Xbox announced today at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) that it’s launching a new set of resources for game developers called the Gaming for Everyone Product Inclusion Framework. These resources are intended to help developers make their games more intentionally inclusive and reach more gamers.
According to Katy Jo Wright, Xbox’s head of Gaming for Everyone, Xbox has been using this framework internally since 2019. It focuses on four things, which Wright says are called “Inclusive Growth Doorways:” Approachability, representation, globalization and accessibility. Now Xbox plans to offer these tools to all developers who wish to use them.
Speaking with GamesBeat, Wright said, “From day one, we’ve had this core principle that if you don’t intentionally include, you unintentionally exclude. Reaching players that might be different than us, or have different lived experiences — that’s not going to happen by default.”
According to Wright, the Framework came about because the developers were having a hard time translating those principles on a local level. “That’s when we created the product inclusion framework to help. It’s very actionable resources that help everyone across Team Xbox deliver on this concept of product inclusion.”
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Growth Inclusion Doorways
Wright gave examples of all of the doorways in action. For representation and globalization, she pointed to the community games collection feature on the Xbox store, which allows users to search for games relevant to a particular group. “So if you were a woman, or Black, or LGBTQIA, you can search for different game collections. Not only is that great for the player to be able to find games that might resonate with them, but also for other players who want to learn about that community.”
Other examples include Xbox’s family settings and their Ambassadors program for approachability, the variety of languages supported on the Microsoft store for globalization — Wright noted that games like Minecraft and Sea of Thieves support 16-25 languages — and various accessibility features in Microsoft games.
Wright also emphasized that the Framework is neither a tool nor a mandate. It’s making the tools Xbox uses internally available for all developers. “We don’t believe it’s a matter of making every game for everyone, but making gaming truly for everyone.”