Kickstarter Suspends 'Blood Sport' Project That Aimed To Create A Gaming Peripheral That Draws Real Blood As You Play

Recently, a Kickstarter project launched for a game peripheral called ‘Blood Sport,’ a device that literally drains your blood as you take damage when you play videogames, has been suspended.

You might be thinking “A gaming peripheral that sucks blood? Are you serious?” To be honest, you are very right to think such a thought at first glance. However, the project itself had a much larger ambition in mind than just morbidly increasing immersion in a videogame. Launched by a Canadian company called Brand & Grotesque, ‘Blood Sport’ was meant to increase awareness of the importance of blood donation by being a device that could be used during blood donation gaming events.

The way ‘Blood Sport’ works is simple: Using the vibrating rumble pack built in to controllers, which typically vibrates when an electric signal is sent to the controller by a console to indicate when a player is hit, the developers of ‘Blood Sport’ were able to re-route that same electrical signal to turn on a blood collection system. This is all connected to an Arduino Board, a single board micro-controller that keeps the signal going to the blood collection system as well as keep track of how much blood is being pulled so that ‘Blood Sport’ powers down before too much blood is given. This is regulated further by the peripheral device itself, which allows people to input age, weight and any pre-existing medical conditions.

Having made $3,390 of the proposed $250,000 goal with 39 days to go, the reason as to why the ‘Blood Sport’ project has been suspended by Kickstarter is still unclear as of the time this article has been published. From the looks of it, Brand & Grotesque made sure to reassure the safety of ‘Blood Sport’ by stating at the bottom of the project’s FAQ that the peripheral draws blood in the same way as devices found in a blood bank, which are built to only pull a safe amount of blood. They also reassured that the device is and should always be meant to be monitored by a certified professional. However, the project is still very much suspended. Kickstarter itself rarely comments on why projects are suspended in general, so the chances of an answer may be out of the question.

Regardless, for those curious, feel free to take a look at ‘Blood Sport’s’ Kickstarter page. As far as any future information goes, we will be sure to report on any future announcements or information as it arises.