Yes, that's right. During the ATVI earnings report conference call today, Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment, announced that the
Moonkin Hatchling will be available for purchase later this month, as
he had already stated at BlizzCon. In addition, 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale will go to charity. The last time Blizzard did something similar, it raised $1.1 million for the
Make-a-Wish Foundation. Can the hatchling possibly dethrone the Pandaren Monk as the most adorable charity money generator?
Gregg's speculation on whether or not we'd see more charity pets seems confirmed. Were you already planning on picking one up, and if not, does this news make it any more likely?
Tags: blizzard-store, blizzcon-2010, blizzcon-opening-ceremonies, Charity, Make-a-Wish, Mike-Morhaime, mike-morhaime-wow, mini-pet, mini-pets, moonkin-hatchling, moonkin-hatchling-pet, morhaime, Pandaren-Monk, pandaren-monk-pet, vanity-pet, vanity-pets
Filed under: News items, BlizzCon
Nov 4th 2010 at 7:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
PJ Nov 4th 2010 7:03PM
Basically amoral, they use it as a marketing stunt.
Saltytoes Nov 4th 2010 7:10PM
Except half of what they earn goes to not them, but charity...
mnv Nov 4th 2010 7:11PM
yeah, let's not give these children 1+ mil, its amoral.
What i found amoral is that they give only 50%, like they REALLY COULDN'T give all 100%, because they put "so much work and resources" into making one stupid vanity pet. And like they dont make enough money from subs and other stuff.
Felix_rew Nov 4th 2010 7:12PM
Yes, because all companies are run by money hungry selfish peoplle.
Also getting this for mah boomking :D
splodesondeath Nov 4th 2010 7:12PM
Well, to be fair, Blizzard is a corporation and this entails to wanting to make money.
However, I'll agree that they have an awful lot of that right now. They could probably donate 100% of the proceeds to charity.
Falcon6 Nov 4th 2010 7:12PM
The last time they made a "marketing stunt" like this, 1.1 million dollars went to the Make A Wish Foundation.
Food for thought.
MusedMoose Nov 4th 2010 7:28PM
Seeing as how no one gets hurt and hundreds if not thousands of children benefit from this "marketing stunt", I get the feeling you have no idea what 'amoral' actually means. -_-
alien Nov 4th 2010 7:44PM
Considering they put 100% of the work into it and whoever they are donating it to did none, they deserve to keep 100% of the proceeds. That is how the world works: you build and sell something, you make the money.
Personally I would rather see them donate the 50% to their employees as a motivation to keep up the good work. Sick kids are just a drag on society resources..
Tiarnach Nov 4th 2010 7:44PM
Oh FFS.
O NOEZ TEH EEBIL COMPANEE IZ MAKIN TEH MONEEZ!! NERF PROFITS!!
Get a freaking grip. When's the last time Sony or Nintendo or UbiSoft or Firaxis or any other gaming company of any kind gave one red cent to charity?! Between the official Blizzard promotions, and Azeroth United and Child's Play, WoW players should hold their heads high that it's not just a game--we make a real difference in the real world. Aion and LotRO can't make that claim now can they? And so what if 50% goes to A-B? They designed it, they're dealing with the bureaucracy of bundling the donations, and dammat they could be giving zero. Find something credible to QQ about.
Zalvi24 Nov 4th 2010 7:52PM
im sorry but you got to be ireally dumb to not realize this is a win win situation, 1 players can get a brand new pet and the feeling that they also helping, 2 blizzard makes millions of dollars and the feeling that they also helping the kids at make a wish foundation and 3 kids at this charity are being help
bloodfyr Nov 4th 2010 9:08PM
Even without giving to charity (which they're under no legal or moral obligation to do so), I'd rather them monetize WoW in this way rather than selling gold or purples.
Jay Nov 4th 2010 11:28PM
It is a nice gesture from Blizzard. But imo they have enough money, they could increase the amount donated to charity to 80%. But 50% is better than nothing!
