Three of the UK’s leading video games developers are to display coronavirus safety advice within their titles.
The move is being made by Rebellion, Codemasters and Activision-Blizzard’s King and will see games such as Candy Crush Saga, Dirt Rally 2.0, Farm Heroes Saga, and Sniper Elite 4 are among the games that will feature the messaging. The initial ads will focus on the theme: “Stay home. Save lives.”
Despite the fact that Dirt Rally 2.0 is over one year old, Codemasters’ decision to add the adverts to its fantastic rally sim will coincide with the game’s inclusion on Sony’s PlayStation Plus from tomorrow 7 April. The game has been an established part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass since last September, and with more people exploring their gaming options than usual, it’s likely to make an impact there, too.
Explaining the decision, vice president of business development at Codemasters Toby Evan-Jones said: “We came to realise that technology within our games, which enables the remote updating of banners within the virtual environment, could be repurposed to assist with the coronavirus communication effort.”
It is part of a joint effort by the Government and some of the UK’s leading games companies to try and help stop the spread of coronavirus.The Government sees it as a “creative, targeted, and immediate” tool to try and reinforce its stay at home message to a generation of young people who are likely to spend more time playing video games than the rest of the population.
Approximately 37 million people in the UK play games, and there are around 2,277 active video game companies in the UK, according to the Culture Department.
