Minecraft XBLA skin pack earns $500,000 for charity

On October 26, Minecraft developer Mojang released a new piece of downloadable content for the Xbox Live Arcade iteration of the title, appropriately dubbed the “Halloween Skin Pack.” As you’d expect from its name, the pack includes an additional 55 skins for the game’s human characters that were all created to capture the spooky mood of the holiday. Likewise, you might have already guessed that Minecraft fans have been snatching up digital copies of this pack en masse since the first day it was available.

By itself this would not be notable, but since the Halloween Skin Pack was designed specifically to raise money for charity, that brisk business Mojang is doing in the Xbox Live Marketplace is impressively altruisitic. Especially when you learn that after only two weeks of availability, the pack has already pulled down “half a million dollars.”

That figure comes from PlayXBLA and while it fails to offer a breakdown of specific numbers, it does offer exuberant thanks to players for making this pack such a success, while serving up all the details you might need to join in on the fundraising yourself. The key thing to know here is that this pack is only available for a limited time, so if you haven’t already downloaded the $2 skin pack from the Xbox Live Marketplace, you have until November 26 to lay down your cash.

But say that pure charity isn’t enough motivation for you. Maybe you like the idea of helping others, but without getting something concrete in return you’d rather that the outside world just collapsed in on itself. Fortunately, the Halloween Skin Pack offers a pretty sizable selection of aesthetic bonuses for your two bucks. Have a look at the full list, including information on which developer designed the custom skin(s):

Vampire – 343 Industries

The Grim Reaper, Devil, Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy, Werewolf, Ghost, Evil Wizard, Bride of Dracula, Bride of Frakenstein, Ghoul, Scary Clown – 4J Studios

Dracula, Frakenstien, Pumpkin, Skeleton, Mummy, Wolfman – Army of Trolls

Zombie Businessman, Cyclops, Evil Clown, Evil Robot, Vampire Girl, Grey, Headless Horseman, Lizard Man, Scarecrow, Scary Nom, Mad Scientist, Skeleton, Witch Doctor, Zombie  – Climax Studios

Evil Robot – Mojang

Zombie Jack Lumber – Owlchemy Labs

Evil Lemmy, Evil Max – Press Play

Gregg the Grim Reaper, Ancient Mummy, Zippy Zombie – Rare

Zombie Lonestar – Ronimo Games

Cyborg Pumpkinhead, Mara – Ska Studios

Mining Unit 010, Jacko, Bonny – Tequila Works

Hatty – The Behemoth

Happy Zombie Cleric, Happy Zombie Mage, Happy Zombie Warrior – Toylogic

Captain Zombie, The Gunstringer, Ms. Splosion Man Mask, Skelly, Splodeton – Twisted Pixel Games

Further, PlayXBLA claims that “for the first time ever with the Xbox 360 Edition skins, some of the skins feature cool capes,” so if your intrepid avatar has been missing that crucial superhero vibe, now would be a good time to rectify that. If nothing else, at least the cash you spend on this DLC will be used to help society as a whole, instead of just lining the pockets of some faceless publisher. That seems like a change for the positive.