Hundreds of thousands of lives have either washed away or crumbled into nothingness practically overnight. The United States has recently contended with dual hurricanes, while Asia was met with mass floods and Mexico has been hit by horrible earthquakes. Not to mention the continuous typhoons, droughts and other natural disasters that continue to devastate countries on a monthly basis. Fortunately, Blizzard has decided to step in with a ‘Shadow the Fox’ charity venture to help all affected.

Thanks to Blizzard, and the team responsible for pets at World of Warcraft, a new pet called Shadow the Fox can now be bought to help disaster relief efforts across the globe. In a post, Blizzard wrote that 100% of all proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief, as well as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Disaster Relief Fund. The company stated that donations will be split equally between both organisations.

Blizzard has said that the “immediacy of events, including hurricanes Harvey and Irma, flooding in South Asia and countless other crises” has motivated them to act fast. They also stated that adopting Shadow is just like adopting a real pet. Except there are no papers to sign or shots to worry about. As such, players interested can adopt Shadow for just $10 USD (~R80 ZAR). Blizzard says that it will continue to send all proceeds to both organisations until 31 December 2017.

Shadow looks like a big-eared Fennec Fox and features a colour-changing coat. She is primarily purple, but her coat changes to a light tan as well. Adopting Shadow makes her available to all characters on your World of Warcraft account, and makes her available to take part in pet battles.

Shadow the Fox is not the first pet made available by Blizzard for charity purposes. In 2016, Blizzard managed to raise $2.5m USD for the Make-A-Wish foundation from sales of the Mischief Fel Kitty. They also managed to raise $1.9m for the Red Cross foundation via Argi the Goat in 2015; and $1m for the Make-A-Wish foundation via sales of Alterac Brew Pup in 2014.

Players who do not play World of Warcraft can still support the disaster relief effort via the American Red Cross website. The organisation accepts just about any donation and it really does go toward the greater good

[Sources: Eurogamer, Forbes, PC Games N, World of Warcraft forums]

Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.