Bethesda donates $1 million to COVID-19 relief efforts

The games industry is continuing to do a decent job of being charitable with Bethesda Softworks being the latest to donate money to charities that aid in Coronavirus relief efforts. 

Bethesda has just announced that it is giving $500,000 to Direct Relief, a charity that provides protective gear to health care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic. It's also donating $250,000 to Unicef, which helps children around the world. Finally, there's $250,000 going to Coronavirus relief efforts in the local areas surrounding Bethesda Studio's locations in North America as well as internationally. Those charities are being picked out specifically by the individual offices in mind.

As well as that, Bethesda employees are contributing to encouraging us all to stay home and stay safe via game streaming sessions over at Twitch. It's part of its #BethesdaAtHome effort with charitable funds also being raised here by people watching the stream.

It's all part of a growing trend of game companies helping where they can. Last month, Plague Inc developer, Ndemic Creations made a $250,000 donation which was split between the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Appropriate stuff from the makers of the game that enjoyed a bit of a boost early on in the pandemic. 

Sony has also set up a $100 million fund with Eurogamer reporting that Nintendo donated 9,500 face masks.

It's all rather lovely to see. Even if you push back that hint of cynicism that might make you wonder just how much money such companies have going spare at the best of times anyhow. Regardless, no one's forcing them to do it, and sometimes it feels like the world needs all the help it can get. 

If you're keen to join in on the revelry at Bethesda's Twitch stream, head over there now. It's mostly a lot of Fallout 76 content which makes sense given the recent release of its expansion, Wastelanders. What could make you feel better right now than a post-apocalyptic wasteland?