The online, historical combat PC game World of Warships has launched its first collaboration with Popeye the Sailor Man for an initiative supporting the ocean conservation and veterans’ charity, Force Blue.
Running throughout the month of June and marking World Ocean Month this year, the collaboration will see a limited run of themed in-game content benefit Force Blue, a marine conservation charity established in 2016 to also support military veterans.
The partnership marks World of Warships’ entry into ocean conservation as the team works with the Popeye the Sailor Man brand to make a $50,000 donation to the organisation and a pledge of 10% of the net revenue generated from the sale of Popeye items to be shared in support of the charity once the campaign has concluded.
Force Blue sets out to tackle two issue – the deterioration of the planet’s marine ecosystems and the difficulties faced by many military veterans once their service ends. Force Blue has used this as an opportunity to bring highly qualified veterans from special forces under the instruction of renowned scientists and environmentalists to carry out missions to help preserve and restore marine biodiversity.
As part of the campaign, Force Blue joined World of Warships for a World Ocean Day Twitch live stream event on 8 June. The livestream saw Rudy Reyes, actor, US Recon Marine veteran, and the organisation’s co-founder join the US Navy SEAL veteran and Force Blue special projects and events director, Steve Gonzalez to discuss the charity’s mission and provide insight into the vital importance of marine conservation, as well as how the charity works to support the mental health of veterans during their transition back to civilian life.
“Force Blue is honoured to be partnering with World of Warships in support of World Ocean Month. I don’t think there’s a single veteran on our team who isn’t a fan of Popeye, and so to be working with the two of them, while championing our mission of preserving and restoring the world’s marine ecosystems is an incredible opportunity,” said Jim Ritterhoff, co-founder and executive director at Force Blue.
The Popeye Charity Bundle went live on 1 June and includes two Commanders, Popeye and Bluto, equipped with unique voice-overs, as well as two flags, and a unique camouflage for the Tier VII USS Colorado.
As well as this, for the rest of the month until 1 July, World of Warships will host a special Save the Ocean chain of missions equipped with weekly sprints and a free themed Container waiting at the end.
