Blood Sport: Xbox Controller Draws Real Blood from Gamers When Player Is Shot

At first it sounds sinister, an Xbox controller that pulls blood from the veins of players as they're shot in a video game, but the contraption has actually been designed to persuade more people to give blood.

Called Blood Sport, the machine has been taken to multiplayer gaming events where players compete to see who can lose the least blood, with all the blood eventually drawn then donated to medicine.

Created by start-up firm Brand & Grotesque, the project is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, but their page was suspended earlier for reasons they are now actively investigating.

Brand & Grotesque comprises of Canadians Taran Chadha and Jamie Umpherson.

How it works is simple. The mechanism for drawing blood is connected to where the controller's rumble feature stems from, so when that is activated the device, memorably called "the blood collection machine", will know to do its job.

This means it can be used with any controller and with any game, so long as it utilises rumble.

There is also an "Arduino Board" which monitors the amount of blood being taken, which paired with input data about age, weight and pre-existing conditions, ensures not too much blood is taken.

The device they are hoping to fund won't be made available to the public of course, but will instead be taken to blood donation events across Canada, where they in turn hope to draw people who may not have wanted to donate blood before.

They are timing the launch of Blood Sport for the 17 March release of EA shooter Battlefield Hardline with the hope that they can piggyback the hype surrounding that game.

Blood Sport's Kickstarter has been pledged $3,390 of its $250,000 goal. A video outlining the product can be watched below.