Penny Arcade Launches 2009 Child's Play Charity Drive

The creators of popular online comic Penny Arcade have opened donations for this year's Child's Play charity, which has contributed over $5 million in games and toys to children's hospitals worldwide since 2003. In its inaugural year, when it was founded in part as a response to negative coverage of video games and gamers in the media, Child's Play raised over a quarter-million dollars for the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. Since then, the program has expanded to partner with 69 hospitals across six countries. According to a recent post by Penny Arcade writer Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, this year's drive has already reached a quarter of its million-dollar goal thanks to early sponsorship by numerous companies including Microsoft, Sony Online Entertainment, Harmonix, Amazon.com, the Super Mario Marathon, and others. Although the official Child's Play site indicates a million-dollar donation target, the charity surpassed that milestone in 2006 and has increased its annual take every year. Holkins said the online donations facilitated by Child's play "transform the slightest movements of your finger into much-needed respite for young people," and characterized the gaming community's likely forthcoming action as an "unstoppable charitable assault."