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Stage at a "Fortnite" event: The manufacturer Epic Games announces a major donation
Photo: Steven Ryan/ AFP
The games company Epic Games and the Xbox manufacturer Microsoft are donating around 144 million dollars to aid organizations on the occasion of the Ukraine war.
According to their own statements, the companies are passing on a significant part of the money that players have spent on "Fortnite" in the past few days to charitable purposes.
The grand total, which equals 131 million euros, comes from the revenues that the two companies have made from the extremely popular online game over the past two weeks.
In mid-March, Epic Games announced that "one hundred percent" of all earnings generated with "Fortnite" between March 20 and April 3 "will go to humanitarian aid projects for people affected by the war in Ukraine".
The company spoke of the gross purchase price of all "worldwide purchases made in 'Fortnite' and all redemptions of products purchased at retail stores, less taxes, third-party platform fees, refunds, returns or cancellations".
Microsoft, meanwhile, decided to contribute its "net revenue from all sales of 'Fortnite' content on the Microsoft Store from all countries where 'Fortnite' is sold".
The money should flow quickly
The total of $144 million will benefit five charities: Direct Relief, World Central Kitchen, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations World Food Program and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR.
When asked how quickly the millions will reach the selected partners, Epic Games writes: “As soon as possible.
We don't wait until the actual income from our platform partners and payment service providers is booked with us.« Instead, the reported transactions are noted and the income is then sent to the aid organizations within a few days.
Other companies from the games industry have already collected and donated money for the victims of the Ukraine war.
A games package called "Stand with Ukraine Bundle" caused a stir, for which dozens of game developers provided top-class computer games, including "Satisfactory", "Back 4 Blood" and "Metro Exodus".
The bundle was sold 473,945 times on the HumbleBundle.com platform within a week, raising €18.7 million for charity.
A similar campaign on the itch.io platform previously raised $6.3 million in donations.
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