Chime, the launch title for the charity project OneBigGame, is finally reaching the end of the exclusivity period with the publisher-come-charity. Originally signed for five months, Zo� Mode doubled this exclusivity period to a total of 10 months with 100 percent of their royalties donated to OneBigGame.
After 9:00AM UTC on Dec. 1, 2010, the royalties from sales of Chime on Xbox LIVE� Arcade will fall in line with the Steam� version of the franchise, with five percent of all royalties continuing to be donated to OneBigGame.
“While 100% of our royalty is donated we feel we can freely encourage those who have not had a chance to purchase Chime to use this last opportunity to fully support the OneBigGame initiative,” said Ed Daly, general manager, Zoe Mode. “We have very much enjoyed working with OneBigGame on this unique venture and although this marks a change for Chime it is far from the end of the relationship.”
The title update that will debrand the product and alter the statement of charitable contributions also contains a gift to the hardened Chime players on XBLA. Players quite early on managed to defeat the game and gain extraordinarily high scores; however, the score maximum was capped resulting in what players dubbed ‘the Eight Nines’ and a leaderboard topped with identical scores.
“Now that this cap has been removed it will finally be possible to discover the best Chime players in the world,” stated Brynley Gibson, game director, Zoe Mode. “This fix has been a long time coming and is absolutely one made for the fans; we hope it tides them over until we can announce our plans for where we are taking Chime next.”
The project has clearly been a success for all involved and has proven that charity in games can work. Very shortly Zo� Mode will hand over a check to Martin De Ronde, director of One Big Game, for the soon to be disclosed final amount. De Ronde commented, “We could not be happier with the success of our first game at OneBigGame and once again thanks to everyone at Zo� Mode for their hard work and generosity and in particular for extending the fund raising period. The money raised is going to make a difference and will help children around the world as we pass it on to our partners at Save the Children and Starlight Children’s Foundation.”
Due to the critical success of the title the developer, who recouped not a single development cost from the XBLA project, continues to work on further fully commercial iterations.
Further Information
5% of all royalties from Chime for Xbox LIVE� Arcade and Chime for PC on Steam� will be donated to OneBigGame. 100% of the proceeds from the Xbox LIVE� Arcade version of Chime for Xbox 360� have benefited OneBigGame since the game’s release up to 1/12/2010.
Chime is available on Xbox LIVE� Arcade at the price of 400 MS Points. For more information, please visit www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/c/Chimexbla/
Chime is available on Steam� priced $4.99 (check Steam� for alternative currency prices). For more information, please visit store.steampowered.com/app/62100/
For more information about Chime, please visit www.Chimegame.com