Bungie: Be A Hero! (Haiti)

[binary solo]

Nice gesture, token though it is.

You do realise it is illegal for Bungie to give away money that can't be justified through showing that it would, or is likely to, return a benefit to shareholders in the future? What's that benefit? Make gamers feel good about Bungie and so be more likely to buy the next Bungie game that comes out. If Bungie can't show a financial benefit from giving the money away then any shareholder can take Bungie to court and sue them for lost return. Fortunately for Bungie, the amount being given away is too small for any shareholder to get upset about and to take that sort of action. Which is why Bungie can't give away a meaningful amount like $2-3 million, because at that amount some shareholder is likely to get a bit upset about it and take the matter further.

A corporation can dine out on one act of high profile charity for a very long time, and get a whole bunch of free advertising into the bargain.

It'll make a lot of people feel good, but giving no money at all would be just as effective in solving the underlying problems that lead to the scale of this disaster in the first place. In other words this is meaningless in the larger scheme of the social and economic problems of the third world.

Lobby the rich countries to forgive the crippling 3rd world debt, which is as effective at keeping countries impoverished than anything else, then you might do something to really feel good about.