Helping to rebuild a clinic in Ukraine by playing “Fortnite” is the initiative launched by the Ukrainian government's fundraising campaign platform UNITED24, the “Stand with Ukraine” collective and Havas Play, the video game branch of the French advertising group.
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#TheDonationMap has been offering since Wednesday to go to a map specifically created for the occasion, called “island” in the game, which recreates the Maidan, a square in the center of Kyiv.
Funds raised through player connections will then be used to rebuild a clinic in Mykolaiv, a large city in southern Ukraine.
According to initial figures provided by Havas, #TheDonationMap welcomed more than 3,000 players in 24 hours.
The very popular online game from American giant Epic Games allows fans to create their spaces and then invite other players to connect. Since March 2023, it has paid successful creators via a monetization program, redistributing part of the money collected in-game through the sale of costumes or dances.
The higher the number of players on a map, the more time they spend there, and the greater the remuneration. According to figures released in May by Epic Games, these payments range from $100 to $10 million per year for the few most popular creators.
If “Fortnite” is a “battle royale”, namely a game where participants compete on a defined field with a whole range of weapons until they are the last one standing, there is no risk of seeing the virtual Maidan of #TheDonationMap turns into a battlefield: the creators have removed weapons from their world and prevented any possibility of destroying the environment.
Many video game studios had raised funds for humanitarian associations at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, for example by donating the profits from their sales.
#TheDonationMap claims to be the first initiative that offers players the opportunity to participate without paying a single cent.
In 2022, Epic Games also committed to donating $144 million to humanitarian aid in Ukraine, i.e. all of its profits collected from “Fortnite” for two weeks.