Xbox celebrates Pride Month by offering 'Tell Me Why' for free, ways to donate, new merch, and more

What you need to know

• We're officially entering June, which means the beginning of Pride Month 2021 and the continued celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Xbox has announced how they're celebrating Pride Month this year with a wide range of in-game rewards, game highlights, and ways for players to donate.
• Tell Me Why from DontNod Entertainment is free for the entire month of June, and Xbox has a collection of fantastic games for players to try.
• Microsoft is also donating to several LGBTQIA+ nonprofit organizations, and is matching all Microsoft Reward donations made my players.

We should be celebrating and supporting the diverse LGBTQIA+ community at all times throughout the year, but Pride Month, which starts today, is an opportunity to increase awareness and talk about what can be improved even further. Xbox is celebrating Pride Month 2021, and encourages Xbox and PC players to join in on the celebration.

There's new merch to enjoy, some slick in-game rewards and Xbox Profile customizations, ways to donate using Microsoft Rewards, and more. The headliner for this year's Xbox Pride Month celebration, however, is the news that Tell Me Why, the award-winning narrative adventure game from DontNod Entertainment, will be available completely for free for the entire month of June!

Additionally, Microsoft and Xbox will be hosting some streams and events for Pride Month over on the official Xbox Twitch page. All of this pairs with the overall Microsoft Pride celebrations.

Of course, there's no wrong way to celebrate Pride Month as long as you support the LGBTQIA+ communities, but it's always nice to see large companies like Xbox openly support Pride Month and offer additional ways for players to join in the celebrations. You should also check out our list of best Xbox Game Pass games for even more awesome games to play.

Here are some of the ways Xbox is helping to celebrate Pride Month 2021.

Donating to nonprofits and Microsoft Rewards

Microsoft and its employees have already reportedly donated over $2 million to nonprofit organizations supporting LGBTQIA+ communities, but this year they're making an additional $150,000 donation. On top of that, players and Microsoft customers can help donate to some of these organizations through Microsoft Rewards. From now until the end of June, Microsoft will match any point donations made to the following three nonprofit organizations through Microsoft Rewards:

• The Trevor Project
• OutRight Action International
• Transgender Law Center

Games and in-game awards

Of course, Xbox can't celebrate Pride Month without the games. That's why Tell Me Why, a narrative adventure from DontNod Entertainment, is being offered for free (all three chapters!) for the entire duration of Pride Month. If you haven't given this game a try, it's certainly worth your time. There's also a new Play with Pride game collection, which features a ton of different games you can play that include LGBTQIA+ representation.

If you're looking to stick with the games you already know and love, several games are getting some kind of in-game reward for Pride Month. Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Motorsport 7 are giving away a 2017 Ford Focus RS donned in the exclusive 2021 Forza Rainbow livery to any player that logs in after June 1. Halo: The Master Chief Collection is giving players the free "Unity" nameplate for logging in during Pride Month. Finally, Gears 5 is giving players the Pixelated Hearts banner set for completing the new Gears-based Microsoft Reward punch-card.

You can also celebrate Pride Month in your Xbox profile with some returning LGBTQIA+ gamerpics and a new profile theme.

New merch and an exclusive controller

Microsoft is expanding its merch offerings with a new collection for Pride Month, which includes shirts, bags, stickers, and more that combine flag colors from the LGBTQIA+ community and different Microsoft logos like Xbox, Halo, Psychonauts 2, Age of Empires, and more.

Microsoft also showed off a gorgeous new exclusive Xbox Wireless Controller, which will apparently be given to a handful of influential members of the LGBTQIA+ community.