Bandai Namco to donate £650,000 to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine

Bandai Namco has pledged 100 million yen - that's around £650,000 - to help humanitarian efforts in Ukraine following Russia's illegal and devastating invasion.

"The Bandai Namco Group has decided to make a donation of 100 million yen to Save the Children in support of their humanitarian cause for people affected by the crisis in Ukraine and seeking refuge outside the country," the company said by way of a statement shared on its social media channels.

"We hope that the people and communities affected by this crisis will be able to return to peaceful days as soon as possible."

Interestingly, though - unlike many other games companies - the Japanese firm stopped short of announcing that it was withdrawing its products or games, such as Elden Ring, from Russia whilst the conflict persisted. It also didn't explicitly condemn Putin's actions.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister recently reached out to to video game companies and esports organisations - and specifically both PlayStation and Xbox - to do more to pile pressure on the Russian regime, resulting in publishers and developers like Activision Blizzard suspending new sales of games in Russia. Epic Games has also suspended sales of its products in Russia but chose not to restrict communications for Russians entirely in order to "keep all lines of dialogue open".

Elsewhere in the games industry, companies have responded with large donations to humanitarian organisations, and support for staff based in Ukraine.