The UK government has announced partnerships with UK games companies in order to get “essential health messaging” about coronavirus into more UK homes. Gamers will see the government"s COVID-19 slogan: ‘Stay At Home, Save Lives’ when playing titles such as Candy Crush Saga, Sniper Elite 4, DiRT Rally 2.0, and Farm Heroes among other titles.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is hoping that the added reminders will persuade people to stay at home and not make unnecessary trips outside. With people staying at home, it’s expected that the disease’s spread will be lessened and that the burden will be taken off the National Health Service (NHS).
Commenting on the development, Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:
“It is absolutely vital that we all follow the simple government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. I’m delighted to see the UK’s brilliant video games industry stepping up to strongly reinforce this message to gamers across the UK.”
According to the announcement, 37 million people in the UK play games so the potential reach for this digital campaign is huge. To help reach more gamers, the government is inviting more game developers to get in touch at enquiries@culture.gov.uk to introduce in-game messaging to their products.