World of Warcraft’s Cenarion Hatchling Raises Nearly Two Million Dollars for Japan Disaster Relief

Say what you will about item shops for MMOs, buying vanity items and spending your hard-earned money on virtual goods – Blizzard did a good thing here. The Cenarion Hatchling vanity pet went up on the Blizzard Store in May, and Blizzard dedicated 100% of profits from the sale of the $10 pet through the end of July to the Japan disaster relief effort.

First off, that is a lot of pets sold – $1.9 million worth at $10 each (that’s 190,000 pets sold, for those keeping track). Secondly, this is completely awesome and showcases a great way to use item stores in MMOs. Granted, Blizzard isn’t the only MMO developer to do something like this, but they are the biggest, and with that comes a greater number of willing participants handing them $10 bills. That all adds up to a great use of hard earned money, even if it did mean you had to go without Starbucks for a day or two.