Fortnite an online video game developed by Epic Games has within the spade of two weeks raised a total of $144 million as relief efforts to support peace due to the ongoing unrest in Ukraine. The game company announces that proceeds from the game for a period of two weeks will be given to humanitarian efforts following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for a period of two weeks. These donations will also be given along with those from Microsoft.
On day one of the announcements the game company recorded a total of $36 million raised, two weeks later, Epic revealed via a tweet that a total of $144 million was raised. The funds will be disbursed to Ukraine through several aid groups, this includes Direct Relief, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and many more.
Of course for some time now Ukraine has continued to experience serious unrest due to a Russian invasion. This large amount of unrest has witnessed the destruction of lives and properties. Epic’s efforts which haven’t gone unnoticed are one of several fundraising initiatives game developers have championed to address welfare in Ukraine.
Last month, reports say the League of Legends developer showcased a similar effort as Riot Games raised $5.4 million, Humble Bundle reportedly raised $20 million also a bundle of nearly 1,000 games on Itch.io took in more than $6 million. Several tech companies have made provisions for relief efforts by the introduction of new features and other added advantages for people living within these regions. Paypal announced support for Ukrainians by expanding its payment services. The payment service will see that Ukrainian PayPal accounts have the ability to send and receive money from friends and family.
Google announces that it’s enabling a rapid air-raid alert system for Android phones in Ukraine among other efforts. Google released updates on various services and assistance for the safety of Ukrainians. This move comes after Google Maps’ real-time traffic data were disabled in the country. All these efforts have been tremendously helpful to Ukraine.
According to The Verge, the current season of Fortnite has been an eventful one. It initially launched without a key feature: building. Since then, Epic has introduced a combat-focused Zero Build mode for the game, and this past weekend, it re-added building to its core battle royale.