The last few weeks have seen the world grinding to a halt in response to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the entire world radically changing just from the start of March to now, it’s been an extremely stressful time for practically everyone, to say the least.
One of the things that’s been helping has been how strongly the gaming community has banded together to help each other and the world in these trying times. As so many people boot up their games to pass the time amidst quarantines and social distancing, there’s been a great number of fundraisers and relief efforts.
The latest of these efforts comes from Hinterland Studio, the developers of the survival-crafting game, The Long Dark. In this quasi-apocalyptic title, players are forced to survive against Mother Nature herself with nothing more than know-how and some survival games. There’s no vicious mutant monsters stalking you, no horrific zombies waiting to make you their next meal – just you and nature.
It’s fitting, then, that a game that pits humanity against nature is working hard to raise funds to help with relief efforts against COVID-19. Hinterland have partnered with the United Nations Foundation to help raise money for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response fund.
“For one week starting Tuesday, March 24th at 10AM Pacific, you can fight your own cabin fever by buying The Long Dark for 60% off during our special Social Distancing Fundraiser on Steam,” Hinterland writes in their announcement. “All our revenue from the fundraiser goes directly to the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization.”
With the title normally being sold at a $30 price point, the 60% sale brings it down to only $11.99, which is a heck of a deal for a game as entertaining as The Long Dark. You’ll sink countless hours into this game as you struggle to survive against nature, constantly preparing for whatever the wilderness is going to throw at you next.
The DLC isn’t included with this, but that’s no issue since the only DLC is the music for the game (which is very good music, by the way).
It’s fantastic to see gaming studios doing what they can to help with the relief effort, and Hinterland’s fundraiser is a fantastic one. They could easily have done what so many other companies do and donated only a portion of their funds to the relief efforts, but Hinterland is dedicated to donating every last cent that they raise from this sale.
If you’ve been on the fence about buying The Long Dark, or if you’re just looking for something else to help pass the time in social distancing, then now is the best time possible to hop into the title. Do your part to keep social distancing up and raise some funds by hopping into this beautifully bleak struggle to survive.
