Xbox, Blizzard, Riot and more come together to form Fair Play Alliance to battle player toxicity

More than 30 companies have come together to work out solutions for abusive and toxic player behaviours in multiplayer games.

Announced at GDC, the Fair Play Alliance has kicked off with an all-day summit to help developers understand how they can create and maintain a friendly atmosphere in their online games.

The 30 companies read like a who’s who in multiplayer gaming. Currently, the members are: Blizzard Entertainment, CCP Games, Corillian, Discord, Epic Games, Flaregames, Huuuge Games, Intel, Kabam, Kefir, Ker-Chunk Games, Mixer, Owlchemy Labs, Playrix, Radial Games, Riot Games, Roblox Corporation, Rovio, Space Ape Games, Spirit AI, Supercell, Two Hat, Twitch, Unity Technologies and Xbox.

That’s a big enough list that they can bring about some real change in the industry if all members work together.

The group has described their mission statement on the website as so: "We provide an open forum for the games industry to collaborate on research and best practices that encourage fair play and healthy communities in online gaming. We envision a world where games are free of harassment, discrimination, and abuse, and where players can express themselves through play."

Toxicity is a real problem in the online gaming space, and several of these companies have separately taken steps to try and resolve the issue.