Xbox has announced that it will be launching a mentoring programme for “everyone who wants to pursue a career in gaming,” in order to improve “diversity and representation among the people who make games.”
The mentorship programme will be “aimed at partnering women in gaming careers across Xbox’s diverse range of studios and products with aspiring talent” and will involve “valuable 1:1 coaching sessions with key leaders” across the world.
Xbox shared that it hopes “this program generates meaningful engagements with tangible and purposeful actions to help foster career development in the games industry” and added that more details on the programme will arrive in mid-March.
Louise O’Connor, executive producer at Rare, said that “Mentorship and leading from a place of empathy encourages a culture of women uplifting and supporting other women, and I hope to inspire others to do the same.”
“It is in this spirit of mentorship that we hope to see more women become part of the games industry so that they can see themselves as the hero in the games they play and in their own lives,” O’Connor added.
Xbox has also revealed that Microsoft Rewards users in America now have to option to donate their points to several “organisations supporting women in gaming” – including Girls Who Code, Games & Online Harassment Hotline, ReDI School Of Digital Integration, and PretaLab.
The company has also outlined various other ways it will be celebrating International Woman’s Day, which you can read more about via Xbox’s blog.
In other gaming news, a developer who worked at Amazon for seven years has shared that “Amazon is not a great place to make games,” and revealed that “it’s pretty apparent in hindsight, and honestly was pretty apparent at the time, that [Crucible] was going to fail”.
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