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Game studios including Bungie and Ubisoft donate money to those affected by Australia fires

Game studios including Bungie and Ubisoft donate money to those affected by Australia fires

A number of game developers have said they will be donating money to help those affected by the colossal wildfires in Australia.

Destiny developer Bungie has said its charitable Bungie Foundation is raising money by selling T-shirts for both Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) and New South Wales's Rural Fire Service. This will be on sale until the middle of February.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft Australia has said it is donating $30,000 to Australia's Red Cross Disaster Recovery Relief Fund. In a post on Twitter, the French publishing giant said it is donating directly rather than heeding calls to create an in-game item for users to buy and give money to help the cause.

It's not just the big boys who are donating to the wildfire relief; Universim developer and publisher Crytivo has said it is going to be passing on all of its revenue from its own store as well as 30 per cent of Steam revenue to those affected by the Australian wildfires.

"Here at Crytivo, we may be a small organization but always work hard to make a big difference in the world," founder and CEO Alex Koshelkov wrote on the company's website.

"Our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered from this disaster and to the heroes working tirelessly to help. We hope this will inspire others to take action and help in any way they can."

Australia has been affected by these wildfires since July 2019, with over 28 people said to have died as a result and 2,000 homes destroyed as a result


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.