Epic Games has confirmed that all Fortnite purchases from today (March 20) until April 3 will be donated to humanitarian relief for people affected by the war in Ukraine.
On February 24, Russia sent military forces into Ukraine. The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has estimated that between that date and March 15, the conflict has claimed 1,900 civilian casualties. The UN (via BBC) also estimates that there are nearly 1.85million internally displaced people within Ukraine.
In response, Epic will be supporting Direct Relief, UNICEF, The UN Refugee Agency and the United Nations Food Programme, with more organisations to be added in the coming days.
“They are on the ground providing emergency aid, including health support, food and clean water, essential supplies, legal aid, and shelter,” reads the announcement.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 20, 2022
Epic has confirmed that they won’t be waiting for the actual funds to come in from their payment partners either. “As transactions are reported, we’ll log them and send the funds to the humanitarian relief organisations within days.”
According to Epic, “all real-money Fortnite purchases made between March 20 and April 3 will be distributed. This includes V-Buck packs, gifted Battle Passes, and cosmetic packs such as the Voidlander Pack sold for real money. Retail store purchases of in-game cosmetics and V-Bucks cards will also be included if they are redeemed in-game during this window.”
“Funds from existing, re-activated or new Fortnite Crew subscription renewals processed between March 20 through April 3 will be included towards relief funds,” they added.
The company has also confirmed there will be no opt-out for players. “ If you’d like to avoid Epic including the funds from your purchase, please hold off buying anything with real money in Fortnite until April 4, 2022 or later.”
Earlier this month, Epic, alongside studios like Activision, Take-Two, EA and Nintendo, stopped selling their products in Russia.
Some studios have also been directly affected by the invasion. Ubisoft recently shared that it will provide alternate housing and early paychecks for its employees in Ukraine. At the same time, Kyiv-based studio GSC Game World announced that Stalker 2: Heart Of Chernobyl development has been “shifted to the sidelines” and will be picked back up “after the victory”. The same studio later changed the game’s title to Heart Of Chornobyl to reflect the region’s Ukrainian spelling.
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