Thursday, February 13, 2025

Collectively We Thrive: Celebrating the Pleasure of the LGBTQIA+ Group in Gaming


Abstract

  • The Trevor Mission and the Gaming Security workforce are partnering to create a safer, extra inclusive gaming neighborhood.
  • Discover Video games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft.
  • Uncover Delight Gear.

Video games is usually a highly effective medium to specific and discover one’s identification in a artistic and protected setting. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind permits gamers to romance and marry characters no matter their gender. Overwatch options overtly LGBTQIA+ characters, comparable to Tracer, who’s heroic, sturdy, and prominently featured within the sport. Inform Me Why tells the story of Tyler, a transgender man, with sensitivity and depth. Video games is usually a highly effective option to discover identities inside the security of artistic play whereas enabling all gamers to expertise new views that could be totally different from their very own.

This Delight month, we invite you to affix us on this journey of studying, rising, and thriving. Gaming is for everybody, and collectively, we will work in the direction of making a gaming neighborhood that’s welcoming to everybody and is inclusive of individuals with a variety of views, experiences, and backgrounds. That significant work is achieved by means of folks impacting others by means of schooling, appreciating the lived experiences of others and constructing empathy with members of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood.

We consider it’s essential to assist organizations that uplift, empower, and tackle the wants of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. Within the final 30 years, along with our staff, Microsoft has donated over $16M to organizations that assist the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, and within the final 12 months alone, we donated over $1.3M. This 12 months Xbox, together with Microsoft, is thrilled to proceed these efforts with a $200K contribution to a number of organizations supporting the LGBQTIA+ neighborhood to assist encourage conversations, rally neighborhood actions, and empower folks to share their Delight.   

Moreover, Xbox Sport Studios Publishing is proud to proceed partnering with GLAAD to supply extra inclusive video games from conception to design to growth. Xbox is partnering with The Trevor Mission to assist join LGBTQIA+ gamers with invaluable sources that assist assist well-being and security as they play inside the Xbox neighborhood. Each participant has a novel story, and we stay up for future tasks the place folks throughout the rainbow spectrum might expertise the identical empowerment. Learn on to study extra about how we’re celebrating the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood this month and past:

Spotlighting Xbox’s partnership with The Trevor Mission

Three people in cartoon style sitting at a table with phones, a book, and a laptop.

Gaming has lengthy been a supply of enjoyable, neighborhood, and self-expression for the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. In accordance with GLAAD, LGBTQIA+ players are 24% extra seemingly to make use of gaming as a assist to assist get them by means of powerful instances – with 66% of LGBTQIA+ gamers sharing that gaming permits them to specific themselves in a approach they don’t really feel snug doing in the true world.

This impression shouldn’t be misplaced on us. At Xbox, we’re dedicated to creating gaming experiences which might be welcoming for all gamers, and that features offering a protected and inclusive area the place everybody might be their genuine selves.

That’s why we’re proud to highlight Xbox’s standing partnership with The Trevor Mission, a U.S. nonprofit that gives lifesaving and life-affirming companies to LGBTQIA+ younger folks. Since 2019, Xbox and its security groups have been partnering with The Trevor Mission to attach gamers with sources to assist their well-being and guarantee they really feel protected and welcome after they play on Xbox.

For us, it’s essential gamers really feel protected. Our ongoing partnership with The Trevor Mission is a technique for us to try this. Extra info on how Xbox helps participant’s well-being might be discovered right here.

Within the spirit of Delight, we wish to share the next security ideas to assist gamers get essentially the most out of their gaming expertise:

  • Discover your consumer settings. Xbox gives settings that permit gamers alternative in how they play. Gamers can choose whether or not to make their pals record seen, select to obtain messages from individuals who aren’t pals, or block content material they don’t want to view.
  • Take consolation in realizing Xbox has your again. To assist the broader player-base and LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, we take participant security critically. This consists of:
    • In-game reporting instruments to assist gamers flag problems with inappropriate habits or content material. Xbox invests in 24/7 protection globally to assist reply to and examine studies.
    • Moderation instruments that work throughout textual content, pictures video and voice, to dam dangerous content material earlier than it reaches gamers.
    • Entry to computerized textual content filters, which empowers gamers to customise their gaming expertise and determine what content material shouldn’t be okay to obtain – these filters robotically block content material earlier than it reaches the participant.
    • Persevering with to create proactive measures to dam hate speech and spend money on applied sciences to assist reasonable doubtlessly poisonous communications, whereas permitting particular person expression.

