Industry back One Special Day fundraiser on SpecialEffect’s 15th Anniversary

This Friday, 7 October, some of the biggest names from the worldwide games industry, including the likes of Xbox, Supercell and EA, are uniting behind SpecialEffect, the gamers’ charity, for their annual One Special Day flagship fundraising campaign.

At the heart of the campaign is the opportunity for gamers to raise money for the charity by purchasing and playing qualifying titles from the partner companies, who will donate some or all of the resulting revenue from the day.




A wide range of titles will be available through both the One Special Day Steam Promotion, running from 6-9 October, and the Mobile Promotion on One Special Day itself at https://bit.ly/OSDmobile.

The support of over 90 partners (https://bit.ly/OSDpartners) – and their communities – will help the thousands of disabled people every year who ask for the charity’s assistance. SpecialEffect’s teams of therapists and technical specialists provide assessments and customised technology loans to help bring joy into the lives of people with disabilities. In turn, the charity pass on what they learn to help hardware and software developers make their products and games easier to use for as many people as possible all over the world.

Many of the partners are also planning a variety of fundraising initiatives and studio events in support of One Special Day. Staff at companies including Electronic Arts, King, Third Kind Games, SEGA Hardlight, Lucid Games, Xbox, Sumo Group, PlayStation London, Hutch Games, Curve and many more are looking forward to pub and studio quizzes, auctions, streams, game jams, cycle rides, runs, swims and walks and more.

Dr Mick Donegan, Founder and CEO of SpecialEffect, acknowledges the generosity of the partners for this year’s event, which coincides with the charity’s 15th anniversary:

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the level of support from the games industry for One Special Day. It’s an absolutely vital fundraising event for the charity, particularly with the ever-increasing demand for our services.

The backing we receive from the industry and their communities is the cornerstone of our fundraising, and without it we simply couldn’t bring a better quality of life to so many people across the world.

As well as funding our one-to-one work with people with physical disabilities, it also enables our research and partnership work with developers and manufacturers, ensuring we can continue our ever-increasing global impact on video games accessibility.”

One Special Day will be clearly visible today across mobile apps, Steam and social media, and companies participating will relay the One Special Day message to its players – ‘Buy, Play, Donate’.

The annual campaign has raised over $2M for the charity since its inception in 2016.

Find out more about One Special Day at www.onespecialday.org.uk