Microsoft made this WNBA courtroom appear to be an Xbox loading display screen

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the New York Liberty Women’s National Basketball Association (or WNBA) staff will likely be taking part in towards the Los Angeles Sparks on a basketball courtroom that’s coated in Xbox logos and console-inspired designs. Microsoft says that it’s the league’s “first gaming-inspired basketball court,” with the realm below the online made to look a bit just like the air flow holes within the Xbox Series X.

Of course, there’s additionally a “metaverse” tie-in as effectively — the courtroom has been recreated within the Dunking Simulator Roblox expertise. While the gameplay doesn’t look fairly as reasonable as one thing like NBA 2K, it might be enjoyable for these of us who received’t have the ability to attend one of many precise video games.

Microsoft says it’ll donate as much as $50,000 to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation or Girls Who Code, giving $10 to one of many foundations for every submission to its Power Her Dreams web site, as a part of its goal to deliver extra consideration to ladies in sports activities and gaming.

A report from The Guardian final 12 months highlighted how ladies are massively underrepresented within the listing of high earners in esports, and gamers within the WNBA are paid far less on average than their NBA counterparts. WNBA gamers have just started to appear on the duvet of the favored NBA 2K online game collection previously two years after the league was added to NBA 2K20.