ESA's mediocre game pack raises $2.6 million for charity

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 28th 2008 at 9:00PM }

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today its pack of odious unremarkable games sold to sponsor children's charities has raked in an astounding $2.6 million. The ESA Foundation, the philanthropic branch of the industry's lobbing group, will divide the cash among five charities (which we've listed after the break).

The charity pack included software donated by Disney, THQ, Ubisoft, Sony Pictures, Microsoft and Pixar. It was sold by 17 retailers and organizations agreed to waive associated fees and royalties, meaning as much cash as possible went to the children. No word yet if something similar will be done this year, but imagine the cash the charities could get if the games were actually good?!

The recipients are:

Web Wise Kids
Work, Achievement, Values & Education Inc. (WAVE)
Hopelabs
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Computers for Youth

Tags: charity, entertainment-software-association, esa, esa-foundation

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chase @ Jul 28th 2008 9:04PM

I suspect more than half of the sales were by people buying it on the cheap and flipping it for store credit.

Deadpool @ Jul 28th 2008 10:13PM

Or it was a gift from parents that don't know anything about videogames.

Parent: "Well looky there! Three Great games for the price of One. Now that's a bargin. Timmy will love this and my level of coolness of a parent will skyrocket to OH SO Jolly Great Cool Daddyo."

Now imagine the face of Timmy....it's so sad....and kinda funny...in a sad way. Heh Heh.

Wiinterfang @ Jul 28th 2008 10:15PM

Ohh man it suck when I was a kid and my dad will by some of the worst Dreamcast games ever.

I asked him for Resident evil and he got me Urban Chaos, I ask for Marvel vs capcom 2 and I got Mortal Kombat Gold..

good times though.

Saria the Cat @ Jul 29th 2008 1:27AM

At least some kids even GET games bought for them. I had to buy mine all on my own and never expected them as a gift since my mom was opposed to me playing games. Heck, back when I was a young'n, I'd take anything if someone else was willing to pay for it!

xGeneral DEATHx @ Jul 29th 2008 8:55AM

My parents were the same way, Saria...they were vehemently opposed to my gaming habit, so they made me pay for it all myself. I had to save for almost a year to get my hands on the Sega Genesis bundled with Sonic 2. Ironically enough, when I moved out to go to college, they didn't mind me gaming so much because it kept me out of trouble, for the most part.

Saria the Cat @ Jul 28th 2008 9:13PM

"Imagine the cash the charities could get if the games were actually good?!"

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. Mediocre or not, though, it's great to see stuff like this happen. And I don't care if it's all for PR; the charities don't know the difference between honest good-deed money and publicity money.

Deadpool @ Jul 28th 2008 10:13PM

Turning the bad into something good. I see. Except, they meshed 3 bad things to get something good. This reminds me of the "KFC FAMOUS BOWL". Mmmmmmmm....heartstopping.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Jul 28th 2008 9:15PM

Ironically enough, all proceeds went directly into the prozac funds for the children who have been victimized by this bundle. Pope Benedict was heard saying, "See? Suddenly child rape is not so bad by comparison."

j.howlett @ Jul 28th 2008 9:29PM

that just ain't right

fred @ Jul 29th 2008 12:03AM

I laughed out load unapprovingly.
I feel so conflicted.

BPM [MSN: BPMdotEXE @ hotmail.com] @ Jul 29th 2008 1:02AM

Geebus, Shep... I don't know how to respond to that beside a simple "lol"...

xGeneral DEATHx @ Jul 29th 2008 8:56AM

I need a change of pants after that one...wait, that sounded bad...

Infidel @ Jul 28th 2008 9:16PM

Its because the games are so rubbish that they are donated by the publishers at all. If all games were good and sold well, the publishers would never give them to charity and the children would never get the money.

See, bad games do have a purpose!

john @ Jul 28th 2008 9:23PM

Except Cars, and Open season sadly sold tons...

syrik zero @ Jul 28th 2008 9:17PM

Great photoshopped cover!

mj @ Jul 28th 2008 9:20PM

Anyway to draft the orange box? Or... should it be more of a children's game!?

juju187 @ Jul 28th 2008 10:57PM

thank you for clearing up the false advertisment left on the box by the careless printing company...
joystiq +1

Lijik @ Jul 28th 2008 11:17PM

Open Season wasn't that bad of a game. I know, I played through the whole thing 100% so I could record the sound track (big fan of Shawn Clement's work).

chimp o death @ Jul 29th 2008 12:13AM

Now there's a confession I never thought I'd read when I woke up this morning...

xGeneral DEATHx @ Jul 29th 2008 8:58AM

Lijik:

Seriously?!?! I'm not hatin' on you for it, but why would you need to play through the whole thing to record the soundtrack?

Lijik @ Jul 29th 2008 12:28PM

When you collect badges you unlock little short clips of concept art and movie stills. Just to be sure that there wasn't any unique tracks composed for one of them (which there was actually, one of them expanded on the Skunk mission-get theme) I had to collect all of the badges.

If you mean recording the soundtrack in general, its because I'm pretty awful at deencoding music streams. Its much easier for me to play through a five hour game and record the music as I go.