Microsoft Corp. Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Meta Connect virtual event in New York on Oct. 11, 2022.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The next time you’re bored on a Microsoft Teams call, try joining your colleagues in a game of Minesweeper.
Microsoft on Wednesday added a collection of casual games to its Teams chat and calling service as the company tries to get people to spend more time in the app. Solitaire will also be available, along with a new game called IceBreakers created by Microsoft to help teammates get to know each other.
Microsoft is trying to make Teams the go-to destination for work, expanding on a product that exploded during the pandemic when employees were forced to meet and collaborate virtually. Teams is already available on most popular devices, and desktop software developers such as Adobe and SAP have developed Teams integrations.
By adding games, Microsoft is trying to sprinkle some fun into the equation and maybe even strengthen bonds at work. Employees can team up remotely to win a game of Minesweeper, a clickable square puzzle game that features some virtual mines that must be avoided. People can also just watch the entertainment.
“Enhanced spectator mode allows everyone, whether they’re actively playing that round or not, to follow the action and interact with players on screen,” wrote Nicole Herskowitz, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, in a blog post . He compared it to the experience of watching “Jeopardy.”
Games are a familiar product for Microsoft. In addition to the entire Xbox franchise, which launched in 2001, the company has many ways to play casual games. The classic Klondike game, for example, is part of the Microsoft Solitaire Collection app for Windows.
In January, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, which publishes first-person shooters in the Call of Duty franchise, for nearly $69 billion. The deal must first clear regulatory hurdles.
Minesweeper and Solitaire debuted with Microsoft in 1990. Solitaire, a variation of an 1800s card game, was a utility designed to help people get comfortable with Windows and learn how to use a mouse, but it became the most popular game on the operating system, The Washington Post reported in 1994. The newspaper said that Bill Gates, co-founder and first CEO of Microsoft, had such a severe addiction to Minesweeper that he pulled the game from your computer
Microsoft’s big play now is getting executives to renew and expand their subscriptions to Office 365, a critical suite the company is rebranding as Microsoft 365. Office accounted for 23% of Microsoft’s total revenue in the third quarter
Microsoft is even positioning games as a potential way to improve cognitive development. In an email to CNBC, a Microsoft spokesperson cited a study of more than 2,000 children that suggests those who played video games saw gains in working memory compared to those who didn’t.
As part of its new launch, Microsoft is also offering a mobile-friendly game called Wordament in Teams. The Boggle-like game appeared in 2011 after Microsoft asked employees to create Windows Phone apps in their spare time, leading two employees to come up with the game as something to play with their wives. The game, which challenges players to find words between a grid of letters, has amassed 1 million downloads on Android.
The Microsoft spokesperson said the IceBreakers idea was particularly popular.
“While we tested different game ideas at Microsoft, this was one of the most requested game types and we listened to feedback to create this game,” the spokesperson wrote in the email.
Minesweeper, Solitaire, Wordament and IceBreakers are in the Games for Work app for teams, which is now available to Microsoft’s business and education customers. Admins must enable app access in Teams for users to play games. The company will bring more partner games to Teams in 2023, Herskowitz wrote.
WATCH: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s art collection breaks record with $1.6 billion auction