Xbox opens spare parts sales

Microsoft wants Xbox owners to use their devices for longer. The data company is therefore now launching replacement parts for white Xbox Series S and X with 1 terabyte of storage and black special edition Xbox Series X with 2 TB. Officially, the move is considered a commitment to sustainability, and it is. Previously, the company only sold spare parts for Xbox controllers, but not for the device itself.

At the same time, the new sustainability has strategic advantages for Microsoft: if a gamer has to buy a new device, they may be tempted to switch to another brand. Microsoft now wants to prevent this. Rumors are currently doing the rounds that the games “Halo” and “Gears of War”, which were previously exclusive to Xbox, will soon also be available to play on Sony's PlayStation.

The original Xbox spare parts can be obtained from Microsoft and Ifixit. At the time of going to press, Ifixit only lists used spare parts on both sides of the Atlantic, but this could be an oversight as the prices are the same as the new prices in the Microsoft Store. Those who prefer their Xbox repaired can already go to Microsoft; in the USA, the US chain Ubreakifix will also be an official Xbox repair shop next Monday. It has almost 700 branches in the country, although not every branch necessarily offers the service immediately, as can be seen from Microsoft's announcement. A year and a half ago, Samsung launched its self-repair program for selected Galaxy phones and some notebooks in Germany and some other European countries.

Better software reduces power consumption

As a further measure for sustainability, Microsoft is putting a recently rolled out software update for Xbox Series S on display. This is intended to reduce power consumption when playing videos by almost ten percent. This will probably also reduce power consumption on the server side.

Unfortunately, even “switched off” Xboxes constantly consume power if they are not disconnected from the mains. An update rolled out in 2023 should reduce the power consumption of Xbox S and X in sleep mode by “up to” 95 percent, but only if the “Shutdown (energy saving)” option is activated in the settings. This has no effect on the gaming experience, only the boot process takes a little longer. The devices carry out updates and other downloads even when they are “switched off”. According to Microsoft, the CO₂ emissions avoided in a year by the power-saving setting on two Xboxes correspond to the amount that would take a newly planted tree a decade to remove from the atmosphere.

Microsoft is also trying to reduce the power consumption of the Xbox fleet by differentiating between “active hours” in standby mode and true sleep mode. Xboxes S and X remember when they have been used. From this, the software derives the time of day when the Xbox is not “switched off” but in “sleep mode”; the device is then immediately ready for use and can also be accessed remotely. At other times of the day, however, it is “switched off”, in which case it draws half a watt. However, the automatic settings can provide for an excessively long “sleep phase”, which is why users should check the settings and reduce the sleep phase accordingly. On the Xbox One, it has to be set manually anyway.

Microsoft recommends its Xbox Sustainability Toolkit to programmers. Small changes to the code can have a major impact on the global power consumption of a game.

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