Indie studio Klei, the developer of games including Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included, has joined the ranks of game companies supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, announcing today that it will donate $1 million to the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
"As a part of the global community, we believe each of us need to do our part to make the world a safer, kinder, more equal place. As a studio we have much to learn and we do our best to contribute. While we regularly donate to local and global causes, we generally do not announce them and prefer to do the work quietly," the studio wrote on its forums. "In this instance, we feel it is important to let others know we are standing with them, and hopefully inspire others to contribute as best they can."
"Black Lives Matter, and we stand with the Black community. In an effort to take substantive action toward civil rights, equality, and against racial injustice, Klei is donating $1 million between the ACLU and the NAACP legal defense fund."
Bethesda Softworks also made a commitment to change today, pledging $250,000 "for organizations engaged in the fight for racial justice" and promising to improve its internal practices.
"We want our company to be a positive force in fighting these wrongs, and we want to do our part in building a better future for all," Bethesda wrote on Twitter. "We have committed support for #BlackLivesMatter. We will continue unflinchingly to add our voice (or our silence, when appropriate) to the cause, whenever and however we can."
"But as we have all seen in the past month, words are not enough. Our collective eyes have been opened to the realities and unfair treatment that people of color face every day, and we must do everything in our power to help."
Along with the financial commitment, Bethesda also pledged to create a "diversity council to hold us accountable with our focus on diversity and to support our employee-led groups," to hold recurring and mandatory training sessions for all employees on unconscious bias, sensitivity, and allyship, to improve and expand its diversity-based recruiting, and to develop a mentorship program "and other leadership initiatives to increase our support of employee members of the Black and diverse communities."
Klei and Bethesda join an array of companies that have made financial donations to Black Lives Matter and related causes, including Humble Bundle, Ubisoft, Devolver Digital, Riot, Games Done Quick, EVO, and several others. Indie digital storefront Itch.io is also offering a Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, with more than 1400 games included—it's now raised more than $4 million, that will be divided equally between the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Community Bail Fund.
