DeepWell is demonstrating how the gaming industry is evolving. In this clip from “The Virtual Opportunities Show” on Motley Fool Live, recorded on March 15, Motley Fool contributors Rachel Warren and Jose Najarro discuss how this self-funded start-up is leveraging games to support mental health treatment and self-care.
Rachel Warren: The start-up is called DeepWell. The article says it wants to make gaming a bigger part of mental health treatment and self-care. As the article says, media and games help, to many of us, maintain our mental health during the last couple of years of dread, but it isn’t just pure escapism. The study suggests games, in particular, provide unique therapeutic benefits. DeepWell is a new start-up from games and medical industry veterans that aims to study and formalize these effects. In addition to medication and therapy, you might be prescribed a nightly Stardew Valley session. I was super intrigued by this, did a little more digging, and literally just today it was announced the company had launched. This is a brand-new start-up. It is marketing itself as the first of its kind video game publisher and developer dedicated to creating best-in-class game play that can simultaneously entertain, deliver, enhance and accelerate treatment for an array of health conditions. It’s founded by the founder and former CEO of an international medical device company, as well as the creator of a company called Devolver Digital (LSE:DEVO), which trades on the London Stock Exchange. This is really fascinating to me. One of the things that I thought was fascinating that they’re stressing is, they’re not saying games are going to cure depression or anxiety. One of the founders was quoted in this TechCrunch [Verizon ( VZ -2.98% )] article saying, we’re definitely adjunctive therapy. We’re here to support the therapists. But, he was also pointing out that this mental health emergency has accelerated during the pandemic. Prolonged periods of lockdown and not being able to go out and socialize can have a really, and has had a really, detrimental effect on a lot of people’s mental health understandably. What was really interesting was, one of the founders was saying there are some principles of therapy that are just really well done in games, and that there can actually be this very therapeutic aspect to it, where you can have this hand-in-hand with whatever other therapy you’re seeking. It’s interesting because there are a couple of different things that they seek to do. They want to be basically publishing games, but they also want to be enabling developers and publishers to formalize studies and effects from their games. Again, very early stages here. This is a self-funded start-up, but I like the idea of what they’re trying to do, which essentially takes something that’s really popular, gaming, both well-known games or even lesser known games and use it in this new iteration that you might not automatically think of as a way to get out there and maybe socialize with others and work through whatever struggles you might be dealing with, in addition to formal treatment. Fascinating concept.
Jose Najarro: Rachel, I really enjoyed this. It’s crazy how much the gaming industry has moved. Originally, when they started consumer-based, it was meant for just entertainment purposes. Then, I feel in the past 10, 15 years, the entertainment purposes in the gaming industry has also been pushed more into the educational world, where games are now created to help kids learn some new task. It shows how now this next move is to go within the healthcare industry, and I wonder if it’s because maybe games somehow make you focus on what you’re doing. If you’re like, my doctor told me maybe I should play this game. I’m really focused on this game. I have to be active with it, opposed to maybe some other type of whatever the doctor gives you, where you might not be as focused because you don’t need to be as active. This is pretty cool, that gaming is not just for fun and that it could be used for other great stuff as well.
Warren: The other thing about it is, besides working with developers and publishers to try to see, what are the actual studies and impacts from these games? They also want to work with these independent studios to try to find the next big hit and something that may not also just be fun, but may also have a therapeutic benefit. So, there’s this two-pronged approach they’re taking.
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