For all the flak the gaming industry gets, it’s stories like these that help remind the world that gaming is more than a stereotype of an under aged, juvenile brat yelling arrogant insults down a cheap headset.
Detailed in a press release, the combined efforts of DRM-free digital distributor GoG.com and its community of gamers along with certain videogame developers raised a staggering $1.9 million during the company’s Charity Promo event in November last year, with the donations given to one or more of three charities. The event was held for WWF, Worldbuilder and Gaming for Good, all charities that help protect environments and animals, utilise the interests of writers, authors and book-lovers to make the world a better place and play and stream games for charity respectively.
After celebrating five years of its business GoG decided to give a little something back, and they have done so very well. During the Charity Promo event, gamers were able to pick three or more games and donate at least $5 to any of the three charities they wished. With gamers going on a spending spree for titles like FTL: Faster Than Light , The Whispered World and Waking Mars , even the developers of the games that were a part of the event supported the charities and did not receive a single penny for the games that were bought, with the revenue generated instead being donated to the charities.
It’s thanks to whomever took part in the event and donated to the charities that the total funds raised reached nearly $2 million. GoG has more big announcements to make as we enter 2014 proper, and the company is said that it won’t forget about giving back again. Perhaps another charity event will take place later on in the year. To get your fill of DRM-free and (mostly) retro titles, head on over to GoG.com and have a gander.