MOJANG STUDIOS Women in Gaming: Building a Better—and More Equitable—World through the Power of Play at Minecraft

BY GUEST WRITER CHRISTOPHER DE HAAN, BUSINESS PROGRAM MANAGER, MOJANG STUDIOS

Mojang Studios, owned by Microsoft Corporation

and part of Xbox Game Studios, is the creator of Minecraft, a game about breaking, collecting, and placing blocks where players work together to create wonderful, imaginative things. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, played by millions of players in every country and territory around the world, including Antarctica and the Vatican City

Minecraft is also the most-watched content on YouTube in history, surpassing over 1 trillion views in December of 2021 Widely available across more than 20 platforms, including PC, console, and mobile devices, Minecraft appeals to all players regardless of age, demographics, or geography. A record 141 million people played Minecraft in August of 2021, and over 1 billion multiplayer hours were logged in Minecraft in 2021.

As part of Reinvented Magazine’s Women in Gaming issue, we recently hosted a virtual round table with a few of our exceptional women at the studio. They represent diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, work in different disciplines, hail from different geographies around the world, and have varied experience in gaming some are seasoned industry veterans and some are relative newcomers but they all have one thing in common: they represent the ever-expanding and deepening bench of female talent who are passionate collaborators and help bring Minecraft to life as part of Mojang Studios And, as we hope you will see, they’re all just like you

“Games bring people together, they build bridges and forge bonds,” says Helen Chiang, Corporate Vice President and Head of Mojang Studios. “I’m committed to making our studio a great place to work for everyone by building a diverse team where people feel they belong and can do their best work. We do this through intentional inclusion, education, recruiting, and outreach. Games are played by everyone, and our day-to-day culture should reflect that.”

Helen Chiang

“Minecraft is enjoyed by players of all ages, genders, capabilities, and backgrounds with nearly 140 million unique players engaging across all platforms every month,” said Ulrika Hojgard, Head of Stockholm Studio. “We embrace the challenge of keeping Minecraft relevant for our diverse player base and try to represent as much of our community as we can throughout the franchise. Similarly, we continue to learn from our employees and our community, making us more aware of important cultural experiences and systemic issues. There’s always more to learn, whether we’re improving our offerings to the community or the studio."

Ulrika Höjgård