While Activision stands to make considerable dividends from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's release, the Washington Post is reporting they'll be giving some money back to a worthy cause. The newspaper is reporting that the publisher will establish the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE) that "will support other groups that assist veterans with their careers."
The article laid out some depressing statistics showing the unemployment rate for military veterans being 11.6 percent, higher than the general population, and eighteen percent of veterans who left the military in the past one to three years were unemployed, according to a 2008 Department of Veterans Affairs employment survey.
"The joblessness rate that [veterans] should have should be far less than the national average, not more," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "How do you expect people to actually join the military if when they leave the military they can't integrate back into the free market they're supposed to be protecting?"
Military veterans can have difficultly adjusting to a different sort of lifestyle in the civilian workforce, something enhanced after struggling with the harsh realities of war, so we hope this foundation will help the ever increasing number of U.S. military veterans struggling to find work. This news, notably, comes at a point in time when the Call of Duty franchise could use some positive publicity.
