Stray the feline video game is helping cats in real life – gamers live-stream themselves playing it for audiences to raise funds for pet charities
- Most of the team behind Stray, a game that follows a cat around Hong Kong, are cat lovers, and its publisher used the launch to solicit funds for pet charities
- Meanwhile, gamers have been raising money for animal shelters and pet rescue and adoption services through live-streamed game play on platforms such as Tiltify
The virtual cat hero from the new Hong Kong-set video-game sensation Stray does not just wind along pipes, leap over sludge and decode clues in a seemingly abandoned city – the daring orange tabby is helping real-world cats as well.
Annapurna Interactive, the game’s publisher, also promoted Stray by offering two cat rescue and adoption agencies copies of the game to raffle off and renting out a cat cafe in New York.
Live-streaming game play for charity is not new, but the resonance Stray found from cat lovers is unusual. It was the fourth most watched and broadcast game on the day it launched on Twitch, the streaming platform said.
Viewers watch as players navigate the adventurous feline through the industrial landscape of the former Kowloon Walled City doing normal cat stuff – balancing on railings, walking on keyboards and knocking things off shelves – to solve puzzles and evade enemies.