Microsoft donates special 360 kiosks to children's hospitals
In a refreshingly non-evil move from a company that seems to make a point of not being quite as evil as I think they secretly must be, Microsoft has announced that they are teaming up with the Companions in Courage Foundation to install special Xbox 360 kiosks in children's hospitals around the country.
The kiosks will be packed with games, movies and television shows — most likely of the more innocuous Viva Pinata sort instead of eyebrow-raising murder-death-kill simulations. Even better, the 360s will come installed with a special version of Xbox Live that will only match up sick kids in multiplayer matches from children's hospitals around the country. The sound of sobbing is about to be replaced with peals of laughter, automatic weapons fire and triumphant shouts of "OWNED, NOOB!"
Nothing to criticize here: this is just pure class. Good on you, Microsoft. If you want to donate to help bring more 360 Kiosks to hospitals around the country, consider giving a donation to Companions in Courage.
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This is awesome! I wonder if they are or would be interested in working with Child's Play on this? It would be fantastic to get all the 360s Child's Play has already gotten into Hospitals on that same special Live network!
I am not sure they are evil. I do business with them and I think that they are just so big that they are in fact multiple companies. One group doesnt know what the other is doing. I think that the people who work for MSFT are just as non-evil as any other company (IBM, Novell, Sun, Adobe, Apple, etc). It is just cool to hate them.
Geometry Wars for everyone!
Awesome.
Would have been good when I was popping in and out of hospitals with asthma. Will do a lot to tone down the fear factor!
Also, props on the sickBox live. Maybe it'll keep the profanity down. (Maybe.)
With a little modification this is probably a good way to re-pourpose the store displays as well perhaps?
Better than throwing 'em out.
I highly doubt it, Strider. Penny Arcade initially tried to donate lightly-used gaming hardware, but was turned away by every hospital. So they started Childs Play to raise the funds to buy new equipment. The expense to sanitize a console and a kiosk for kids with suppressed immune systems to play would be quite prohibitive.
Maybe, but if you look closely I'm sure you'll find a coin slot on there somewhere. That, or they'll be rented much like TVs are in hospitals. I really hope I'm wrong though . . .
People like #7 miss out on life because they're too busy jumping at shadows.
I had two hospital stays when I was a kid, one was pre-gameboy, one was post-gameboy. The post-gameboy stay was much more serious, but was so much more bearable thanks to that wonderful gadget.
Also, do people really not know that Bill Gates is one of the most charitable people on the planet? It's cool to hate on MS I guess, but save that hate for something of MS's that warrants it: Vista.
If they're anything like those at Best Buy, they'll be unusable in a week.
Good luck, kids!