Epic Games announced yesterday they've raised $150,000 for gaming charity Child's Play through the sale of real and virtual shirts surrounding the eventual fate of a character in the upcoming Gears of War 3.
Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson announced the haul via a pre-recorded video shown at the G4 panel at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo.
The T-shirt campaign, which ran from July 29 to Sept. 1, let gamers purchase shirts reading "Save Carmine" or "Carmine Must Die" either for themselves or for their Xbox Live avatars.
It's currently unclear how the total sales were distributed between the virtual shirts or the real ones -- with the physical shirts distributed at San Diego Comic-Con and online via merchandising company NECA.
Each purchase was used to register a vote on whether new character Clayton Carmine will live or die in the next game in the series.
In the video announcement, Bleszinski played coy on the final outcome of the voting. "Although the fate of Carmine has been sealed, we can't tell you right now," he said.
The announcement comes as worldwide virtual good sales are expected to bring in over $3 billion for the year.
Agreed with Alex. I don't think he stands a snowball's chance in hell. Maybe that's why a female avatar was modeling the "saves" shirt? Some compensation?
Actually, at one point I looked and saw the Save Carmine shirt was ranked higher on the top downloads list for Gears on XBOX Live. If they count a real T-Shirt as one vote and an avatar T-Shirt as one vote, I'm guessing Carmine will live.
Yeah, "Save Carmine" had a slim lead some time before the deadline. However that could've changed as quickly as they announced it. I guess we just have to wait and see.
I love this concept, offering a dlc with profits going to charity. I wish more companies would do it.
Poor Carmine.
I love this concept, offering a dlc with profits going to charity. I wish more companies would do it.