Game industry charity dedicated to improving lives of sick children nets record-breaking year.

Organizers of the game industry charity Child’s Play recently announced that more than $5 million was raised in 2012, marking its biggest year yet. Last year’s then-record-breaking tally came in at $3.5 million.

The total 2012 Child’s Play haul was $5,085,761.

A Child’s Play representative thanked event organizers, volunteers, and participants for their work to achieve the mark. In addition, the group called out the Humble Bundle team and made specific mention of various game marathons that benefited Child’s Play, including the Mario Marathon, Zeldathon, Assassins4Kids, and more.

“We are overwhelmed, honored, grateful, and incredibly proud to be a part of such an amazing community of generous gamers,” reads a line from the statement. “Thank you for a record-breaking 2012!”

Founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, Child’s Play works to improve the lives of sick children through offering toys and games at a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. For more on Child’s Play, see the organization’s official website.

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Academic honors society at Antelope Valley College hosting marathon to benefit Child’s Play charity; 59 hours in and $1,025 raised thus far.

A group of students at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California are hosting an Assassin’s Creed marathon to raise money for the Child’s Play charity, which benefits sick children in hospitals. This is the second year the group has hosted the fundraiser, with last year’s event bringing in $1,400.

The Alpha Iota academic honors society and community service group is currently 59 hours in to the marathon and has raised $1,025. The marathon is being streamed live at this moment via Twitch.

The “Assassins4Kids” group is also auctioning off numerous Assassin’s Creed-themed merchandise, including paintings, custom shoes, and hoodies. For more on the event, check out the event’s website.

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Steam’s game approval service Greenlight has expanded to include a new service called “Concepts”. Concepts allows a developer to post up their game for free so that the developers can gauge interest in their game and potentially form a community of interested gamers. However, Concepts will not allow a game to be added to Steam; that will require paying the $100 fee (donation to Child’s Play) to get on Greenlight proper.

As you can see from the quote in the image, Valve says that “this section is intended for items looking to gather feedback from the potential customers and begin building a community.”

The ability to drum up support on Steam free of charge should certainly be of interest to indie developers, as some games in the past have had to release outside of Steam to gain a community before having a chance to be on Steam (an example of which can be found in this Joystiq piece). Concepts certainly looks to be a promising compromise to assuage developer concerns and let Steam users interact with and help shape more games.

Source: [Steam Greenlight]

Read the full version here – http://www.gamrreview.com/news/89395/steam-greenlight-concepts-goes-live/

Company introduces submission fee to “cut down the noise” following popular launch; all proceeds go to Child’s Play charity.

Those who wish to submit a project to Valve’s community-based Steam Greenlight initiative will now need to pay $100 to do so. Writing on the official Steam community website, a Valve representative said while there have been numerous legitimate submissions, there is also a “significant amount of noise and clutter” being submitted. Thus, the decision was made to introduce a fee to cut down on these projects.

Still want to post a Half-Life 3 submission? That’ll be $100.

All proceeds from submission fees will be donated to Child’s Play, a charity founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. It works to improve the lives of sick children through offering toys and games at a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide.

Those who already posted a submission to Steam Greenlight will not need to retroactively pay the $100 fee, but will need to for future submissions.

Valve also has announced that it is has updated the Steam Greenlight user interface to better help players find what they are looking for. To this end, users will be shown smaller, more manageable lists of that games that they have not rated.

Steam Greenlight launched on August 30. Since then, over 700 projects have been submitted to the service, which allows developers to put up Kickstarter-like pitches for favorable ratings from users.

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ChipIn fund to change Mass Effect 3 ending shut down at Penny Arcade’s request after raising $80,000 for charity; webcomic says ties to Retake Mass Effect movement were problems.

The Retake Mass Effect charity drive ended yesterday after the charity for which it raised $80,000–Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play–asked it to pull the plug.

Looks like Penny Arcade started a Retake Child’s Play movement.

Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins addressed the issue in a post on the webcomic’s main site last night, saying there was a good amount of confusion among those who were donating to the cause.

“Apparently some of the people giving to the cause seemed to think that they were paying for a new ending to Mass Effect,” Holkins said. “[Child's Play's project manager has] been asked what the goal is, and how much they need to raise in order to get the ending produced. We’ve also been contacted by PayPal due to a high number of people asking for their donations back. This is in addition to readers who simply couldn’t understand how this was connected to Child’s Play’s mission. We were dealing with a lot of very confused people, more every day, and that told us we had a problem.”

Additionally, Holkins addressed another reason for asking that the ChipIn fund be stopped, saying its goal to raise awareness for a separate cause by donating to Child’s Play opened the door for other people to take advantage.

“I actually support this cause, but I am a pessimist, and I’m thinking about the next time something like this happens,” Holkins said, “when someone attaches Child’s Play to something we can’t get behind, or leverages your history of generosity and fellow feeling for their own weird bullshit. So, we need to have something like a policy on this. This is the best way I can think to say it: Child’s Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child’s Play must be the Cause.”

