Developers Raise Funds for Hurricane Victims

In response to the devastation caused last week by Hurricane Katrina across the Gulf Coast, various game developers and publishers have extended support to the victims of the hurricane. Bungie Software, developers of the Halo series, are selling a fundraising T-shirt that plays on the franchise's Flood enemies for an image of Master Chief administering a beating to one of the aliens over the message "Fight the Flood." $15 of the proceeds from each $20 shirt will go toward the Red Cross, and Bungie is additionally donating all royalties earned from its online store sales through the end of September. Sony Online Entertainment has also pitched in for subscribers who live in areas affected by Katrina, by suspending fees and item decay for all users in the affected regions, across all of its various online PC MMO properties including EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, and Star Wars Galaxies. SOE has furthermore added a /donate command to EverQuest II that opens a browser window to the Red Cross donation page. Mythic Entertainment has similarly suspended rent within its PC MMO Dark Age of Camelot until the crisis passes. Others within the game community pitching in include Kotaku, with an auction of game-related swag, and web comic Penny Arcade, selling original art from its PAX 2005 show.