War Child Armistice campaign raises $122k through game devs

Four trailblazing gaming studios join forces with War Child to smash targets for the industry's first Armistice supporting children affected by conflict, raising over $122,000 (£100,000).

Positech Games, Wargaming.net, iNK Stories and BlackMill Games & M2H developed peaceful playthrough options, downloadable content (DLC) or donated a portion of their sales during the campaign to support War Child in its vital work providing education, protection and livelihoods for children forced to live with the brutality of war.

Wargaming.net raised more than $84,798.4 (£68,306.47) by selling packs of three or ten especially designed peace emblems in the EU PC version of World of Tanks as well as creating a 'For the Children' bundle for the console version of World of Tanks across Xbox 360, Xbox One & PlayStation.

BlackMill Games & M2H raised $21,299.77 (£17,018.73) with a seasonal event in Verdun where a dedicated Christmas Truce winter map allowed players to throw snowballs at each other, play football matches, sing along with Christmas carols and send Christmas cards to their loved ones. Players also received a special Christmas Truce medal called 'War Child Armistice' to commemorate this historical event of peace that happened more than a century ago.

Matt Hergaarden, CO-Founder M2H says; "We're thrilled by the response to our Christmas Truce, and honored to be part of the War Child Armistice campaign. Over 60,000 players took a break from fighting to play football, throw snowballs, and send out 10,465 postcards. On top of all this, we saw 5,541 donations from our community - amazing!"

Positech Games raised $15,166.92 (£12,118.52) and iNK Stories raised $1275.73 (£1019.32) by donating the net incomes from Democracy 3 and 1979 Revolution: Black Friday respectively.

Dan Clarke, Creative Director TOAD says; "War Child's willingness to back ground-breaking and innovative ideas to help children around the world has set them apart once more."

Peter Slater, EU Community manager for XSplit says; "In collaboration with our community and stream team members, we set the challenge of live streaming pacifist playthroughs of popular games over seven days, to spread the word and share the message of War Child. Our fantastic community responded with funny and entertaining live streams across Twitch, and helped us raise over £2,000 in donations. We're happy to support War Child and thank all who participated"

Wayne Emanuel, Gaming Development Manager War Child says; "At War Child we're really overwhelmed by the generosity of the studios that took part. We'd also like to thank all the players who downloaded content or showed their support. War Child relies on support of partners like those who took part in Armistice to be able to provide our crucial work. We are already excited about the next Armistice where we hope we can build on this year's fantastic efforts and raise even more!"

Richard Cutland, Head of Military Relations, Wargaming.net says; "As a retired soldier I have witnessed first-hand the remarkable and invaluable work that War Child do in areas affected by conflict. I am extremely proud of both Wargaming and our fabulous community for supporting this incredible and invaluable charity."

War Child aims to build on this peaceful movement so it becomes an annual event where more and more gaming studios and players around the world raise of awareness and money to aid in its mission striving for a world with no child's life torn apart by work.