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| Mike Salbato |
No thanks to Zenos.
09.11.17 - 12:34 PM
In our E3 2017 Awards, along with our silly "let's give Final Fantasy XIV an award" category, we also offered snark-free praise of Square Enix's decision to run a Stormblood-themed blood drive outside the convention center during the show. It was an amusing cross-promotion that would actually help people, so everyone wins.
What I didn't realize at the time? E3 was only one stop: The Stormblood image-clad "bloodmobile" also visited several college campuses across Southern California in June and July, continuing to collect. So, in addition to kickstarting the campaign with Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida presenting this check to the American Red Cross for $50,000...
...the blood drive ended up with donations exceeding 400 pints of blood, which was enough to help save over 1200 lives across the country. Sure, people also got t-shirts, but it's an accomplishment to be proud of for everyone who participated.
Square Enix added a breakdown of how much of each blood type were donated to the Stormblood Drive official site, which is worth a look. Finally, the company put together this highlight video of the results:
As for Stormblood itself, Final Fantasy XIV's second expansion is getting its first major content patch in early October with Patch 4.1: The Legend Returns. The biggest highlight being, of course, the Return to Ivalice raid, which features both Final Fantasy XII's city of Rabanastre, and Final Fantasy Tactics protagonists Ramza and Delita:
