News

UK charity SpecialEffect's One Special Day event raised $635,000 for gamers with disabilities

Mobile developers and more come through

UK charity SpecialEffect's One Special Day event raised $635,000 for gamers with disabilities

UK-based games charity SpecialEffect raised £446,000 ($635,000) from its One Special Day event held on September 29th 2017.

The event saw over 30 major mobile developers including Rovio, EA, Supercell, Zynga, Glu, Jam City and ZeptoLab donating 100% of their revenues generated in the UK on the day. Other companies such as Unity and Ukie ran events or donated to the charity as part of the event.

SpecialEffect will use the money to hire two additional clinical staff to help develop its technology which allows people with disabilities to play video games. It will also modify its own games room where people with disabilities can go and try out the technology being developed.

Morale boost

"The money raised from One Special Day is a huge financial boost to SpecialEffect. It will enable us to take on the extra staff we need staff to help even more severely disabled people all over the world to play the games they love," said Special Effect CEO Dr Mick Donegan.

"Being supported by so many games industry partners like Supercell, SEGA, Seriously, Unity Technologies, Codemasters, Playdemic and Rovio is not only a tremendous funding boost but also a terrific morale boost to our passionate and dedicated team here at SpecialEffect."

One Special Day was originally announced in June 2017 with a modest goal of £100,000 ($142,500). In October 2017, SpecialEffect revealed that the event had raised at least £300,000 ($427,500), with mobile developers donating over £250,000 ($356,000) on the day.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.