Your game console makes you pay long after the initial purchase and it’s not just the cost of games. It’s an energy hog. That’s why Energy Star is finally ready to lay down some guidelines on energy consumption for gaming consoles. If a console wants to earn the Energy Star logo/sticker of approval, it will have to use less than one watt when turned ‘off’, and less than 5 watts in standby mode.

The devices are also required to automatically power down after sitting idle for an hour. To top it all off, set-top boxes and DVD/Blu Ray playback functions have to come within 10% of the current Energy Star requirements. Energy Star is a joint effort of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. The manufacturers aren’t required to meet those standards and frankly I can’t see them losing sleep over it.

[Kotaku]