Microsoft has said the gaming industry needs to do more ‘heavy lifting’ when it comes to responsible gaming after recent scrutiny over gaming ‘addiction’, loot boxes and online safety.

Dave McCarthy, head of operations at Xbox ,told The Telegraph that he wants to “push the industry to recognise that it is challenging to be a parent and manage digital and online.”

“It’s a relevant time in the world to be talking about it,” said McCarthy. “There are a lot of considerations around screen-time and online safety and those kind of things.”

“We should evolve what we offer and recognise there’s more we can do,” he said. “We’ve probably been more quiet about it in the past than maybe we would like to be. Part of this is saying that we recognise there are challenges and we feel a great responsibility to make healthy spaces.”

McCarthy’s comments come ahead of the World Health Organisation voting this week on whether to officially include ‘gaming disorder’ as part of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, referring to addictive behaviours relating to overuse of video games.

Gaming disorder is defined by the WHO as a “pattern of gaming behaviour characterised by impaired control over gaming”, whereby users give increasing priority to gaming over other daily activities.