Zynga has teamed up with the Black Eyed Peas musical group to help keep us safe during the holidays.
As the pandemic hit earlier this year, Zynga rallied the game industry with its #PlayApartTogether campaign to encourage everyone to respect social distancing and play with each other remotely. That message was embraced by the World Health Organization, as well as many companies in the game industry. Now Zynga and the Black Eyed Peas are continuing the campaign to encourage people to have a healthy and happy holiday season while staying far enough apart to keep everyone safe.
The stakes are high this holiday season, as intensive care units around the U.S. fill to capacity and daily infection and death rates hit all-time highs — perhaps as a result of not enough social distancing during the Thanksgiving holidays. Now, as Christmas and New Year’s approach, the risks are even higher, despite lockdowns, warnings, and the emergence of vaccines.
So Zynga and the Grammy-winning group have recorded words of encouragement and hope to promote safe behavior during the holidays. Taboo, a founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, has created personal videos that will be shared through the #PlayApartTogether network of more than 80 video game companies worldwide. Zynga publishing president Bernard Kim has personally lobbied the game industry to undertake the campaign and keep it going. #PlayApartTogether is a rare but welcome example of how competitors in the cutthroat industry can rally around a common cause.
Meanwhile, thank you for reading VentureBeat and GamesBeat, and I hope your holidays are both safe and joyful. I’ll be publishing stories during the break, and I’ll be back full-time on January 4. Happy holidays!