Astraware Helps With Disaster Relief

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, January 4, 2005 10:16:00 AM

During the month of January, Astraware will be donating 100% of the profits from original Bejeweled sold for the relief efforts. Read on for more details...

Alison from Astraware writes, We all came back to the office after Christmas and agreed that we wanted to do something to help everyone affected by the disaster, and we thought this would be a good way of helping. If people already own Bejeweled, we’ve added a link to the webpage so they can make a donation directly through Oxfam, if they’d prefer.

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Would have been more impressive if its V2

wilco @ 1/4/2005 2:30:18 PM #

If you have not bought Bejeweled, the chance is that you will get the new version not the first one. So this gesture, while good for publicity will not cost Astraware much.

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

Admin @ 1/4/2005 2:57:53 PM #

every little bit helps, there are plenty of other ways to help the suffering as well.

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

Gar @ 1/4/2005 3:12:28 PM #

I know... here comes the flames. But still, why would you buy the old version? Just donate the money to the folks doing the work and take the deduction. Instead of buying the old version of Bejewelled so Astraware can take the deduction. They are nice folks, and it was nice of them to offer, but I don't like companies doing this sort of thing just to get press. Why not donate 50% of all cash coming in from sales of the 'new' Bejewelled? They don't even have to do 100% - but it shows they are willing to move on a product that people actually want. And Astraware still get's the deduction when they donate that money. Will we be seeing headlines about Astraware making that donation too?

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

Strider_mt2k @ 1/4/2005 3:18:13 PM #

They should have done something across the board.
It would look way less like a token offering for press.

I would have jumped on regging B2 if that were the case.

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

htomlinson @ 1/4/2005 4:09:24 PM #

If you're more concerned with offsetting your donations against your tax burden, then please - go and donate directly and then file whatever triplicated forms you need to. In the UK, a direct donation gets the equivalent of income tax added back in direct to the charity by the treasury - perhaps someone will educate me about how it really works in the US.

Personally, I really don't mind how you go about helping, just so long as you do what you feel you can:
http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

I'm not going to drop into an argument about which product, or whether it was 100% of one title or a slice of many, since that would be very much missing the point. This was simply our team's genuine way of doing something as a group that might make a difference, in addition to our individual efforts.

If you don't feel this is a worthwhile effort, you don't like the title, or you can find a more efficient way of helping, then move right along.

Speaking with some other developers, I think there might be more of these kinds of offers over the next couple of days. Please do look on these in the spirit in which they are intended - a genuine attempt to do something reasonable to help. If every developer who offers something gets flamed for their trouble, it might not go very far!

Howard. ( CEO / Astraware - howard@astraware.com )

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

Gekko @ 1/4/2005 7:25:58 PM #

I think I heard that Ford is donating 100% of the profits for all of their NEW 2003 model year cars they sell.

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

ackmondual @ 1/5/2005 2:27:47 AM #

Any1 who wanted bej would've gotten it by now. That's my guess.

THere's still the Hogmanay sale similar to the Holiday Countdown Sale going on till jan 15th. Bej was on sale for only $10. Good deal. Maybe it'll crop up again. Even if u have to buy it at $20, some ppl may instead to opt for 5 games for $30 (Popcap Games pack #1 - bej, seven seas, mummy maze, alchemy, atomica)... which brings up another question, do any part or whole of the popcap games pack #1 sales goes towareds the relief?

[signature0]the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse[/signature0]
[signature1]My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71.... so ends the "marathon", for now[/signature1]

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

ardiri @ 1/5/2005 2:35:24 AM #

i think the original poster was more outlining the point that astraware can use all "donations" as a tax offset. for example, if $10,000 USD is raised from this effort, astraware can offset $10,000 USD of other income as a taxable deduction.

in reality, giving away a freebie doesn't cost anything to astraware; unless - for ever copy sold popcap games is paid a royalty (regardless where the final money does go).

while i've donated to red cross directly - i recommend people do the same; leveraging the disaster for economic/advertising profit is shameful. while travelling back from australia on vacation i was seated next to a lot of swedish victims from the disaster; most people dont want money, they want their families back.

---
Aaron Ardiri
PalmOS Certified Developer
aaron_ardiri@mobilewizardry.com
http://www.mobilewizardry.com/members/aaron_ardiri.php

RE: Would have been more impressive if its V2

ardiri @ 1/5/2005 2:42:20 AM #

lets not forget, the ESD cost (40%) probably isn't included in the donation. what would be nice would be if handango/palmgear stepped up and donated all the transaction costs to the effort.

why should the smaller guys take the cost? for every copy you purchase to make a donation - remember, some fat guy in a suit is making 40% of every transaction. www.esd-union.com - if you dont know, its time to read up on it.

---
Aaron Ardiri
PalmOS Certified Developer
aaron_ardiri@mobilewizardry.com
http://www.mobilewizardry.com/members/aaron_ardiri.php

Clarification

htomlinson @ 1/5/2005 3:54:21 AM #

I just wanted to clarify, its not 100% of profits, its actually the full amount that will be donated, whether it be via the Astraware site or any of our partners.

Both Handango and PalmGear agreed without hesitation to also donate their usual commissions from the Bejeweled sales.

I'm sure the trolls, cynics, and assorted tin-foil-hatters will be finding a way to twist this, but I expect the majority see this in the way it is intended.

Howard.

RE: Clarification

Gekko @ 1/5/2005 7:21:53 AM #

Harry - Be sure to post back and let us know what the final amount ends up being.

RE: Clarification

Gekko @ 1/5/2005 7:23:03 AM #

sorry - I meant Howard.

RE: Clarification

ackmondual @ 1/6/2005 6:47:46 PM #

^^
Had from Astraware I presume....

U look different w/o your South Park jesus avatar :D

RE: Clarification

Gekko @ 1/9/2005 2:44:05 PM #

"What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given." - François duc de La Rochefoucauld

RE: Clarification

jayman @ 2/14/2005 4:01:59 PM #

On Astraware's website - "The final total is now over $30,000 for combined sales from the Astraware site and our reseller" ... sounds very good to me!