On Tuesday and Wednesday, the New York Liberty Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (or WNBA) staff will probably be taking part in in opposition to the Los Angeles Sparks on a basketball court 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 beneath the web made to look a bit like the air flow holes within the Xbox Collection X.

After all, there’s additionally a “metaverse” tie-in as properly — the court has been recreated within the Dunking Simulator Roblox expertise. Whereas the gameplay doesn’t look fairly as life like as one thing like NBA 2K, it might be enjoyable for these of us who gained’t be capable of attend one of many precise video games.

Microsoft says it’ll donate as much as $50,000 to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports activities Basis or Women Who Code, giving $10 to one of many foundations for every submission to its Energy Her Goals web site, as a part of its aim to convey extra consideration to girls in sports activities and gaming.

A report from The Guardian final 12 months highlighted how girls are massively underrepresented within the checklist of prime earners in esports, and gamers within the WNBA are paid far much less on common than their NBA counterparts. WNBA gamers have simply began to look on the duvet of the favored NBA 2K online game collection up to now two years after the league was added to NBA 2K20.