Xbox's Gaming for Everyone: "Diversity has always been here"

May 20th, 2019, 22:08 Posted By: wraggster

As hiring for diversity becomes a more visible and discussed issue, Microsoft's Benjamin Williams also wants to address a related problem: once members of marginalized communities get hired into the industry, how do we keep them here?
Williams is the senior community program manager for Gaming for Everyone, an Xbox program that works toward inclusivity both internally and externally. The tagline and ideas behind Gaming for Everyone appear with some frequency in various projects, public statements, and other initiatives at Xbox, but Williams' main job is to coordinate several events at GDC in San Francisco each year to bring together various marginalized communities for talks, dialogue, and networking.
"GDC is always my biggest project and the one that I love," Williams says. "The work we do at GDC is about amplifying the voices of under-represented people to let them know we want them in the industry, we want them to have their projects become a reality, and we want everyone to be able to make awesome stuff so that everyone can enjoy it."
At GDC 2019, Microsoft celebrated six different gaming communities at six different events. Women, blacks, Latinx, LGBTQIA, and disability communities each had their own receptions, with a final event focused on Gaming for Everyone as a whole.

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