THE EDGE AWARDS
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION ITCH.IO BUNDLE
Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch
Sometimes it seems like there are things only certain people or organisations can do; the itch.io Bundle For Racial Justice And Equality felt like one of them. It arrived in the midst of a summer that felt like a breaking point: the world was up in arms following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, with widespread protests against police brutality and endemic racism. As many of us looked to donate what we could to appropriate causes, the indie-focused storefront reacted quickly. On June 6, the bundle went live: for a minimum of $5 (every cent of which would be distributed between two organisations, the NAACP Legal Defense And Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund) you could bag over 740 games. And not just any games: from acclaimed works such as A Short Hike and Celeste, Night In The Woods and Super Hexagon to lesser-known curios such as coming-of-age tale Wide Ocean Big Jacket and dialogue-duelling RPG The Last Word.
It passed its $5 million target in just five short days, and then kept going – with new games (such as
Supergiant’s pre-Hades fantasy sports game, Pyre) consistently added, the value proposition only increased over time. Hearteningly, the average donation evened out to about $10.06 per person, more than twice the minimum, with the highest donation for a single bundle sitting at a cool $5,000. Little wonder, then, that the final total of the charity drive reached nearly $8.2 million, putting plenty of other donations from far more lucrative operations to shame. It was an incredible, affirming moment for an industry that is often unfairly accused of doing more harm than good, with itch.io providing a platform for the global game community to come together and effect real change. Although we wouldn’t have expected some of the bigger game companies to react as quickly, decisively or meaningfully as this boutique storefront, it threw down something of a gauntlet to them nonetheless. And it offered something else, too: the idea that, when it comes to the crunch, fighting back is not entirely the preserve of a select few powerful people or organisations. It’s about all of us.