Blood leaching game killed by Kickstarter

Kickstarter has shut down a gaming project using a modified blood collection unit that would draw blood from players whilst playing a game.

The project, Blood Sport, involved a hardware tweak that is an extreme development of force feedback technology. The blood siphoning device connects to the rumble pack feature of a controller and activates every time the controller would rumble.

The Canada-based developers, Brand & Grotesque, originally planned to take the device on tour and create blood donation gaming events to essentially gamify giving blood. They intended to partner with appropriate organisations in the gaming and medical communities to make it happen.

The Kickstarter project was to help set up the gaming-based blood drive events as opposed to mass-producing the blood taking unit for a consumer release.

Kickstarter’s policy on project suspensions is not to offer any comment and talking to Joystiq, Brand & Grotesque said that they have not been given a reason for the suspension either. They did however guess that it has something to do with the medical equipment or safety concerns as they are not yet partnered with a blood clinic.

Additionally, it could have been the charity aspect to the project as charity-related pitches are not allowed in Kickstarter’s terms and conditions.

At the time of suspension, Blood Sport had only received $3,390 of its $250,000 target.