Tag Archives: Charity

Train2Game News Yogscast 2014 Christmas Charity

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Yogscast, the UK’s most watched family of YouTube channels announces today that its latest Christmas drive has raised $1,104,882.09 – just over £725,000 – for a mixture of international charities.

The incredible haul for the ‘Yogscast Jingle Jam’ beats last year’s total and brings the overall amount raised to over $2.6m since the Christmas events began in 2011.

Talent from across the Yogscast family of YouTube channels – plus some special guests – appeared on Twitch.tv every night during December playing games, taking on challenges and having fun.

The money will be shared between five charities: Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders/MSF, Fauna & Flora International, Special Effect, and End Polio Now.

Those who donated more than $25 got an amazing bundle of games and in-game items, including Thomas Was Alone, Magicka and Call of Juarez – delivered digitally via Humble Bundle and kindly supplied by generous game developers.

Those who gave more than $5 were able to leave messages for the livestreamers and received a unique accessory item in Team Fortress 2.

The month of donations clocked in at a total of $930,097 – with the other $175,000 being raised by the Yogscast directly, through a mixture of initiatives including the Christmas song ‘Does Santa Claus Visit Zombie Pig-men Kids in the Nether in Minecraft (At Christmas Time)?’ and from limited edition Christmas jumpers.

Yogscast co-founder Lewis Brindley said, “It blows our mind every year just how incredibly generous people are – I want to thank each and every person who donated to make the Jingle Jam so successful.”

“Once again we’ve had fantastic support from the UK and international video games industry supplying the games and items,” said Yogscast CEO Mark Turpin.

“We also have to thank the Yogscast family and other YouTubers who gave up their nights throughout December to broadcast live and raise so much money,” Turpin added.

Train2Game News Deep Silver charity money raised

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Deep Silver’s Humble Bundle sales have totaled a sensational 1.89 Million US-Dollar for charity since the start of the co-operation between the publisher and Humble Bundle, Inc, in July 2013. Both partners are proud and thankful for the continuous support and the strong commitment to donate.

With brands like Saints Row and Metro being part of the offers, Deep Silver has become one of Humble Bundle’s biggest partners. With its unique approach, Humble Bundle offers a package of games. The price is up to the client, in the same way he or she can choose how much of the money goes to the publisher, Humble Bundle itself or to charity.

“We are stunned by the huge number that our buyers have donated over the last year,” says Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Deep Silver/Koch Media. “This success is a clear sign to keep investing in the strong relationship with Humble Bundle and continue to offer attractive packages in the future.”

“Teaming up with Deep Silver to delight millions of gamers around the world while raising nearly 2 million dollars for charity has been absolutely awesome,” said John Graham, co-founder and COO of Humble Bundle. “Deep Silver is one of our favorite publishers to work with and we are excited by what might be possible in the future.”

Top five beneficiaries are Child’s Play ($530,000 reiceved), American Red Cross ($520,000), Charity: Water ($320,000), Save the Children ($300,000) and World Vision ($84,000).

Train2Game News WeWanaPlay Charity Live Stream

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WewanaPlay are supporting Birmingham Children’s Hospital this Christmas with a unique event. 

What started as just a small project to help the children at this festive time has spiralled into something much bigger with companies such as Microsoft, Jagex and Tripwire Interactive already committing their support.

Deepak Pathak, WewanaPlay CEO explained “WewanaPlay has a history of working with the local Children’s Hospital, so when they approached us to help with their £25,000 ‘Let us Play’ room, we knew we had to get involved. I’d seen first-hand with my nephew this year just how much they needed a decent games room and set the challenge to the team to do something special”

The simple idea to do a 24 hour Twitch live stream somehow spiralled into an event which will bring together many well-known gaming companies and personalities. The 24 hour live stream will be split into 30 minutes slots with each going to one of the events partners and collectively creating a highly entertaining event.

Deepak added: “WewanaPlay aims to bring gamers together, so It’s fantastic that companies such as Jagex (who make Runescape) and Microsoft jumped right in and saw the value of bringing their community together for crazy event.  We still have a lot of hard work left to do with filling the final slots with exciting companies and making sure the message of our event reaches many more people. If anyone out there can help, or know people who could help us, please get in touch!”

The event will run from:

Tuesday 9th December   3pm  (GMT:  UK time)
Until  Wednesday 10th December  3pm
On WewanaPlay’s Twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/wewanaplay

Full details including the JustGiving Donation Page can be found here:
http://www.blog.wewanaplay.com/events/

Please make sure you tune in and if you can help out in any way for this great cause lease get in touch via twitter:  @Wewana_Play or via their website.

