

Raiding tombs doesn’t have to always be about personal gain. Consider the following: what if Lara Croft donated all of the ancient relics she acquires on her treacherous journeys to charity? That’s a plot line we’ll likely never see in a Tomb Raider game, but it doesn’t mean that Square Enix can’t attempt to do something similar.
In celebration of Tomb Raider’s 20th anniversary, Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics, and GameChanger launched a charity drive in which donors who contributed at least $1 would receive a PC digital copy of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. 96% of the funds would be given to GameChanger‘s charity, whose mission is to “[bring] happiness & gaming to children facing life-threatening illnesses in hospitals around the world” (specifically, this includes “financial aid for patients & families with cancer and college scholarships for survivors, in addition to the aforementioned games and gaming events).
Donation incentives included a chance at receiving some swag, as follows :
$20+ Donations – 2 chances to win prizes!
– Entered into drawing to win a Collector’s Edition of Rise of the Tomb Raider, a Crystal Dynamics swag bag & more awesome items related to the Lara Croft seres! (over $89.99 value – US donors only)
– Entered into drawing to win GameChanger’s Tomb Raider Grand Prize Giveaway – includes 1 XBOX One console, 5 XBOX One games, accessories, swag & more! (over $600 value – US donors only)
– Receive incentives offered at previous donation levels$50+ Donations
– First 25 to donate $50 receive a Tomb Raider poster! (US donors only)
– Receive a GameChanger Gratitude Package – personalized Thank You Letter, GameChanger swag & more! (US donors only)
– Receive incentives offered at previous donation levels (ie entered into $20 prize drawings)
So what’s with all of the past tense? According to the official GameChanger page, donations had exceeded their expectations at just 8:30 PM PST last night. At that point, they had run out of Tomb Raider codes to give away! $20 and $50 donations were still open to the public until 26.5 hours later. At 11:30 AM PST this morning, GameChanger had closed the donation drive, as they had run out of rewards.
Alas, the chance to get a cheap copy of Tomb Raider has passed. But you can at least learn more about GameChanger’s mission here, and still purchase the game on Steam for $20.00 here. And in any case, it’s heartwarming to see so many people rally around a good cause, and a highly acclaimed game to boot.
Play games, take surveys and take advantage of special offers to help support mxdwn. Every dollar helps keep the content you love coming every single day.