If more went to charity I'd probably be more inclined to buy the pets.
TK00 Nov 4th 2010 11:28PM
@Tiarnach - Every major corporation in the world, including the ones you listed, donate to charities every year.
They do it for good PR, just like Blizz in this case.
Jay Nov 4th 2010 11:31PM
Oh and because I forgot to write, Blizzard does actually donate a lot of money to other foundations.
Natlove Nov 5th 2010 5:53AM
Every company donates to charity for both PR and tax credits. I would by it if more of the profits went to charity. Also think about this. By doing this they will sell more than they normally would thus making more money. Bottom line the charity will put the money to good use so no reason to start making picket signs.
Bronwyn Nov 5th 2010 6:42AM
Are we really going to have this discussion again? There's always going to be something to complain about, and if Blizz did donate 100% to charity, then there would be whingeing about what charity they decided to donate it to, the fact that it's for a limited time, etc.
The charity pets are a win for everyone. You buy it and you get a cool pet and you get to feel good about yourself because part of it's going to charity, Blizz gets a profit and some good PR and gets to feel good about itself for donating to charity, and whatever charity they decide to give the money to (probably make-a-wish again I'd suspect, but we'll see) gets all that money.
People act like it's some kind of horrible failing if you're donating to charity for anything but pure selflessness, but how many people ever do that anymore? You do it to feel good about something and maybe to get something. If the charities benefit, does it really matter what little hook was used to get the donations?
Kunikenwad! Nov 5th 2010 10:01AM
While I applaud Blizzard for making the donations to charity and for all intents and purposes being a stand-up and very socially responsible company, let's not really pretend that this is anything other than a buffer to buoy a less than stellar Q3 earnings review for Activision as a whole. During the Q3 earnings call, Blizzard accounted for 40% of all Activision revenue. Income at the end of the quarter was 51 million for Activision as a whole, however Blizzard provided (by themselves) 275 million in income (based off around 13 million in operating expenses and other sundry items). This shows that, despite Blizzard's heavyweight caliber earnings for the quarter, Activision still managed to piss away over 200 million in income thanks to other failed or less-successful projects.
Now, in my heart of hearts, I have to believe that Blizzard would absolutely donate every last cent of the Moonkin pet to Make-A-Wish and be utterly and completely happy to do it every year (remember Ezra Chattington?). In my heart of hearts, I imagine that Morheim and Metzen have railed against this move and are privately very, very furious about not being able to donate ALL the proceeds to charity (and putting even more incentive for the players to purchase these pets). Deep down, I think we all realize that Bobby Kotick is using the charity pet as a way to keep his other failing franchises afloat for this quarter until Blizzard can give his company a shot in the arm in December with the Cataclysm release.
For those who equate $51 million in profit to a good earnings report, remember that distribution to shareholders only equated to $0.04 per share ... stockholders won't be happy about that, especially after the release of Starcraft 2. Compare this to EA's released earnings statement showing a $0.33 per share increase. Just food for thought.
TL;DR -> Activision is doing poorly, Blizzard is doing phenomenally well. Charity pets are just another way to line Kotick's pockets. Blizzard would be better off on their own, instead of Activision soaking up all their profits.
All the info is right here: http://daeity.com/
Negatron Nov 5th 2010 10:51AM
@mnv AND @alien
You two obviously are members of the cult that think Blizzard is 2 guys working from their living room. As I sit here at work, I wonder how cranky i would be doing something for my job FREE. I could stay home, play WoW/ console, watch Netflix, but no, I'm going to sketch out the design, get the OK, then transfer said work onto w/e program is used etc; all for free in the name of Charity!
/sarcasm
OH SILLY ME! Vanity pets can be made in under 5 minutes! Screw sales AND charity, here take this pet FREE!
Dadruidess Nov 4th 2010 7:04PM
Bring the boom boom!
Brett Porter Nov 4th 2010 7:04PM
For me, it would have been a maybe before this announcement. But with a charity involved, it's turned into a pretty likely, even close to a definitely!