Train2Game News Games On Song

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Games on SongToday, the UK games industry charity GamesAid http://www.gamesaid.org/ is inviting Black Friday shoppers to add the Games on Song Christmas charity single to their virtual baskets, to once again help raise vital money for children.

The UK alone is predicted to spend over £1.205bn this weekend, apparently saving £233m on their purchases.

Out NOW, the Games On Song Christmas charity Single is available to download on iTunes http://tinyurl.com/oep3bzl for just £1.29 / $1.99. Not only the best purchase of the whole weekend, but the one that will keep on giving, as all the profits from every sale goes directly towards helping children’s charities across the UK, helping them to have a very merry Christmas!

The Games On Song choir is made up of members from the videogame industry including Sony, EA, GAME, Ubisoft, Mastertronic, OnLive, SEGA, Green Man Gaming, Bethesda, Riot Games, Marvellous AQL, Ukie, and many, many more.

“As an industry, we know the power of the consumer, and that they are passionate about the positive impact video games can have. “We hope they will help us spread the word as they shop this weekend and buy lots of singles!” said Emily Britt, Chair of GamesAid. “Those members who donated their time and voices to this single hope to bring a smile to Black Friday shoppers, and to the children who will benefit from every sale.”

Train2Game News In app purchases for charity

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Multiple leading developers will be donating all money generated by microtransactions to charity for the next two weeks.

The initiative is part of the Apps for Red drive, which is supporting Product Red, the organisation founded by U2 vocalist Bono and activist Bobby Shriver. The money raised will go to the Global Fund fighting HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.

Many of the mobile games involved have rebranded to highlight the campaign, with the money spent on any in-app purchases going straight to charity, reports Polygon.

Slogans supporting the movement include Angry Birds’ “Fling Birds. Save Lives” and Clash of Clans’ “Raid Friends. Save Lives”. Monument Valley has even released a brand new chapter named Ida’s (Red) Dream to help raise money.

The games involved include:

    Angry Birds
    Bubble Witch 2 Saga
    Clash of Clans
    CSR Racing
    Cut the Rope 2
    Despicable Me: Minion Rush
    Farmville 2: Country Escape
    FIFA 15: Ultimate Team
    Frozen Free Fall
    Kim Kardashian: Hollywood
    Monument Valley
    Puzzle & Dragons
    Rayman Fiesta Run
    The Sims FreePlay
    Threes!

Source: Develop

Train2Game News Record beat to aid SpecialEffect

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SpecialEffectChris Cook, Community Manager for GamePointsNow/GameKeysNow, has officially set a new Guinness World Record for the Longest Video Game Marathon on a Football Game by smashing the previous record by a whole 44 minutes to set a new time of 48 hours 49 minutes 41 seconds

The event took place at the Loading Bar, London from Nov 5th until the 7th and saw Chris play over 120 matches of FIFA 15, both online and offline . So far, the event has raised over £580 on behalf of its charity, Special Effect, with donations still being made.

‘I’m so glad to have raised so much for an incredible cause; but none of this would have been possible without the incredible support team of volunteers. They really kept me going throughout and I’m eternally grateful for all of their help and energy, especially when things got tough’

The event was streamed live via Twitch.tv and featured giveaways from companies like QWERTEE, Hauppauge, Boomerang Rentals, Insert Coin tees, NiftyMods and Campo Retro.

SpecialEffect is an award-winning charity that helps people with disabilities to benefit from the fun, rehabilitation and therapy of video games. They support people of all ages through assessments, equipment loans and equipment modifications.

Train2Game News Franco Jam

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Franco JamUK studio Creative Assembly is hosting a game jam this weekend in honour of Simon Franco, a member of the team that passed away earlier this year.

Franco was a senior programmer on Alien Isolation, and worked on multiple Total War games during his 10 years at the Surrey studio.

This weekend, small teams of Creative Assembly staff will compete to create a whole game in two days, with proceeds raised and donations going to Royal Surrey County Hospital, which cared for Franco.

The judges panel for the contest will consist of Franco’s friends and family, plus Sprungdigi ambassador Darius.

A live stream will run throughout the event, which will also include a charity auction of Steam keys and signed goodies from Creative Assembly’s various games.

“Simon Franco was a dear friend and colleague to many here at CA,” the studio wrote on its blog.

