Last year, digital retailer GOG.com ran a one-week promotion for charity, offering up a large bundle of games at a discount. As it turns out, a lot of people were interested.


It was basically a pay-what-you-want deal where, out of a large pack of 13 indie and retro PC games, you could pick three or more and choose to have GOG send your money (a minimum of $5 at three games) to either one of three charities: the World Wide Fund for Nature, Worldbuilders, or Gaming for Good. According to a recent press release, the promo was quite popular, managing to raise $1.9 million in total. That's right, almost $2 million, in just one week. Damn. Here's what they said:

With games like FTL: Faster Than Light, The Whispered World, and Waking Mars as part of the action, the gamers were more than happy to go on a spending spree. The developers of the games available in the Charity Promo - Introversion, Subset Games, Tiger Style Games, Amanita Design, Instant Kingdom, Northway Games, Digital Game Factory, Might & Delight, Daedalic, and Oddworld, were all supporting the charities as well, as they were not receiving any royalties for the games that were being sold as part of the fundraiser. The combination of these selfless developers and GOG.com's great gaming community—and the fact that they were willing to support these great causes—were the real cause of the success of the fundraiser, and continue to show that gamers around the world love to help make the world a better place.


And it wasn't just the developers' and gamers' generosity that allowed this to happen, mind you, but GOG's as well. Apart from giving up their own share of the price, they also agreed to cover all extra costs such as taxes and credit card/transaction fees, making sure the charities received each and every donated penny. Now that's something.

GOG Charity Promo [GOG Forums]