Three video game developers in the UK will display coronavirus safety advice in their titles. Candy Crush Saga, Dirt Rally 2.0 and Sniper Elite 4 are some of the games that will feature the message.
The ads will have the theme: “Stay home. Save lives.”
One of the companies involved, Rebellion, which publishes 2000AD and other comics, is also offering to feature a message from the UK government to encourage people to stay at home.
“I reached out to DCMS [Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport] a few days ago to say is there anything we can do,” Jason Kingsley, chief executive of Rebellion and chair of the games trade body Tiga said to BBC.
“A lot of people spend hundreds of hours [on] computer games. And in this case, we thought we could help society by reminding people of their obligations to others,” he explained.
The developers also plan to display the messages in different ways.
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Rebellion plans to display the message on a screen shown before gameplay begins in its Strange Brigade and Sniper Elite titles. Usually, Rebellion would promote its other products on the launcher pages.
Now, it will also contain a link to a website that gives additional information on the coronavirus for gamers playing through their PC.
Codemasters will, however, take advantage of its pre-existing built-in ability to display ads within gaming action. This is because it has the ability to remotely update the display in the ads.
Players of Dirt Rally will see the message on the roadside banners as they race. However, the messaging will only be displayed by the game developers to gamers in the UK because the technology is geo-targeted.
Codemasters on its part says it hopes to extend the message to other European and American players.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had previously encouraged people to stay at home and play games. WHO’s Ambassador for global strategy, Raymond Chambers said that games could be an important way for people to follow public health guidelines.
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