That’s a great example of environmental action delivering social, health and economic benefits at the same time. Protecting a rainforest isn’t only about trees, either. Healthy
ecosystems support communities and livelihoods. The same is true of our oceans. Environmental action and human wellbeing are interconnected.
FROM PROTECTING HABITATS TO SUPPORTING CHILDREN That thinking is also reflected in the way PlanetPlay is developing. Earlier this summer, we announced a partnership with UNICEF, expanding the ways in which our platform and the games industry can contribute to positive change. Our first major initiative together will be the PlayForEveryChild PC
Games Collection for UNICEF, bringing studios and publishers together to help support UNICEF’s work for children around the world. For us, this is a natural expansion of what we believe games can
achieve. PlanetPlay doesn’t claim to be an expert in children’s welfare, just as
we’re not rainforest conservationists or marine biologists. That’s precisely why partnerships matter. Organisations such as UNICEF, Rainforest Alliance and Oceana bring
deep expertise in the challenges they address. Our expertise is games: understanding studios, publishers and players, and creating practical ways for this extraordinary industry and its communities to support their work. There is potentially a powerful model in bringing those worlds
together.
THERE IS NO SINGLE MODEL FOR GAMES FOR GOOD Crucially, that model doesn’t have to look the same every time. One of the most exciting things happening across games today is the sheer variety of ways companies and communities are creating impact. Sometimes it’s fundraising. Sometimes it’s an in-game item, live event
or community activation. It could be a charity games collection, a game exploring an important issue through its narrative, or a studio using its audience to raise awareness. It doesn’t necessarily have to involve spending money at all. Our
Play2Act initiative with the United Nations Development Programme, for example, asked players to contribute their views on environmental and social issues through short in-game surveys, creating insights that can help international organisations and policymakers better understand attitudes around the world. Elsewhere, Make Green Moves has enabled studios to support
environmental projects through their existing games and communities. Battle for the Habitats brought more than 200 games together in support of Rainforest Alliance and Oceana, while the Green Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest provided a platform for games that explore our relationship with nature and the world around us. These are very different approaches to a similar question: how can we
use something games already do brilliantly to create an impact beyond the screen?
And PlanetPlay is far from alone in asking it. Across our industry,
developers, publishers, platforms, trade bodies, charities and other organisations are experimenting with their own answers. That diversity is something we should embrace.
PARTICIPATION, NOT PERFECTION It’s also important to acknowledge the environment in which games companies are currently operating. Budgets are under pressure. Studios have closed. Thousands of
talented people have lost their jobs. Teams everywhere are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources. Against that backdrop, telling every studio that it should launch a
major ESG programme or invest significant resources into a social- impact campaign isn’t realistic, and risks making ‘games for good’ feel like another corporate obligation. It shouldn’t. A studio might contribute a game to a charitable collection. Another
might create an in-game activation. A publisher could provide marketing support. Developers might incorporate environmental or social themes into the stories they tell, while others simply use their community reach to amplify an initiative they believe in. There is no minimum threshold for caring. The principle should be
participation, not perfection, and organisations like ours need to make that participation as easy as possible.
WHAT ELSE COULD WE ACHIEVE? From cleaner cooking and opportunities for women in Kenya, to protecting rainforests and oceans, listening to players around the world and now supporting UNICEF’s work for children, we’re beginning to see some of the possibilities. No single studio, campaign or organisation can tackle every challenge.
But collectively, games give us an extraordinary combination of creativity, technology, communities and global reach. If we make it easier for more of our industry (and more players) to put
those assets to work for the causes they care about, millions of individual actions can add up to something much bigger.
PlanetPlay is a not-for-profit platform that empowers gamers worldwide to contribute to biodiversity protection and environmental action through in-game purchases and gameplay with affiliated game studios. Find out more at
partners.planetplay.com.
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