Video game

British Video Games Combat Coronavirus By Adding “Stay At Home” Adverts – Forbes


A trio of U.K. developers has committed to combating COVID-19 by adding in-game adverts that provide coronavirus safety advice, in line with wider government messaging.

The move is being made by Rebellion, Codemasters and Activision-Blizzard’s freemium mobile game specialist King, and will see games such as Sniper Elite 4, DiRT Rally 2.0, Candy Crush Saga and Farm Heroes Saga kicking off the campaign by promoting the “Stay home. Save lives.” slogan that has come to dominate TV, radio, news and even billboards across Britain in recent weeks.

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 (April 7). 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: “[W]e came to realize 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.”

Meanwhile, King, the firm responsible for millions of casual gaming addicts, is replacing existing ads with COVID-19 messaging. On top of this, the company has announced it will be donating 230 slots booked across digital advertizing screens, which will also be used to give coronavirus-related advice and information.

British culture secretary Oliver Dowden said of the news: “It is absolutely vital that we all follow the simple government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS [National Health Service] and save lives. I’m delighted to see the U.K.’s brilliant video games industry stepping up to strongly reinforce this message to gamers across the U.K.”

While the news has been positively received across social media, that hasn’t stopped some users on Twitter complaining that gaming provides respite from the current news, and that adverts such as these only undermine these moments of escapism. However, given the global death toll is already closing in on 70,000 at the time of writing, every little helps.



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