The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has sparked a lot of controversy in the gaming community, though most are showing overwhelming support to Ukraine through various means, including stopping business with Russia. In retaliation to sanctions, the Russian government responded by legalizing video game piracy in the country.Many big-name corporations have already stopped commercial activities with Russia to display their solidarity with Ukraine. Sony becomes the latest to go against Russia, as they have stopped all Playstation sales in the country. Many others, including the likes of NVIDIA, Ubisoft, and EA, are some of the companies that have suspended business activities in Russia.Besides stopping business, gaming corporations have resorted to other means to support Ukraine, mainly in the form of humanitarian relief. Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, has announced it will donate all Fortnite proceeds for two weeks to assist humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. The developer will collaborate with Xbox and donate all the money to multiple relief organizations. These include Direct Relief, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP), and UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency, with more to be added per reports from Epic Games. Epic Games will donate all Fortnite proceeds from March 20, 2022, through April 3, 2022, to the people affected by the ongoing military conflict.
The announcement was made via a Twitter post that included a link to Epic's official website containing more information about the program. The website contains a FAQ section where Epic Games said it will release the funds "as quickly as we can" and "we'll log them and send the funds to the humanitarian relief organizations within days." Microsoft will join the effort, as it will contribute all Fortnite proceeds from Microsoft Store during the same time frame of two weeks. All real money purchases will be distributed, including cosmetic packs, V-Buck packs, Fortnite Crew subscriptions, and gifted Battle Passes. However, spending V-bucks in Fortnite will not be used in calculating sales figures.
This move by Epic Games comes as a follow-up to its previous one where it suspended sales in Russia, but with a slight variation when compared to other companies. While Epic has decided to stop commercial activities in Russia, it will allow access to its products in the country.
Epic Games is currently buzzing around the gaming world due to Fortnite's upcoming season, titled "Resistance". Epic has released a story trailer for Season 2 of Chapter 3 of Fortnite, which reveals a lot of exciting additions to the game, including new characters. As fans celebrate this new season, they should be pleased to know that any purchases made over the next two weeks will go to a good cause.
Fortnite is free-to-play on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
