Game companies dig deep, donate to Japan relief efforts
Some of the biggest names in Japanese gaming have stumped up gigantic wads of cash to assist relief efforts in Japan, after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last week.
According to Andriasang, some of the biggest contributions have come from Nintendo ($3.65m), SEGA Sammy ($2.45m) and Sony ($3.65m and 30,000 radios). Dead or Alive publisher Tecmo has donated $123,000, while Namco Bandai has contributed $1.23m and closed its arcades to help conserve much-needed energy.
Namco Bandai is not alone in attempting to save power – companies are also turning off game servers, with Square Enix and Konami shutting down online play in Final Fantasy MMOs and Metal Gear Solid 4 respectively.
Awesome, heart-warming work, all of you!
The image for this article, by the way, is from Capcom’s Tatsuro Iwamoto, art director for the wonderful Phoenix Wright series of games. According to the dudes at Tiny Cartridge, the text above Phoenix, Miles, and Maya reads: “Let’s work hard and not be defeated by the earthquake!!” Indeed.
See also:You can find the English language version of the Japanese Red Cross Society site here.
[Via Andriasang]
A number of Japanese publishers have donated significant sums of money to help relief efforts following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on Friday, leaving thousands dead and many, many more homeless.
According to an Andriasang round-up, Nintendo has donated ¥300m (around £2.26m), SEGA Sammy has given ¥200m (around £1.5m) and Sony has offered ¥300m as well as 30,000 radios.
Namco Bandai has stumped up ¥100m (around £760,00) and closed arcades to conserve power, Tecmo Koei has contributed ¥10m (around £76,000), while 5pb has slashed the price of its iOS Memories Off 6 T-Wave app from ¥2,000 to ¥350 with all proceeds going to disaster relief until March 31.
As previously reported, a number of publishers have also turned off game servers to help save power. Square Enix has temporarily shut down its Final Fantasy MMOs, while Konami has turned of Metal Gear Solid 4’s online modes.
