59% of women who play video games online mask their gender to avoid harassment, according to a new study by Reach 3.

Why it matters: Women face harassment that makes simply enjoying a multiplayer video game online a fraught proposition.

• Some women play as male characters, refrain from speaking over voice chat, disengage, or seek women-only gaming groups to avoid sexist comments and harassment.
• "We try to hide what we are so people don't flirt with us, send us stuff or send us messages we really don't want or pictures," one respondent to the Reach 3 survey said.
• Three quarters said they've faced gender-based discrimination, including sexual messages, patronizing comments and "men throwing or leaving a game when finding out the player is a woman."

The big picture: Gaming has historically been marketed to boys and men, explicitly or implicitly encouraging a culture in online games that is hostile to girls and women. Progress to create a more tolerant atmosphere is slow.

• Experts say men need to call out other men, to create a climate inhospitable to harassment.
• The games industry itself and the competitive gaming scene are dominated by men and have been slow to root out harassers and abusers. A wave of #MeToo accounts made headlines last summer.

Women play many of the same games as men.

• 88% of women in Reach 3's survey say they play competitive games, including MOBAs, first-person shooters, fighting games and more.

Watch this viral clip from January, in which a streamer verbally dismantles a sexist male Twitch viewer as she flawlessly plays a game.

The bottom line: Chronic harassment of women and girls happens in such great numbers that many women aren't allowed to be themselves even in online spaces.

Logitech has partnered with AbleGamers Charity, Adaptive Action Sports, and Mt. Sinai hospital to create a new, one of a kind tournament aimed at adaptive esports players.

Why it matters: Major esports tournaments for gamers with disabilities don't exist. It's another way in which these players are othered from the space, instead of being allowed to showcase their skills in competitive games.

• The tournament kicks off this fall with a 2v2 single-elimination competition in "Rocket League."
• Several organizers arranged an invite-only tournament last year for gamers with disabilities that featured six teams of 2v2 facing off in Psyonix's car-based soccer game.

What's next: Logitech will continue to release more videos in the coming weeks about the tournament's creation and importance.

Team-based shooter "Overwatch 2" is slicing the series' PvP to 5v5, eliminating the 6v6 size and a two-tank system players of the original are accustomed to.

• Game director Aaron Keller announced the change during a PvP-specific livestream.
• Keller calls the move "the next step in the way that 'Overwatch' ought to be played."

Why it matters: The size will impact team composition, specifically when it comes to how many tanks a team can have. With a five-person team, the game's role queue — which requires players to choose two support and two DPS characters — only leaves room for one tank.

• According to Keller, removing the second tank helps simplify the match. "Tanks can be problematic," he said. "... A tank has abilities that can be noisy, or when stacked with other tanks can cause problems for other teams to try to overcome."
• He described two main tanks on the fields as sometimes "very oppressive" for opposing teams and added that players will now be able to have a larger individual impact on matches.

The bottom line: The impact the swap will have on PvP matches will be big, but it's still unclear just how it will play out in real-time fights.

A hacker who goes by the name PixelButts (gaming, everyone!) has released the code for "Gears of War 3" running on the PlayStation 3.

Why it matters: Through hacks, accidental discoveries and, at times, illegal breaches of game company servers, secret builds of video games sometimes emerge to the public.

It's nearly unthinkable that a game made exclusively for Xbox 360 back in 2011 also had a PlayStation version.

• But that's what other hackers found a decade ago amid a huge data haul grabbed during a 2011 breach of Epic Games.

PixelButts, who said he wasn't involved in the original breach, revealed last year that he got the code working and uploaded an eight-hour playthrough of the game to YouTube.

• It mostly ran well but suffered graphical glitches, primarily when a character with long blonde hair appeared on screen.
• "Gears of War" lead creator Cliff Bleszinski initially said in a since-deleted tweet: "99% sure this is fake."
• By day's end, Epic admitted it was real, describing it as "a byproduct of Epic's internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process." They told Stephen last year that they did not plan to actually release "Gears 3" for PS3.

This week, PixelButts said he was releasing the code online to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of its discovery.

• "I can finally say this chapter of my life is over," he tweeted. "I've finally burnt out on development collecting and want this to be a good send-off gift."

🟥 Report: "Netflix seeks executive to expand game efforts" (Nick Wingfield and Jessica Toonkel, The Information)

• Netflix isn't commenting, and The Information says any plans for gaming are "in flux," and could range from licensing games to other publishers to making games itself.

🎥 Making of "Resident Evil Village" — The Internal Struggle

• A behind-the-scenes look at development with the game's creators

👀 Here's an original Xbox Easter egg that's remained hidden for Nearly 20 years (Alexandra Hall, Kotaku)

🚨 Call the gamer police on Apple CEO Tim Cook

💅 Roblox fans are buying digital Gucci bags for thousands of dollars (Ana Diaz, Polygon)

🧠The Games 4 Change group has announced the winners of a $150,000 grant program to build two game demos into quality STEM games.

A fun grab for all the "No Man's Sky" players with affection for "Mass Effect:" Hello Games added SSV Normandy SR-1 to the game as part of a special expedition running until May 31. Once players complete the game's latest expedition, they can add the Normandy to their frigate, for good.