OneBigGame: De Ronde Speaks on Industry’s Live Aid

Gamasutra has an excellent interview with GDC’s Martin de Ronde about his upcoming project OneBigGame, a non-profit video game publisher. The organization is supported by some of the industries biggest names in development and design and is dedicated to raising funding for children’s charities world wide.

De Ronde says he was inspired by a documentary on Band Aid and intrigued with how the same principals could be applied to the gaming industry. The company is privately funded for now, but many studios and designers are eager to contribute resources and talent to the project. Supporters include Charles Cecil (Revolution Software), Eric Zimmerman (Gamelab), Ernest Adams (International Hobo), Avalanche Studios, Relentless, Kuju and Freestyle. As to the future of the organization, De Ronde has this to say.

It started life as an idea for a one-off event, but we soon realized that OneBigGame could become an umbrella brand for bringing hundreds of games to market for the sake of charity, and so the idea for the non-profit publisher of video games was born.

I hope in 5 years time we will have laid the foundation for a company that is here to stay, that we will have raised considerable amounts of money for our charities and that we have shown how this industry, with all its creative people, can do something good for the world.

In a world where video games and gamers are so often under fire, it’s good to see the industry in a positive light, making a real difference in society.