The Cult of the Lamb devs are not happy about Elon Musk's $12,000 X Verified Organizations program and donate the money to charity instead.
The Cult of the Lamb developers have taken a stance against Elon Musk's X's Verified Organizations program and have decided to use their money for a good cause instead. Here's everything that's happened so far.
“A Horrible Waste Of Money” AKA The X Gold Program
Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, offers a paid program for companies that gives them a golden checkmark and allows them more visibility on the app. Initially demanding $12,000 from every company wanting to participate, there are now cheaper options for smaller businesses.
The cheaper option, called "basic tier", requires either $200 per month or $2,000 dollars per year, which, according to the official X account, provides "ad credits & priority support to enable faster growth on X". Of course, though, the basic tier does not include certain advantages that the $12,000 tier has.
For one, the basic tier doesn't include the "Affiliations" feature with which companies can list other accounts on their profile. Those accounts then receive X premium and have their affiliation with the company shown on their account. Also, the $12,000 tier offers "a 2x boost" for companies' posts on the platform that the basic tier doesn't get. Therefore, the only actually profitable program is still the more expensive one.
The developers of the rogue-like indie game Cult of the Lamb, Massive Monster, have now taken a stance against this program - on X of all places.
Yuck Elon, and Yuck Twitter Gold It costs around 12K a year....What a horrible waste of money,Instead of doing that, we are giving $1000 to a different charity each month this year.Starting with Doctors Without Borders! pic.twitter.com/D4EkYQ5wwg
— Cult of the Lamb (@cultofthelamb) January 30, 2025
Donating To Charity Instead Of Musk
In their post, the studio calls the Verified Organizations program "a horrible waste of money" and announces that they are instead going to donate $1,000 to charity every month. With this action, they are spending the amount of money that the X program would cost them on charity organizations instead.
The first organization that can look forward to Massive Monster's generosity is Doctors Without Borders, which offers medical help to communities in need. In a reply, Massive Monster also added a link to the charity's donation site for anyone who wants to make a private donation. Additionally, they appealed to other companies to follow their example:
If you are an organisation considering renewing your gold tick, maybe use that money for charity instead. - Massive Monster
The game's community showed support for the developers' decision. What are your opinions on this step? Do you think other companies will do the same? Tell us in the comments!
