If you’re bored at work, you now not have to furtively search distraction in video games—you possibly can play video games along with your coworkers proper inside Microsoft Teams with the brand new Games for Work app.

Yes, a “Games for Work app.” For Microsoft Teams. It could seem counterintuitive, however Microsoft Casual Games cited a BYU examine that discovered that “teams who played short video games together were 20 percent more productive than those who participated in more traditional team-building activities.”

Even extra attention-grabbing, all the video games obtainable inside the app are multiplayer, even people who have historically been single-player by design: Solitaire, as an example. Wordament, Minesweeper, and IceBreakers—a sport the place gamers are requested to make decisions to foster dialog—are all included, with choices for 2 gamers to a whopping 250 gamers. But there’s an odd catch: The Games for Work app isn’t obtainable for shopper implementations of Microsoft Teams, simply companies and training prospects.

Microsoft additionally mentioned that customers can use apps like Polly, a enjoyable poll-taking app, and Kahoot!, an analogous collaborative sport, to combine in enjoyable with productiveness, too. Microsoft mentioned it is going to be working with its companions in 2023 so as to add further video games to the Games for Work app inside Teams. You may ship in further concepts for brand new video games, supplied they’re rated “E”(for “Everyone”) and in addition ad-free.

So if a CEO like Elon Musk needs to encourage Twitter customers to commit to “extremely hardcore” work over lengthy hours, possibly he can incorporate a gaggle spherical of Minesweeper: If they go “boom,” they’re fired!