Frontline health workers in the UK are being given free access to video games by some of the biggest companies in the gaming industry, as a thank you for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative, Games for Carers, has been backed by the likes of EA, Sega, Xbox and Konami, and will see more than 85,000 games across a range of genres, ratings and platforms available to download for free.

The initial idea for Games for Carers came from Scottish video game journalist Chris Scullion, and gained traction on Twitter before getting the support of games trade body Ukie. According to Ukie CEO Dr Jo Twist, the initiative is designed to help NHS workers enjoy some well-earned downtime. “[We] hope this initiative goes some way to help them to understand how respected and valued they are,” she said. NHS staff that want to claim a free game or game subscription can do so by visiting giveaways.keymailer.co/nhs and entering their NHS email address.