Two bundles on itch.io directly support Black Lives Matter and racial justice and equality organizations
As protests erupt all over the world to fight systemic racism and police brutality, two DRM-Free game bundles have been launched on itch.io, an independent marketplace for digital creators, to support the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Black Lives Matter Support Bundle, hosted by Contigo Games, is comprised of indie games and 100% of the proceeds from sales will go to support Black Lives Matter and the National Bail Fund Network. In the first two hours alone the bundle hit its goal of $5,000 and then went on to raise $31,000 in just 24 hours. Contigo has since raised the goal twice to incorporate the flood of donations and now are at the maximum goal they’re allowed by itch.io: $99,999.99. As the campaign started on June 3 and they are already at over $85k, chances are looking good the bundle will reach its goal by the time June 17 comes around.
The second bundle, created by itch.io, was delayed “as the sheer number of developers contributing games – said to total over 750 – threatened to overwhelm the website. It will go live as soon as backend performance modifications are complete,” Eurogamer reported.
That bundle did triumph over its technical difficulties and can be found on itch.io as the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.
“All proceeds will be donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund split 50/50,” and so far, it’s raised almost $3.5 million with over 300,000 contributors at the time of my writing this — just a brief refresh has that number going up.
With six days left, itch.io will also most likely reach their goal, set at $5 million. Itch.io says, “the team reached out to the community and an unprecedented number of creators donated over 740 projects to be part of what the team believe is the largest bundle ever,” and it’s only grown since that announcement.
The bundle currently includes 1,427 games, and all of those who bought the bundle initially will have access to the newly donated games, too. With 1125 creators total, all of the games total up to a value of $7,890, and with the bundle being a pay-what-you-want model, you can receive the entire thing with whatever amount you’re able to give, the minimum being a mere $5.
The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is so enormous that it’s difficult to pick any game to highlight; however, Night in the Woods and OneShot personally caught my eye since I own the former and the latter is on my Steam wishlist. For this bundle, though, there are only direct downloads for the games through itch.io, no Steam keys. The campaign ends on June 15.