As June arrives, so does Pride Month, a time for the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies to celebrate and promote equality and acceptance. Xbox, one of the leading gaming companies, is showing its support for the community through various initiatives, including a new partnership with GLAAD.
Xbox has revealed that it will be partnering with GLAAD, an LGBTQIA+ organization, for a "long-term" collaboration. The aim of the partnership is to "bring more LGBTQIA+ representation to gaming and to help create safe spaces for gamers of all identities."
In addition to the partnership, Xbox is also offering freebies and game collections for Pride Month. These include the Xbox Pride Collection, which features games with LGBTQIA+ characters, themes, and storylines. The collection includes titles like Life is Strange 2, Tell Me Why, and Overcooked! 2.
Xbox is also offering a free Pride logo for players to use on their profiles. The logo features the Xbox logo in rainbow colors, a symbol of support for the LGBTQIA+ community. The Pride logo is available to all Xbox players and can be downloaded from the Xbox website.
But Xbox's support for the LGBTQIA+ community goes beyond just Pride Month. The company has a grassroots movement called Pride at Microsoft, which was created by LGBTQIA+ employees around the world. The mission of the movement is to "empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more by driving inclusion and belonging."
Xbox's commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in its games as well. Many of its titles feature LGBTQIA+ characters and storylines, including games like Gears 5, which features a transgender character, and The Outer Worlds, which has same-sex romance options.
Xbox's efforts to support the LGBTQIA+ community come at a time when representation in video games is becoming increasingly important. According to a study by GLAAD, only 16% of video games released in 2020 featured any LGBTQIA+ characters, and only 3% of those characters were the main protagonists.
Xbox's partnership with GLAAD and its support for the LGBTQIA+ community is a step in the right direction towards promoting diversity and inclusion in gaming. By offering game collections and freebies and featuring LGBTQIA+ characters and storylines in its titles, Xbox is helping to create a more welcoming and inclusive gaming community.
