The new company is making games fortified by medical science. Devolver Digital‘s co-founder helms it.

The new company will be making games that help treat medical conditions. The two men behind DeepWell Digital Therapeutics are Mike Wilson, co-founder of Devolver, and Ryan Douglas, founder and former CEO of the international medical device company Nextern. Last year, they set up the company but quietly developed, researched, and recruited for months before making the official announcement. According to a statement from the pair, DeepWell is “dedicated to creating best-in-class gameplay that can simultaneously entertain and deliver, enhance, and accelerate treatment for an array of globally pervasive health conditions.”

In the video below, Wilson says that DeepWell is a company that will help many people feel better in their bodies and minds, and they’re going to do that with video games. They’re not even going to let patients know what to expect because they’re just having fun. Douglas says the quality of the games will be the key because he sees it as impossible to deliver the health benefits if no one wants to play them.

“To produce games that provide tangible results, we’ve made engaging gameplay DeepWell’s first principle, since, without engagement, there is no treatment potential for any therapy. With our team of world-class developers at the helm, backed up by cutting-edge science and medical professionals, we’re building and repurposing games that look like, feel like, and play like pure entertainment, but that come imbued with potent digital therapeutics that align with our hardwired, neurological reward mechanisms. This is a ground-breaking moment that will bring video games and medicine together so that neither field has ever truly contemplated before, prioritizing a level of patient engagement that has eluded most of modern medicine,” said Douglas. They have an advisory board of nearly 40 people from the gaming and medical fields. They devote time and resources to making games both valuable and fun.

“Our medium is often harshly judged for its perceived negative impacts on the mind and body, but the scientists who study video games and the developers who build them at the highest levels already know that the opposite is true. DeepWell is bringing entertainment and medical science together to build upon the proven fact that video games can be good for you. Thanks to global digital distribution, they’re an important tool to make treatment affordable and accessible. Moreover, with legitimately fun games, patients and players will seek out their positive benefits again and again. Soon, some of the best video games in the world will be recognized for what they are – powerful medicine – and game designers will be shaping a new discipline with the potential to reach the biggest audience on the planet,” Wilson added.

Good luck to them. It’s quite an initiative! The first announcements are expected to happen by the end of Spring.

Source: VGC