Gaming and Impression with Rewards with Xbox

Rewards members in the USA can earn and donate factors to organizations supporting LGBTQIA+ communities with Xbox. The organizations beneath can be out there on the Rewards hub:

  • GLAAD: Based in 1985, GLAAD – the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy group – works with tv, movie, video video games, Spanish-language media, journalists, and social media to inform tales and seek the advice of on LGBTQ media illustration. GLAAD tackles powerful points and provokes dialogue that results in cultural change by means of elevated media accountability, public campaigns, company engagement initiatives, and advocacy applications that assist to make sure 100% inclusion and acceptance of the LGBTQ neighborhood. (US)
  • Outright Worldwide: Outright Worldwide is devoted to working with companions across the globe to strengthen the capability of the lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) human rights motion, doc and amplify human rights violations towards LGBTIQ folks, and advocate for inclusion and equality. (US)
  • Nationwide Heart for Transgender Equality: The Nationwide Heart for Transgender Equality (NCTE) advocates to vary insurance policies and society to extend understanding and acceptance of transgender and non-binary folks. Within the nation’s capital and all through the nation, NCTE works to exchange disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, alternative, and justice. (US)

Xbox gamers can earn Rewards factors in varied methods, comparable to taking part in video games, finishing Sport Cross Quests, and buying video games and different eligible gadgets on the Microsoft Retailer (exclusions apply). Begin incomes at the moment and redeem your factors for nice rewards. Donate your factors on the Rewards hub or on the Rewards redeem web page.

Inform Me Why Obtainable for Free in June on Xbox Consoles, Microsoft Retailer, and Steam!

Michael, a young man wearing a beige knitted sweater, walks next to Tyler and Alyson Ronan in a snowy residential area.

Inform Me Why, the award-winning narrative journey from Don’t Nod Leisure and Xbox Sport Studios Publishing, can be out there at no cost on Xbox consoles, Home windows PC, and Steam for your complete month of June 2024. As in previous years, the Inform Me Why workforce encourages gamers to provide what they’d have spent on Inform Me Why to an impartial trans creator or a trans-inclusive charity of their neighborhood.

Discover Video games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft

A compilation image featuring game box art for Need for Speed Unbound, Starfield, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, The Quarry, and The Bed We Made on a background including the Xbox Sphere styled in recognition for Pride featuring a rainbow sky, castle, and various pride flags.

Xbox invitations you to play with satisfaction.

Throughout June and past, take a look at quite a lot of sport collections that showcase LGBTQIA+ creators, lead characters, and video games with inclusive gender and relationship choices. Obtainable on the Microsoft Shops on Xbox and Home windows, take a look at the transgender and non-binary neighborhood video games assortment and the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood video games assortment. These collections will exist year-round as a part of our ongoing work to create extra inclusive gaming ecosystems and elevate content material that resonates with communities. For Xbox Sport Cross members, discover what video games can be found to play within the Xbox Sport Cross assortment and the PC Sport Cross assortment.

Featured titles inside the collections embody:

Want for Velocity Unbound (Obtainable with Xbox Sport Cross Final on Console, PC, and Cloud) Want for Velocity Unbound’s character creator permits for a number of gender expressions through clothes, hair, and voice choices that aren’t restricted to the gender binary. The sport additionally options racing rival, Justicia, a trans lady voiced by trans actress, Sena Bryer, along with together with LGBTQIA+ iconography within the streets and as decals on your automobiles.

Starfield (Obtainable with Xbox Sport Cross on Console, PC, and Cloud) – On this role-playing sport set amongst the celebs, create any character you need and discover with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey. Starfield boasts a formidable character creation device with a number of physique varieties, pores and skin tones, hairstyles, non-gendered options, they usually/them pronoun choices. Exploration choices embody pursuing romantic relationships no matter gender.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Obtainable on Console) – Play as star and stagehand as you establish the story by means of dialog and tune on this online game for musical lovers. Written by the enduring and overtly homosexual narrative designer, David Gaider, you’ll craft not solely a novel narrative, however a soundtrack to your personal musical expertise based mostly in your selections. Forge your personal story and determine who to romance.

The Quarry (Obtainable with Xbox Sport Cross on Console and Cloud) – Play solo or in a gaggle of pals as any of 9 camp counselors on this thrilling cinematic expertise that leads down a tangled net of prospects based mostly in your selections. Take pleasure in an evening of enjoyable earlier than a celebration shortly turns into an unpredictable evening of horror and your relationships are examined by unimaginable life-or-death choices.

This Mattress We Made (Obtainable on Console) –   Chloe Lussier, CEO and co-founder of Lowbirth Video games, desires to inform impactful tales that characteristic unconventional heroes. Set within the Nineteen Fifties, the story that unfolds in This Mattress We Made is tied to actual historical past when being a member of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood was criminalized. Step into the function of Sophie, an indiscreet chambermaid at a lodge stuffed with secrets and techniques, on this third-person thriller narrative sport that explores the lengths folks have needed to go to pursue loving relationships as their genuine self.

Have fun Delight in Forza Horizon 5

Screenshot from Forza Horizon 5 shows players in a group of colorful cars cruising through a narrow curving street in the city of Guanajuato, Mexico.

This 12 months’s Delight-themed Xbox artwork can be added to Forza Horizon 5 as a vinyl: an in-game decal that you need to use to customise any automotive. Exhibit this distinctive design in your automotive utilizing #ForzaRainbow on social media for an opportunity to be featured! (The vinyl can be out there beginning June 7 from the Forza Horizon accounts on Instagram and X.)

Overwatch 2 Celebrates Delight with In-Sport Map and Calling All Heroes

Heroes Lifeweaver, Tracer, and Venture standing in front of a Pride rainbow

Overwatch 2 celebrates Delight this month with the return of a fan-favorite map and Calling All Heroes. All month lengthy, the Delight competition returns to Overwatch 2’s Midtown map. Gamers can stay up for taking part in on this map as they queue for Unranked and Aggressive video games and immediately in a devoted play card on the Arcade. Calling All Heroes is Overwatch 2’s aggressive Esports collection that gives an inclusive setting to aspiring rivals of marginalized genders, together with those that current themselves as Trans, Non-Binary, and Genderqueer. This competitors returned final weekend, and everybody who tunes in at twitch.television/ow_esports will have the ability to earn new drops like the brand new Monarch Enterprise pores and skin.

Xbox Gear Store

Xbox Gear Shop Pride 2024 Collection GIF showcasing various Pride t-shirts.

Present your love and assist for Delight 2024 with our new limited-edition t-shirts, hoodies and extra – designed by and with the LGBTQIA+ communities. Get your Delight gear now!

Two people wearing the 2024 Blizzard Pride Collection apparel

Have fun Delight with the brand new 2024 Delight Assortment completely on the Blizzard Gear Retailer! Led by means of the Blizzard LGBT+ Worker Community, the Blizzard Delight Assortment options Delight-themed attire benefitting The Trevor Mission from Could 15 by means of June 30, 2024.

Discover Xbox’s Kingdom of Coloration

A custom rainbow Xbox sphere with a castle showcasing various Pride flags.

In celebration of Delight, the Xbox emblem was reimagined as a crystal radiating with energy on the high of a magic employees. The storybook-inspired picture additionally features a citadel with festive rainbow banners and fireworks. The artist, who’s a part of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, imagines the Kingdom of Coloration as a spot the place individuals who establish as LGBTQIA+ rule and the magic of Delight is unfold to each nook of the realm. Proper from the pages of a leather-bound guide stuffed with colourful artwork and calligraphy textual content, this picture evokes not solely acquainted tales of dragons, knights, and wizards, however launches these tales right into a extra inclusive future by which all gamers discover their magic.

Xbox Ambassadors Have fun Delight 2024

White Xbox controller icon with white laurels surrounding it layers over a blurred rainbow background

The Xbox Ambassadors Program is celebrating Delight by spotlighting members of the Xbox Ambassadors neighborhood who responded to a current survey about their experiences as players. Learn the Xbox Ambassadors weblog to listen to neighborhood members sharing their favourite reminiscences taking part in video video games, recommending video games that do a superb job representing LGBTQIA+ folks and experiences, and providing tips about the best way to keep protected when gaming on-line.

Delight Dynamic Background and Wallpaper Obtainable Now

The Delight Month Xbox design is on the market at the moment as an Xbox wallpaper and dynamic background on console – observe these steps to use the dynamic background:

  • Press the Xbox button in your controller to open the information.
  • Choose Profile & system > Settings > Normal > Personalization > My background > Dynamic backgrounds.

You possibly can select between Video games, Xbox, or Summary dynamic backgrounds. Select the background artwork that you really want with the A button.

Radical Pleasure with Microsoft

Within the face of adversity, existence itself might be resistance and spark change. This Delight, LGBTQIA+ folks at Microsoft share the which means of pleasure and invite everybody to unfold acceptance, abundance, and concord in every single place. Be a part of us and uncover extra at Microsoft.com/satisfaction.



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