The Pokémon Company Donating $200,000 to Support Humanitarian Efforts in Ukraine - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 March 2022 / 2,189 Views
The Pokémon Company International via Twitter announced it is donating $200,000 to GlobalGiving to provide humanitarian relief in Ukraine.
"The growing crisis in Ukraine and Easter Europe, which continues to cause the displacement of families and threaten the safety of children, is heartbreaking," reads the tweet from The Pokémon Company International.
"The Pokémon Company International is making an immediate donation of $200,000 USD to our partners at GlobalGiving to provide humanitarian relief. The nonprofit will efficiently direct the funds to community-led organizations supporting families and children affected by the crisis."
Our hearts go out to the kids & families of Ukraine ?? pic.twitter.com/vsZuQtYmX6
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) March 3, 2022
A number of video game companies are removing games for sale in Russia and Belarus, as well as donating money to humanitarian organizations.
CD Projekt Red is working with its partners to suspend all digital sales and physical stock deliveries of its games in Russia and Belarus due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The company has also pledged to donate 1 million Polish złoty ($230,000 USD) to the Polish humanitarian group Polska Akcja Humanitarna.
Ukraine-based developer GSC Game World announced it has paused development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, due to the invasion. The studio is focused on helping its employees and families.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
Something is better than nothing, but them donating that amount is like me putting a dollar in a charity bucket.
Its not there job to donate, its a volunteer move. Companies still have to pay wages, costs and taxes. We should be grateful that they donated $200k
Yeah, pocketwatching people who are at least helping has always seemed strange to me. Especially when said people don't help out themselves.
Well it's more or less a common factor since there was even a class system and class divide, so I'd hardly consider that a what if scenario, as it's rife here in the UK with rich folk dodging taxes, paying less in donations when it's clear they can afford more.
I wouldn't ask what a poor person is doing to improve something when it's again obvious that a rich person can do so much more...
Like I was originally entertaining you with a question, but I already knew the answer and wasn't really going for the "whataboutism" approach, as I know there is already a definitive answer, and it's that the rich can certainly afford to do more, hence why ppl push for that.
Don't really care who's or what's money, if you're rich and dodge taxes, you can afford to donate more, even if you did pay taxes, you can still afford to donate more than the average middle or lower class can, so show it.
Edit: I also discovered recently that my island's gov managed to donate 500k, which was pooled in part by us, the people, as well as our constant pooling of relief aid via donations of clothing and other supplies, so what does that tell you about a company that makes billions, where 200k is a mere drop in the bucket?.
I'd rather they donate more as much as we are trying to, in a crucial time, where stanning for a video game company becomes completely pointless (I would take that hint with a grain of salt, but I'm making it now nonetheless).
I never said it was their job to donate. They could have donated significantly more money and it wouldn't impact their wages whatsoever. We are talking about a company that continues to develop games with extremely less resources spent on engine features compared to other current gen Nintendo games and yet sells tens of millions of copies each generation. They are swimming in cash like Scooge McDuck. Why bother donating ANYTHING if it is going to be that small of an amount, other than virtue signaling in order to get PR points that lead to more sales?
The world doesn't stop because their is a war. $200k is a lot of money and their are plenty of more wealthier companies out there who have donated $0
There are actually, in the US at least, legal implications to donating money. Because the shareholders have an interest in that money. Technically, the company is supposed to use money only for the good of the company. They have some leeway, as a company is expected to donate a certain amount to charitable causes, and courts will generally defer to a company that the amount they did donate was a reasonable business decision. But, if the company decided to donate 100% of its profits to charitable causes, they would almost certainly be sued successfully by their shareholders.
It may work differently in Japan, but in the US at least, they actually are kind of limited (in theory at least) to donating for the purposes of PR. It's not exactly their money, so they can't really do whatever they like.
I'm not generally that person, but when a company that makes probably more profit than 95%+ of other game developers, based on cheapness in development, donates this amount of money, to me, it only reads like a PR stunt. Now they can say they donated and brag about it. They could have donated $10 million dollars and it still wouldn't have felt like a lot to them, but that would have at least told the world they were serious about their support and not just trying to virtue signal like so many companies do during specific months of the year just to make money.
This is the equivalent of giving a penny for the average person.
They forgot a zero..... I hope
To those who are criticizing the Pokemon Company for donating an amount that they won't even miss or notice, I recommend thinking about how much money you could donate without really noticing, and then donate that. If you log into Ubereats, they are currently matching 100% of donations to International Rescue Committee, which has a decent charity rating. I donated an amount of money that I will not miss, and encourage anyone else to do the same. Or if you're a better person than I am, maybe donate an amount you would miss.
It's better than nothing.
But legends arceus is possibly close to 8-10 millions sold by now...at full price.
The world is united in pushing back against the deadly and unprovoked attack by Putin.
Good to see some kindness, we all should contribute with something, not only big companies.
Essay Pro