Japanese Game Companies Join Together for Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

Several Japanese companies have already started to make hefty donations to relief efforts currently going on in their own country after last week's devastating earthquakes and tsunami.

The whole world witnessed in shock at the end of last week to the earthquakes that hit Japan and the subsequent tsunami that ravaged the Asian nation.

Just as things are slowly getting back the normal, several game companies based in the land of the rising sun have announced that they are making considerable donations to all of the relief efforts currently going on.

Among them, we have console manufacturers like Nintendo or Sony, publishers like Namco Bandai, but also smaller companies like 5pb.

Nintendo has made a considerable donation of 300 million yen (around $3.6 million) to all the relief efforts, while Sony as a whole, not just its PlayStation gaming division, has also donated the same amount, and added 30,000 radios made by one of its local electronics plants.

Namco Bandai made a donation of 100 million yen ($1.22 million) to the rescue efforts and has suspended operations in the many arcades it owns across the country, in order to conserve electricity after plenty of nuclear power plants went offline in order to prevent any dangerous events.

The company has also postponed until further notice any contests and events it had planned in the following weeks.

Mobile games developer 5pb has slashed the price of its Memories Of 6 T-Wave title for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, from 2,000 to just 350 yen, and is donating all sales of the app to relief efforts until March 31.

Tecmo Koei has also donated 10 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross, while Sega and its parent company, Sammy, has donated 200 million yen.

Plenty of other companies are planning similar actions, including BlazBlue developer Arc System Works, who is considering the release of downloadable content for its games and redirecting all of the profits to rescue operations.

At the moment, Japan is reluctant to accept any international aid, but feel free to make donations to your local Red Cross organizations, so that they can be ready when another tragedy occurs.