SpecialEffect aims for £500,000 with One Special Day 2018
Sega, Rovio, Seriously, Codemasters and more already on board as industry charity ramps up fundraising target
SpecialEffect will once again hold its One Special Day fundraiser this September, and this year hopes to raise half a million pounds.
The initiative sees games publishers and developers donating 100% of their revenue for a single day to SpecialEffect, the industry charity that helps disabled people enjoy video games with customised and accessible new inputs. Alternatively, a company may offer 100% of the revenue from a specific game, in-game purchase or DLC.
Last year, the event raised £446,000 and the charity hopes to improve on this in 2018, with aspirations of raising £500,000.
One Special Day will be held on September 28th, and already has several notable games firms on board. Sega, Rovio, Codemasters and Seriously are among the previous supporters that will once again take part, while new partners include Miniclip, Outfit 7, Splash Damage and Lockwood Publishing.
"One Special Day is an opportunity for the games industry to be loud and proud about helping to bring the magic of video games to people with a wide range of disabilities," says founder and CEO Dr Mick Donegan.
"The income will have a huge impact. It will not only fund our one-to-one work with people with disabilities, but also our research and partnership work with developers and manufacturers, making more projects like our free eye-controlled Minecraft software possible and ensuring we can have a continuing global impact on video games accessibility."
We spoke to Donegan last year about the charity's accomplishments as it turned ten years old. Since then, the organisation has also been involved in the development of Microsoft's Xbox Adaptive Controller, which they discussed on a recent episode of The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast.