NEWS ANALYSIS: XBOX & RIGHT TO PLAY MICROSOFT’S CHARITY PLAY
The Xbox 360 firm is using Kinect Sports DLC to help raise awareness of the work done by children’s charity Right To Play. James Batchelor finds out more about this £1m partnership
LAST week, Microsoft announced a partnership with international children’s charity Right To Play. The $1m deal includes fundraising activities and donations of cash, Xbox 360 hardware and games. Most notably, Right To Play’s brand will be incorporated into the upcoming basketball DLC for Kinect Sports: Season Two. But what is Right To Play? That is a question that Microsoft is keen to get Xbox owners asking. “Right To Play is a great charity but some people may not understand what they actually do,” Microsoft’s UK head of sales and marketing Jonathan Grimes tells MCV. “One of the key things we can do is raise that awareness by linking the charity with our basketball DLC and really bring their efforts to life.”
FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT Founded in 2000, Right To Play is an organisation that enables children in disadvantaged communities, refugee camps and conflict zones to play – in every sense of the word. The charity focuses on everything from sports to video games, and already works with icons from the former. Ambassadors include members of Team GB and Sébastien Foucan, the creator of free running. And VP of global business development Kate Burt believes Microsoft is the ideal partner when reaching out to the games industry. “We have shared ideas about the transformative power of play and sport so Right To Play and Microsoft are a winning team,” she says. “We work with more children than any other sport
12 March 30th 2012
The partnership was announced during an event at Chelsea FC’s stadium by Right To Play’s Burt, Rare’s Henson, Xbox’s Grimes and celeb Foucan (pictured left to right)
development organisation. And obviously Microsoft has broken many records – the power of us working together is going to transform thousands of lives.” Kinect Sports was the clear choice for this deal. Not only have the two games racked up a combined 6m sales, they have each won BAFTAs, with Season Twopicking up Best Sports/Fitness Game. But Grimes says there is a more important connection: “Kinect is all about active play. Bring in sports, and it very closely links to everything Right To Play is talking about.”
Rare studio head Scott Henson adds: “We get presented with lots of opportunities. When you look at what Right To Play is about and what we’re about, it was a perfect marriage.” Grimes adds that even Xbox Live can bring something to the table: “A big part of the benefit of playing is interacting with friends – learning about competition, how to win, how to lose and how to react with that.
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The power of us working with Microsoft is going to transform thousands of lives.
Kate Burt, Right To Play
“Gaming has moved away from being this soulless hobby where people play on their own into this very interactive activity.” Of course, this initiative ties in rather nicely with Microsoft’s broader goal of ingratiating Xbox 360 with families and younger gamers – a drive that Kinect has been crucial to. “People understanding that you can now play games like this controller- free is a message we really need to get out there, to continue to expand into that audience,” says Grimes. “We aren’t looking at how we can benefit from this promotion, but how we can take Right To Play’s brand with us and raise awareness as we reach that audience.”
PLAYING TOGETHER The partnership kicks off with the release of the Kinect Sports basketball DLC on April 2nd.
Going forwards, Right To Play will be integrated into Microsoft promotions such as Summer of Sports, which will be detailed soon.
The next step will be to get retailers involved, something Microsoft is actively exploring. “It’s an area where we really need to move this partnership forward,” says Grimes. “We will obviously have trials over the summer linked to all our Kinect Sports activity, and of course the basketball DLC will be a part of that. But that’s something we’ll work closely with Right To Play and our retail partners on, working out how we can best get that message across. “The key for us is that the charity gets some true benefits. It’s not just the sponsorship: it’s about how we help people better understand the charity, how we raise funds internally, how Xbox can drive that. We’ve even created lesson plans with an ex-teacher up in Scotland to drive this activity and how Right To Play can use these activities to put Xbox into classroom situations. All of that activity is where we see the real benefit.”