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Pride Month 2021: Here’s how video game studios are celebrating

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June is Pride Month, a celebration of LGBTQIA+ communities and folks around the world. Like many companies, video game studios are celebrating with a myriad of deals, donations, and free digital content for players to get their hands on. Here’s a collection of what video game companies are doing to celebrate Pride Month.

Microsoft celebrates Pride

Microsoft is rolling out several freebies for some of its biggest games. The 2021 Forza Rainbow livery for the 2017 Ford Focus RS is available in Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Motorsport 7. In the Halo: Master Chief Collection, players can customize their profile with the new Unity nameplate. Gears of War 5 players can now earn the Pixelated Heart Banner through the MS Reward Punch Card.

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In addition to the in-game content, Microsoft is donating $150,000 to LGBTQIA+ nonprofits as well as matching donations to certain nonprofits when Microsoft Rewards members donate through Xbox. For the full list check out the Microsoft site.

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Tell Me Why free on Xbox and PC

Dontnod, the developers of Life is Strange, are allowing people to play Tell Me Why for free through the Xbox Marketplace and through Steam. Tell Me Why follows the story of Tyler and Alyson, twins from Alaska, and their childhood lives and how each of them perceived it. Dontnod says that Tyler is the first playable transgender man from a major game studio.

Celebrating Pride With You – Riot Games

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Riot Games is celebrating pride month in all of its games this month. The Rainbow Poros Icon is available in each Riot title this month. The rainbow home guard trails make a return in League of Legends as well as Wild Rift. Ellie the Elephant, a new guardian, is available in Legends of Runeterra and new victory animations for TFT. In addition to in-game content, the Riot Games will be selling Pride Month merch with 100% of the net profit going to the It Gets Better Project.

Queer Games Bundle 2021 on Itch.io

Itch.io has a new Queer Games Bundle this year with 200 games included. All of these games were created by queer developers and artists. The bundle can be purchased for $60 or for a pay-what-you-can sliding model. With this bundle, every purchase is divided equally among all developers participating in it. If you want to purchase this bundle it is available starting June 1 through June 31.

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Andrew Zucosky
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