From the helpful and charitable skies, “support has arrived.” Yesterday, Blizzard announced a new charity event involving Overwatch support hero Mercy:
From May 8 – May 21, Blizzard Entertainment will donate 100% of the proceeds that it receives for your purchase of the Pink Mercy skin to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, with a guaranteed minimum donation of $250,000 USD. Blizzard Entertainment will disclose the total amount of its donation following the end of the campaign. BCRF’s mission is to advance the world’s most promising research to eradicate breast cancer.
Blizzard has a history of using their IPs towards charity, like last year’s BlizzCon charity auction for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County and their World of Warcraft “Shadow the Fox” pet purchases going towards Red Cross Disaster Relief. This marks the first time Overwatch is being utilized for charity and the in-game incentive looks awesome.
On top of the exclusive limited-time skin, Blizzard has classically introduced additional content for this event:
But this isn’t the only way to show your support! We’ve also created a limited-edition Pink Mercy charity shirt, unleashed a unique collection of Pink Mercy sprays and player icons you can get as Twitch Drops, and rallied an epic team of Overwatch content creators to stream for the cause.
Made by community artist Vicki Tsai, who makes lot of Overwatch-themed work, the Pink Mercy shirt is available now on the Blizzard Gear Store.
Furthering their partnership with Twitch, the folks at Blizzard have made the player icons and sprays (designed by community artist Onemegawatt) available through Twitch drops.
All you’ve gotta do is link your Blizzard and Twitch accounts here and then make sure to watch the participating streams:
- May 8 (11:00am – 7:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/QueenE
- May 9 (8:00am – 2:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/cuppcaake
- May 10 (starts 4:00am PDT): https://twitch.tv/flowervin
- May 11 (6:00am – 12:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/RikuRikuRiku
- May 12 (7:00pm – 11:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/fleeur
- May 13 (9:00am – 3:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/elspeth
- May 14 (11:00am – 4:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/esl_alphacast
- May 15 (5:00pm – 11:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/kidkerrigan
- May 16 (4:00pm – 8:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/lolirot
- May 17 (2:00am – 6:00am PDT): https://twitch.tv/angel20739
- May 18 (6:00am – 2:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/HALtv
- May 19 (11:00am – 4:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/marvellous_li
- May 20 (12:00am – 4:00am PDT): https://twitch.tv/rudeism
- May 21 (8:00am – 4:00pm PDT): https://twitch.tv/emongg
Please note that the times listed above are for when bits and donations gifted towards participating channels go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Watching those channels any time during May 8-21 will garner you Pink Mercy Twitch Drops.
As Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan states in the Developer Update for this event, “Mercy is a symbol of helping and healing.” Her legendary skin is available for $15 through May 21 on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4.