Itch bundle for racial justice ends with over $8 million raised and 1,700 games included
Arguably the best deal in the history of games
Update - June 16: The Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has ended its charity run after raising $8.175 million in the span of a week, far outdoing its final goal of $5 million.
From the humble beginnings of several hundred games, this bundle rapidly ballooned to a whopping 1,704 games from 1,361 creators. Even as hundreds of games were added to the bundle, the minimum donation remained the same: a mere $5. The included games are normally valued at $9,362, which puts the bundle at a 99.95% discount, assuming you chip in the minimum. The average donation was $10.03, but that's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.
Anyway, the important takeaway here is that, as a result of this unprecedented bundle, two important organizations will receive over $4 million apiece: the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Community Bail Fund. This bundle was a herculean effort from Itch itself and over 1,000 developers, and it more than paid off.
Original story:
Itch.io is currently offering an incredible charity game bundle that offers over a mammoth 1000+ games and projects for just $5/£4, with everything raised split equally amongst the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund.
All proceeds from the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality will be split 50/50 between these two groups, with the bail funds going toward jailed protesters nationwide. As Itch explains, "The game makers included in this bundle are standing together to oppose police brutality and white supremacy."
Pay just $5/£4, and you get access to 742 (yep, you read that right) items, including great PC games like Oxenfree, Celeste, Night In The Woods, Overland, Minit, Loot Rascals, and literally hundreds more, saving you thousands of dollars in the process.
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There's no limit to how much you chip in for the bundle, so you can effectively use it as a donate button for both the Community Bail Fund and the NAACP.
The bundle is well on target to reach its $5,000,000 goal, too, and has already passed $2,000,000 at the time of writing. The bundle will be available for another seven days, so a new goal will likely be set soon. There's never a bad time to contribute, and you'll get some cool indie games in the process too.
On top of that, a separate itch.io bundle, which includes 20 games for $40 has also been set up to support the Black Lives Matter organization, as well as the National Bail Fund Network. It includes games such as Moon Hunters, Coffee Talk, and Emily is Away Too, and is equally worthy of your money,
Dozens of gaming companies have voiced support for Black Lives Matter, including Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with 12DOVE since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.