins could extend playtime on battery-powered platforms by up to 15%,” emphasises Dr. Ben Abraham, Standard and Research Lead at SGA.

The plugins dynamically detect when players become idle. After predefined thresholds, they reduce frame rate and rendering resolution, and in longer idle states can even temporarily disable rendering entirely. Once the player provides input, the game immediately returns to normal settings. This enables developers to integrate automatic energy-saving modes across the most widely used engines.
Plugins are currently available for the following engines:

• Unreal Engine – developed by Hauke Thießen (Deck13 Interactive)
• Unity – developed by Oliver Stock (Walk the Frog UG)
  Godot – developed by Ashe Foltin (Bold Beetle Games)

The Godot plugin developed by Ashe Foltin, Creative Director of Bold Beetle Games and co-coordinator of the SGA Energy Efficiency Network, quickly gained attention within the developer community, generating more than 100,000 views and 840 shares on Reddit within the first 48 hours.

Plugin developers Hauke Thießen, Oliver Stock and Ashe Foltin will present further technical insights during upcoming SGA meetups and on stage at gamescom dev in August.

You can access the Plugins and the SGA Energy Efficiency Guide here: https://sustainablegamesalliance.org/services/optimizing-energy-efficiency/