Game developers are putting "stay at home" messages in their games in the UK.

As reported by The Guardian, Candy Crush Saga and Farm Heroes Saga are amongst the titles to feature the "Stay At Home, Save Lives" message. It is part of an attempt to stop the COVID-19 outbreak from spreading further by encouraging people to stay indoors.

"Through our millions of players we're able to assist Public Health England, and the NHS spread their life-saving message: stay at home, protect our NHS, and save lives," said King Digital Entertainment president Humam Sakhnini.

Activision Blizzard has also donated 230 advertising placements in London to the cause, instead of promoting its games it is displaying the health services messages.

Stay at home

"We came to realise that technology within our games, which enables the remote updating of banners within the virtual environment, could be repurposed to assist with the coronavirus communication effort," said Codemasters vice president of business development Toby Evan-Jones. The developer is adding messages to its console title DiRT Rally 2.0.

"It's fantastic to see conversations already being sparked amongst our community."

King recently gave players of the majority of its games in the UK unlimited lives for a week to encourage them to stay home.

Recently, mobile games experienced its biggest week ever for downloads – 1.2 billion. The huge number is due to the vast majority of people staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic.