Together We Thrive: Celebrating the Joy of the LGBTQIA+ Community in Gaming

Video games is usually a highly effective medium to specific and discover one’s id in a inventive and secure surroundings. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind permits gamers to romance and marry characters regardless of their gender. Overwatch options brazenly LGBTQIA+ characters, reminiscent of Tracer, who’s heroic, sturdy, and prominently featured in the recreation. Inform Me Why tells the story of Tyler, a transgender man, with sensitivity and depth. Video games is usually a highly effective technique to discover identities inside the security of inventive play whereas enabling all gamers to expertise new views that could be completely different from their very own.

This Delight month, we invite you to hitch 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 folks with a variety of views, experiences, and backgrounds. That significant work is achieved via folks impacting others via training, 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 deal with the wants of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. In the final 30 years, along with our staff, Microsoft has donated over $16M to organizations that assist the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, and in the final yr alone, we donated over $1.3M. This yr 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 Recreation Studios Publishing is proud to proceed partnering with GLAAD to provide extra inclusive video games from conception to design to improvement. Xbox is partnering with The Trevor Undertaking to assist join LGBTQIA+ gamers with priceless sources that assist assist well-being and security as they play inside the Xbox neighborhood. Each participant has a singular story, and we sit up for future tasks the place folks throughout the rainbow spectrum might expertise the similar 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 Undertaking

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

This affect just isn’t misplaced on us. At Xbox, we’re dedicated to creating gaming experiences which are welcoming for all gamers, and that features offering a secure and inclusive area the place everybody could be their genuine selves.

That’s why we’re proud to highlight Xbox’s standing partnership with The Trevor Project, 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 Undertaking to attach gamers with sources to assist their well-being and guarantee they really feel secure and welcome after they play on Xbox.

For us, it’s essential gamers really feel secure. Our ongoing partnership with The Trevor Undertaking is a technique for us to try this. More information on how Xbox supports player’s well-being can be found here.

In the spirit of Delight, we need to share the following security ideas to assist gamers get the most out of their gaming expertise:

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

Gaming and Affect with Rewards with Xbox

Rewards members in the United States can earn and donate factors to organizations supporting LGBTQIA+ communities with Xbox. The organizations under can be accessible 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 via elevated media accountability, public campaigns, company engagement initiatives, and advocacy packages that assist to make sure 100% inclusion and acceptance of the LGBTQ neighborhood. (US)
• Outright International: Outright Worldwide is devoted to working with companions round 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)
• National Center for Transgender Equality: The Nationwide Heart for Transgender Equality (NCTE) advocates to alter insurance policies and society to extend understanding and acceptance of transgender and non-binary folks. In the nation’s capital and all through the nation, NCTE works to switch disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, alternative, and justice. (US)

Xbox gamers can earn Rewards factors in numerous methods, reminiscent of taking part in video games, finishing Recreation Go Quests, and buying video games and different eligible objects at the Microsoft Retailer (exclusions apply). Start earning today and redeem your factors for nice rewards. Donate your factors on the Rewards hub or on the Rewards redeem page.

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

Tell Me Why, the award-winning narrative journey from Don’t Nod Leisure and Xbox Recreation Studios Publishing, can be accessible free of charge on Xbox consoles, Home windows PC, and Steam for the total month of June 2024. As in previous years, the Inform Me Why group encourages gamers to offer what they’d have spent on Inform Me Why to an impartial trans creator or a trans-inclusive charity in their neighborhood.

Discover Video games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft

Xbox invitations you to play with pleasure.

Throughout June and past, take a look at a range of recreation collections that showcase LGBTQIA+ creators, lead characters, and video games with inclusive gender and relationship choices. Accessible on the Microsoft Shops on Xbox and Home windows, take a look at the transgender and non-binary community games collection and the LGBTQIA+ community games collection. These collections will exist year-round as half of our ongoing work to create extra inclusive gaming ecosystems and elevate content material that resonates with communities. For Xbox Recreation Go members, discover what video games can be found to play in the Xbox Game Pass collection and the PC Game Pass collection.

Featured titles inside the collections embrace:

Want for Pace Unbound (Accessible with Xbox Recreation Go Final on Console, PC, and Cloud) – Want for Pace 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, in addition to together with LGBTQIA+ iconography in the streets and as decals to your automobiles.

Starfield (Accessible with Xbox Recreation Go on Console, PC, and Cloud) – On this role-playing recreation set amongst the stars, 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, and so they/them pronoun choices. Exploration choices embrace pursuing romantic relationships regardless of gender.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Accessible on Console) – Play as star and stagehand as you identify the story via dialog and music in this online game for musical lovers. Written by the iconic and brazenly homosexual narrative designer, David Gaider, you’ll craft not solely a singular narrative, however a soundtrack to your personal musical expertise primarily based in your decisions. Forge your personal story and determine who to romance.

The Quarry (Accessible with Xbox Recreation Go on Console and Cloud) – Play solo or in a bunch of associates as any of 9 camp counselors in this thrilling cinematic expertise that leads down a tangled net of prospects primarily based in your decisions. Get pleasure from an evening of enjoyable earlier than a celebration rapidly turns into an unpredictable night time of horror and your relationships are examined by unimaginable life-or-death selections.

This Mattress We Made (Accessible on Console) –   Chloe Lussier, CEO and co-founder of Lowbirth Video games, needs to inform impactful tales that function unconventional heroes. Set in 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 full of secrets and techniques, in this third-person thriller narrative recreation that explores the lengths folks have needed to go to pursue loving relationships as their genuine self.

Rejoice Delight in Forza Horizon 5

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

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

Overwatch 2 celebrates Delight this month with the return of a fan-favorite map and Calling All Heroes. All month lengthy, the Delight pageant returns to Overwatch 2’s Midtown map. Gamers can sit up for taking part in on this map as they queue for Unranked and Aggressive video games and straight in a devoted play card on the Arcade. Calling All Heroes is Overwatch 2’s aggressive Esports sequence that gives an inclusive surroundings 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.tv/ow_esports will have the ability to earn new drops like the new Monarch Enterprise pores and skin.

Xbox Gear Store

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 Pride gear now!

Discover Xbox’s Kingdom of Coloration

In celebration of Delight, the Xbox emblem was reimagined as a crystal radiating with energy at the high of a magic workers. The storybook-inspired picture additionally features a fortress with festive rainbow banners and fireworks. The artist, who is an element 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 e-book full of 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 in which all gamers discover their magic.

Xbox Ambassadors Rejoice Delight 2024

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 avid gamers. Read the Xbox Ambassadors blog to listen to neighborhood members sharing their favourite recollections taking part in video video games, recommending video games that do a very good job representing LGBTQIA+ folks and experiences, and providing recommendations on learn how to keep secure when gaming on-line.

Delight Dynamic Background and Wallpaper Accessible Now

The Delight Month Xbox design is out there in the present day 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’ll be able to select between Video games, Xbox, or Summary dynamic backgrounds. Select the background artwork that you really want with the A button.

Radical Joy with Microsoft

In the face of adversity, existence itself could 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 all over the place. Be part of us and uncover extra at Microsoft.com/pride.