War in Ukraine: Epic Games and Xbox send Fortnite revenues to humanitarian aid

War in Ukraine

Another important initiative from the world of video games for the war in Ukraine comes from Fortnite, with Epic Games and Xbox having decided to send all revenues from in-game sales to humanitarian relief efforts in the country during the war.

According to reports from Epic Games, all proceeds raised by Fortnite starting March 20 and through April 3, 2022 will go to ongoing humanitarian aid in Ukraine for the war-affected population, all with the support of Microsoft. Xbox.




"Epic is committed to sending all Fortnite revenues from March 20, 2022 until April 3, 2022 to humanitarian aid for people affected by war in Ukraine," wrote Epic Games, "Xbox joins us in this effort and he will also send his fortnite proceeds for this period, so that he can increase the aid for the people of Ukraine. "

The proceeds will be sent directly to a number of organizations dealing with support in the area, through the purchase of food, water, medicines and basic necessities, as well as providing shelter and primary assistance. Among these are Direct Relief, Unicef, World Food Program, UNHCR.

To increase the speed of the procedures, Epic Games claims to send the proceeds as soon as the transaction report arrives, without therefore waiting for the actual conclusion of the procedure to move the money, as reported on the official page of the initiative .

Among the purchases that are part of the initiative are "V-buck packages, Fortnite Crew, Battle Pass as a gift and cosmetic packages such as the Void Probe package purchased with real money. Purchases will also be included. in physical stores of in-game cosmetic items and V-Bucks cards, as long as these items are redeemed in-game during the aforementioned time window ". Transactions in V-Bucks are not included because they are not real money, but purchases of the virtual currency are obviously included in real money.

"100% of Epic's revenues through Fortnite are equal to the price gross purchase of all in-game purchases or redemption of physical purchases made between March 20, 2022 and April 3, 2022 worldwide, excluding taxes, third party platform fees, refunds, returns or exchanges.

Microsoft will contribute net revenue from all Fortnite content sales on the Microsoft Store between March 20, 2022 and April 3, 2022, in all countries where Fortnite is sold. Net revenue equals gross revenue net of returns and chargebacks, billing costs, bandwidth costs, operating costs and taxes.

Find more information on the official page of the Epic Games initiative. In the meantime we also remember the excellent Humble Bundle for Ukraine and que llo by Itch.io.

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Russia-Ukraine war: 56 elderly people killed by Russian forces, Ukraine says; Mariupol art school bombed, officials claim – live

Russia has rubbished reports suggesting its cosmonauts wore yellow suits with blue accents to show solidarity with Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.

The three cosmonauts wore the suits, bearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag, when arriving at the International Space Station (ISS) leading to speculation they were a show of support for the country which is under attack by Russia.

However, on Saturday, Russia dismissed the idea as fanciful.

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev said each crew picks the colours about six months before launch because the suits need to be individually sewn. He added that they were chosen because all three graduated from Bauman Moscow State Technical University and so they chose the colours of their prestigious alma mater.

In a statement on the Russian space agency’s Telegram channel, Artemyev said:

There is no need to look for any hidden signs or symbols in our uniform. A colour is simply a colour. It is not in any way connected to Ukraine. Otherwise, we would have to recognise its rights to the yellow sun in the blue sky.

These days, even though we are in space, we are together with our president and our people!

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the space agency Roscosmos, tweeted a picture of the university’s blue and gold coat of arms.

Shortly after their arrival at the orbiting station on Friday, Artemyev had a different answer about the flight suits, saying there was a lot of the yellow material in storage and “that’s why we had to wear yellow”.

© Provided by The Guardian In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, Russian cosmonauts Оleg Аrtemiev, center, Denis Мatveev, right, and Sergei Korsakov are wearing yellow suits as they arrive at the ISS Photograph: AP

The Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, has played down hostile comments by Rogozin in the wake of the invasion, after Russia said it would stop supplying rocket engines to US companies.

“That’s just Dmitry Rogozin,” Nelson told the Associated Press. “He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.

The Russian invasion has resulted in canceled launches and broken contracts. Many worry Rogozin is putting decades of work at risk, most notably regarding the International Space Station.

Besides threatening to pull out of the space station and drop it on the US, Europe or elsewhere, Rogozin had the flags of other countries covered on a Soyuz rocket awaiting liftoff with internet satellites.

The launch was called off after the customer, London-based OneWeb, refused Rogozin’s demand that the satellites not be used for military purposes and the British government halt financial backing.

On Thursday, the European Space Agency confirmed that it was indefinitely suspending its ExoMars rover mission with Roscosmos because of the war in Ukraine.

“Despite all of that, up in space, we can have a cooperation with our Russian friends, our colleagues,” Nelson said. “The professional relationship between astronauts and cosmonauts, it hasn’t missed a beat. This is the cooperation we have going on in the civilian space program.”

The US and Russia are the prime operators of the space station, which has been occupied for 21 years.

Nasa has said Vande Hei’s plans remain unchanged, despite a video in early March allegedly produced by Roscosmos that showed two Russian cosmonauts waving him goodbye. It then showed a mission control team watching a computer-generated video of the Russian segment of the station detaching and floating away.

The video, which includes a Russian song titled Farewell, was shared by the news agency RIA Novosti. Its caption read: “The Roscosmos television studio jokingly demonstrated the possibility of Russia withdrawing from the ISS project – the undocking of the Russian segment of the station, without which the American part of the project cannot exist.”

In a response, the Russian state news agency Tass said, “American astronaut Mark Vande Hei will return to Earth on 30 March onboard the Russian Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, together with Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov … Roscosmos has never given reason to doubt its reliability as a partner.”

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Related: ‘That’s just Dmitry’: Nasa plays down threat to ISS amid Ukraine war