In a post on the Retake Mass Effect page, the ChipIn fund’s organizer (who goes by Robb on the site) explained why he chose to comply with the request. He also anticipated the reaction of the fund’s supporters, saying, “There will be conspiracy theories regarding this. Many of the public statements by Penny Arcade have been dismissive or outright derogatory of our effort. I believe this is a failure on their part to understand our issues, but they are entitled to their opinion. Regardless, I want to stress that I do not believe for one second that this is an attempt by anyone at Penny Arcade to silence this movement.”

After the March 6 launch of Mass Effect 3, fans upset with the trilogy’s ending began petitioning developer BioWare to create an alternate ending to tie up loose ends, better incorporate player decisions made throughout the series, and provide more closure to the story. The Retake Mass Effect ChipIn fund was set up to collect PayPal donations for Child’s Play, with the goal being to send a message to BioWare about just how much fans wanted their complaints addressed.

For more on BioWare’s decision to revisit Mass Effect 3′s ending, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.

[ Watch Video ]

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Retake Mass Effect movement collects donations for Child’s Play as a way to call for BioWare to make new endings for its latest sci-fi role-playing shooter.

A number of Mass Effect fans are upset with the way the latest entry in the series ended, and they’re voicing their displeasure by giving to charity.

It’s tough to argue against charity.

Members of the Mass Effect community have set up the Retake Mass Effect ChipIn fund, collecting PayPal donations for the Child’s Play charity in order to call attention to their request for BioWare to make alternate Mass Effect 3 endings.

As of press time, the fund had raised more than $35,000 from more than 1,400 contributors. The donation drive will run until April 11.

Founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, Child’s Play works to improve the lives of sick children through offering toys and games at a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. For more on Child’s Play, see the organization’s official website.

As of press time, Child’s Play and Electronic Arts had not returned requests for comment.

[ Watch Video ]

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Retake Mass Effect movement collects donations for Child’s Play as a way to call for BioWare to make new endings for its latest sci-fi role-playing shooter.

A number of Mass Effect fans are upset with the way the latest entry in the series ended, and they’re voicing their displeasure by giving to charity.

It’s tough to argue against charity.

Members of the Mass Effect community have set up the Retake Mass Effect ChipIn fund, collecting PayPal donations for the Child’s Play charity in order to call attention to their request for BioWare to make alternate Mass Effect 3 endings.

As of press time, the fund had raised more than $35,000 from more than 1,400 contributors. The donation drive will run until April 11.

Founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, Child’s Play works to improve the lives of sick children through offering toys and games at a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. For more on Child’s Play, see the organization’s official website.

As of press time, Child’s Play and Electronic Arts had not returned requests for comment.

[ Watch Video ]

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Penny Arcade-founded game industry charity surpasses $2 million goal, takes in record donation tally.

Gamers love to get rewards for their in-game work via achievements and trophies, but the gaming community also likes to give in the real world. Game industry charity Child’s Play has announced that it took in over $3.5 million in 2011, marking its strongest year yet.

Child’s Play exceeded its donation goal in 2011.

The total 2011 Child’s Play donation haul was $3,512,345, which is well ahead of the organization’s $2 million goal. In 2011, Child’s Play broke the $10 million mark in lifetime contributions, held its first Child’s Play golf tournament in California, and launched a new website.

Heading to 2012, Child’s Play believes $3.5 million will be a tough tally to eclipse, but that it’s certainly doable.

“[I]f we’ve learned one thing, it is to never underestimate the generosity of the gaming community,” reads a statement on the Child’s Play website. “Each year has surpassed our expectations, and we move in to 2012 with confidence and enthusiasm. Thank You!”

Founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, Child’s Play works to improve the lives of sick children through offering toys and games at a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. For more on Child’s Play, see the organization’s official website.

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Penny Arcade-founded organization kicks off ninth annual children’s hospital toy drive; auction set for December 8.

Last year, the Child’s Play charity raised a record $2.2 million in donations to help provide hospitalized children with toys, games, and books. The organization kicked off its 2011 charity drive yesterday with hopes of helping even more kids in need.

Krahulik and Holkins host the Child’s Play Charity Dinner Auction each year.

A number of events are slated through the end of 2011. The fifth annual Desert Bus for Hope event set from November 18 to 23 is among the biggest, with a lifetime total $400,000 raised. Umloud!, a community-driven rock band concert event is set for December 8 in San Francisco.

The 6th Annual Charity Dinner Auction will take place on December 8 in Bellevue, WA, and it will be hosted by Penny Arcade’s Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins. Individual and 10-person table tickets are available for $145 and $5,000, respectively. Donations of gaming-related memorabilia, art, and other auction-ready items are being accepted.

Outside of the events, donations can be submitted in several ways. Child’s Play says the easiest way to donate is by texting “GAMERS” to 50555 for a one-time direct $5 donation. The charity also accepts PayPal, or for those who would like to donate to a specific hospital, facilities’ Amazon wish lists are available for perusal via a map on the Child’s Play website.

Beyond individual donors, Child’s Play attracts corporate sponsorship from companies ranging from Microsoft and Nintendo to Valve and Google. Through 2010, the charity had brought in just under $9 million in donations.

For more on the organization or to donate, visit the official Child’s Play website.

[CORRECTION]: This article originally listed the per-table price for the Child’s Play Charity Dinner Auction as $1,000. We regret the error.

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