The company behind a 'mental health action shooter' envisions a health insurance-funded 'golden age' for gaming, and it just got FDA clearance to treat stress
"If you're a game dev and you're just tired of building economies, this is going to be a real alternative," says Deepwell DTx co-founder Ryan Douglas.
There is a lot to digest here. This company from Seattle has worked to identify ways of making games therapeutic, and the FDA agrees that games are, indeed. therapeutic and has set the stage for doctors to prescribe certain games to their patients. You may even be able to charge your VR set to your health insurance.
But games being therapeutic doesn't just apply to games that use this system. Great games are therapeutic accidentally. "The most effective mental health videogames are commercial games. They were accidentally therapeutic."
What this means is that you can't just gamify therapy. It actually needs to be a great game first.
I have a lot of questions about this. Like will the FDA require proof that a game is therapeutic before it can be prescribed? Probably. And that's going to cost a lot of money. But if you can get that approval, the amount of money you could theoretically make off of that game would be outrageous.
Will the cost of games skyrocket due to going through medical trials? Possibly. I could see games costing $300 being charged to your insurance with a $70 copay. This would basically be ripping off the whole system and is what we should expect to happen.
Could this cause AAA companies to make better games since only the best games are therapeutic? Possibly.
Just a lot of questions at this point.
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