(San Francisco) The American studio Epic Games will give 144 million dollars to humanitarian aid in Ukraine, the entirety of its profits from the last two weeks for its video game phenomenon Fortniteaccording to a statement released on Monday.
Posted at 2:38 p.m.
This game, which has more than 350 million users worldwide, pledged to donate its profits collected from March 20 to April 3 “to the victims of the war in Ukraine”.
Xbox (Microsoft) contributed to this sum with its profits from the famous shooter and survival game (battle royale), which released a new season on March 20.
The money is to go to several international organizations, including UNICEF, the World Food Program, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The war in Ukraine has caused at least thousands of deaths and forced into exile nearly 4.2 million Ukrainians, 90% of them women and children, since the beginning of the Russian invasion on 24 February.
Many companies have raised funds to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, including video game studios. Riot Games (League of Legends) for example announced that it had raised $5.4 million.
Fortnitewhich is free to download, generates billions in revenue from players purchasing additional items for their characters, including outfits.
The game quickly became a global phenomenon, to the point that some games are now followed live by millions of spectators.
Epic Games saw its valuation rise to almost $29 billion last year after raising funds from various investors, including Sony.