Category Archives: Charity

Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity raised a record-breaking $3,512,345 over 2011. Project manager Jamie Dillon praised the efforts of independent fundraising initiatives for the scheme’s annual growth; the charity recently passed a $10 million milestone. Child’s Play provides games and toys to hospitalised kids, which studies have linked with increased recovery rates. Well done to everyone who supported last year’s endeavours.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

UK games charity GamesAid has announced this afternoon that Intent Media founder Stuart Dinsey has become its new chairman. He takes over from Bethesda’s Sarah Seaby, who has acted as the group’s chairperson for the last three years. “Having been in the games business for over 25 years, I know exactly how a lot of people feel about charity. In reality, they want to support it, it is a good thing, but fund-raising has to be done the right way, objectives must be clearly set out and there must be complete transparency and inclusiveness at all times,” he said. “GamesAid fits the criteria above, which is why I am happy to be chairman, but I will be firmly in the background.”

Intent is the home of MCV and Develop.

Child’s Play has hit reached $1.5 million in donations for this year, the charity has said, with an aim to hit $2 million by the end of the year still on. The group, formed by Penny Arcade, has made $10 million since it was created in 2003. The main aim of the charity has been to provide games and toys for children’s hospitals in the US. Donations can be made here.

Thanks, GI.Biz.

A charity album feature original music titles such as Mass Effect, Dead Space, Bioshock and others, has been compiled to benefit the Sweet Relief organization, which supports career musicians having trouble paying the bills and such due to illness, age, or disabilities.

More »

A new PC indie bundle is in the works and will feature titles such as Frozen Synapse, Explodemon and Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee with proceeds benefiting various charities through GamesAid.

More »

SpecialEffect’s launched this morning its own iOS app. The app – made by Shane McCafferty, who also made Eurogamer’s application – information, news and case studies for supporters of the charity, which provides support for disabled gamers.

There’s more details on GI.Biz.

Independent developer Eden Industries has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund its unusual new game, Waveform. For just $5 you can secure a copy of the game on launch day, on every platform it graces, which is pretty sweet. As with all Kickstarter projects, if the funding attempt falls through, you won’t be charged.

The game has players manipulating light as it passes through the universe, navigating a variety of shape-changing objects and collecting items. Gameplay looks to be something like a blend of rhythm action and puzzle, and is complemented by trippy visuals and gorgeous chiptunes. Check out a trailer through the break.

More »

The notorious Desert Bus, Penn and Teller’s incredibly boring and unrewarding parody simulation, is now available on both iOS and Android. It’s worth owning just to say you’ve experienced it, but all proceeds from the 99 cent app go straight to penny Arcade’s charity Child’s Play, which provides toys and games for hospitalised kids.

In related news, at time of writing the annual Desert Bus for Hope marathon, a tradition of the end-of-year Child’s Play drive, is on the 69th of 134 hours, and over $131,000 in donations.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Horde4Charity will be playing Gears of War 3′s Horde Mode for forty-eight hours straight on Insane difficulty in order to benefit the Skylight Miscarriage Organisation. Starting November 18, the event will be streamed live on Justin.tv with Twitter updates via the Gears 4 Charity account and live blogged on the official Facebook page. Come November 20, the six Scotsmen participating, will finally collapse from sleep deprivation, but hopefully not not until enough donations have been made. If you would like to help out, please be a dear and visit the official webpage for the charity and hit the donate button.

In its press release detailing the banner sales of Modern Warfare 3, Activision also announced that it had donated $3 million to the Call of Duty Endowment which supports American servicemen and women, by providing job placement and training services for veterans. The monetary amount was added to the $2 million already donated by the firm to the Endowment, which has provided “more than $1.5 million in grants and scholarships to veterans’ organizations across the country” since CEO Bobby Kotick started the non-profit in November 2009.

Crystal Dynamics is celebrating 15 years of Tomb Raider with an initiative created for fans via a digital exhibition of eight original art created specifically for the series.

More »

The Humble Bundle is back with the Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle, and once again you can pay what you want. It comes with the turn-based strategy title Frozen Synapse, and is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It also includes the soundtrack with your purchase. Those who pay above the average price will also receive the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle, which includes: Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, the Jack Claw prototype, and a Splot preorder. Charities supported are the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play.

Humble Bundles have now raised over $2 million for charity. Watch the video below.

More »

Addie and Greg Zinone have a mission, and during the Call of Duty XP event, their organization Pros vs GI Joes was on-hand to show gamers exactly what it entails.

More »

The nerds have spoken and the message is clear: they love the idea of a video game history museum.
More »

Give yourselves a pat on the back, Internet Massive. The Videogame History Museum has pulled enough funding to begin securing its collection for prosperity.

More »

An initiative to raise funds for the Videogame History Museum is rapidly approaching it’s deadline, with a significant financial gap still to bridge.

More »

The Able Gamers Foundation and Evil Controllers have announced that they will be unveiling a brand new controller that is designed to bring gaming to the disabled.
More »

The third Humble Indie Bundle has outdone its precursors, bringing home $2,167,676.22 in support of independent developers and charitable industry funds.

More »

Call of Duty developer Treyarch has put a pile of awesome swag up for auction to support the bereaved family of the late Don Barnes.

More »

Blizzard has announced it raised over $1.9 million through the sale of its World of Warcraft pet, the Cenarion Hatchling, which was sold to raise money towards earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan. In May, the firm said that for every Cenarion sold through July 31, 100 percent of the $10 cost would go towards the effort. Good job all around.