Activision to donate up to £250,000 to War Child

GAME, Xbox and Activision have joined forces for a special online charity event in support of War Child.

Entitled GAME For Good, Activision wants as many gamers as possible to play Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live on Saturday December 5th and Sunday December 6th. The more gamers online, the more money the publisher will pledge to War Child.

Celebrities are also set to take part in the event, and their gamertags can be found at: www.game.co.uk/gameforgood.

If 600,000 UK gamers log-on, the publisher will donate 150,000 to War Child. The firm will then increase that amount by 25,000 for every additional 100,000 players that join, with the maximum donation being 250,000.

"Our marketing approach for Modern Warfare 2 has always sought to be innovative and breaking new ground, and our GAME for Good campaign achieves this as well as allowing GAME and ourselves to make a sizable donation to the War Child charity in order to help thousands of children internationally who have been impacted by the effects of war," said Activision UK marketing director David Tyler.

"We are about to launch a massive media campaign in support of this initiative including dedicated TV, digital, print, in-store, activity on Xbox’s Community network, celebrity PR and eCRM programmes between now and December 6th.

"This will be the largest ever charitable initiative the British games industry has ever launched and we’d urge all gamers to support the programme and lend their support for the War Child charity."

GAME and Microsoft have both been great partners to work with and are pulling out all the stops to ensure the campaign is a huge success and that the donation to War Child is maximised."

GAME is also selling specific GAME for Good/Modern Warfare 2 and War Child wrist bands, with proceeds going to charity.

"The money raised from ‘Game For Good’ will directly enable War Child to help thousands of children in the world’s worst conflict affected countries to rebuild their lives – reconstructing schools destroyed by war, reintegrating child soldiers with their families and getting children off the streets after war has forced them to leave home," said War Child music and entertainment director Ben Knowles.

"We have a long relationship with Activision, and this partnership and the huge reach of Modern Warfare 2 is a unique opportunity for us to engage a new audience with these vital issues. War Child believes that war should never be prosecuted on children: War should have an 18 Certificate"

Gamers can get involved by joining the GAME For Good Facebook and Twitter pages.