“Simon was a big Magic the Gathering enthusiast, with a passion for creating retro games in his spare time, as well as being a dedicated father who sadly didn’t get to meet his youngest daughter before he passed. He was positive, kind and always had a time for anyone that asked for it.

“We were all deeply saddened by his sudden passing earlier this year and to commemorate his life, work and passion for retro gaming, we’re hosting a weekend-long GameJam in his honour.”

Creative Assembly is also inviting people to donate to their cause by clicking here.

Train2Game News Play Games to help SpecialEffect

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SpecialEffectSpecialEffect are hosting another Gameblast in February of 2015. This is your chance to play games and help people in need!

The gaming marathon weekend will take place from February 20 – 22 and the idea is that you play games for an extended length of time, whether it be 48 hours or 24 hours is entirely up to you, and get your friends, family and whoever else to sponsor you to do so.

This gaming marathon is entirely down to your self to decide what you can do. Do as much or as little as you want to and try and raise as much money as you possibly can to help SpecialEffect to raise money that will go towards supporting disabled gamers back in to the game.

Last February gamers raised an incredible £70,000 in GameBlast14, and every penny and cent went towards levelling the playing field for gamers with disabilities. This time SpecialEffect are aiming for £100,000, so they’re going to need all the help you can give!

If you want to find out some helpful tips and sign up for this event you can go to http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/gameblast-about

Train2Game News Jagex support GameBlast 15

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SpecialEffectJagex Games Studio, makers of the multi-award winning fantasy MMORPG RuneScape and upcoming Transformers Universe, today announced its continuing corporate support of GameBlast, the annual charity games marathon weekend in aid of gamers’ charity SpecialEffect.

Jagex held its own 24-hour games marathon as part of the previous GameBlast weekend in February 2014, which was live-streamed online to 90,000 unique viewers over the course of the event. Both staff and selected members of the RuneScape community played RuneScape and Jagex’s Ace of Spades: Battle Builder throughout the 24 hour period, raising over £48,000 as a result.

Riaan Hodgson, chief operations officer at Jagex, was vocal about the company’s continued support of GameBlast: “It’s great to see our staff get behind such a worthy cause once again, especially one so suited to our core company principles. At Jagex, games are a way of life and if we can have fun while welcoming others into this medium, then that’s definitely a good use of our time and resources.”

GameBlast is the UK’s biggest charity gaming marathon event, and is next scheduled for the weekend of 20-22 February 2015. Hoping to improve on last year’s total of £70,000, SpecialEffect is targeting a figure of £100,000 and is calling upon other games companies to join in and help people with disabilities benefit from the fun, friendship and inclusion of video games. The charity is hoping that other studios recognise the huge internal and external corporate social responsibility benefits from taking part, as well as the ability to directly benefit gamers in the best way possible.

“Jagex’s support was a major part of the success of GameBlast14,” said Dr Mick Donegan, founder and director of SpecialEffect. “We’re incredibly grateful for the generosity of its staff and communities, and we’re delighted that they’ll be participating again in 2015. The money they raise will enable even more people, whatever their age or physical disability, to enjoy video games and leisure technology.”

Donegan continued: “We know we can achieve so much more if the rest of the UK games industry follows Jagex’s lead and pledges their support for GameBlast15. There’s a warm welcome awaiting any developers, publishers or gaming communities who want to get involved, whether that’s at a small scale stream or at industry partner level.”

More information about next year’s GameBlast can be found at http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/gameblast

Train2Game News Vote for SpecialEffect

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SpecialEffectIn the games industry? If so, SpecialEffect need your help! They have been selected in the vote for the fantastic, grant making, games industry charity GamesAid.

Last year they made an amazing donation of £52,000 to SpecialEffect to help them meet their growing demand to help amazing young people like Ben who is now rocking Minecraft, FIFA and many other games!

SpecialEffect are in the fortunate position to once again be amongst the charities nominated for GamesAid support but your help is needed to secure a grant. All you need to do is vote at the link below.

SpecialEffect is by no means the biggest cause in the list of nominees so every vote counts.

If you work in the industry then please do visit the link below and consider a vote for SpecialEffect. Current members have to email their choice of charity and user name to GamesAid and new members can register for FREE and cast their vote.

http://www.gamesaid.org/vote-now-2014-voting-re-opens/

You can view the story of Ben in the heart warming video below. SpecialEffect have helped Ben and many others like him to experience the pleasure of gaming as much as we all do.