UK based charity War Child has teamed up with its US partner Children in Conflict to launch a new campaign that takes its inspiration from our love of classic video games.
RE-PLAY is aiming to take players back to a simpler time with downloadable retro content and events – all in aid of raising money and spreading awareness for children across the globe who are affected by conflict.
Playing games to help kids in need? That’s absolutely a cause I think we can all get on board with. RE-PLAY “encourages gamers to reconnect with games from their childhood”, all while looking out for some of the world’s most vulnerable kids.
Wayne Emanuel, Gaming Partnerships Manager at War Child UK says:
RE-PLAY is a campaign about reflecting on childhood and reinforcing the idea that every child has the right to play. For hundreds of thousands of children forced to live in or flee conflict, playing and its link to developing a child’s identity, creative thinking and problem solving, is often overlooked. We’re really excited to be supported in our initial year with past supporters such as Wargaming, 2K, Team17, Double Fine and Social Point along with new partners including Bethesda Softworks, Roll7, Ustwo, and Kongregate.
A particular highlight of this new campaign will be an interactive livestream hosted by comedian Steve McNeil, with all manner of celebrity guests and well known gamers getting in on the fun and playing through some of their favourite childhood games.
You can check out the livestream at 1pm BST on Thursday, April 12, over at UNILAD Gaming – expect to see the likes of Dara Ó Briain, TomSka, Ashens, NitroLuke DX, and eSports team FNATIC get in on the action – a good time should be had by all.
But that’s not all – the fashion savvy gamers out there will be able to treat themselves to a limited run of retro-themed tees, exclusively designed by the likes of Bethesda, 343, Wargaming, and Social Point.
You’ll be able to pick these up from the GameOn tee online store (right here) at £20 a shirt until May 3. All proceeds will be going to War Child UK.
For more information about RE-PLAY and the gaming studios that are participating, visit https://www.warchild.org.uk/RE-PLAY or follow @WarChild_Gaming on Twitter or search the hashtag #retroREPLAY.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.