Video games can have a positive mental health effect on people of all ages – unless you play for more than three hours a day – a study suggests. It is often believed that video gaming is bad – especially for children – with concerns it can cause issues with development and socialisation, promote violence and lead to addiction. The World Health Organization (WHO) has even labelled gaming disorder as a health condition, characterised by impaired control over gaming. But now, a study of more than 97,000 people indicates that owning a video game console and playing games can actually have a positive effect on mental well-being. Owing to a shortage of game consoles in Japan between 2020 and 2022, retailers used lotteries to assign a PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch to residents aged between 10 and 69.

Conducting what they believe to be "the largest study to assess the association among video gaming, cognition and brain function," researchers at the University of Vermont confirmed that the study's 9- and 10-year-old participants performed better than their nongaming counterparts "on cognitive tests that involve response inhibition and working memory and altered BOLD [blood oxygen level–dependent] signal on these tasks." With these results, researchers hypothesize "that video gaming may provide a cognitive training experience with measurable neurocognitive effects." Researchers did not look at the types or genres of video games, nor did they assess mental health impacts. However, they reported that the positive cognitive impacts remained "significant" for game players. The researchers note that "children must actively engage with the video's content, as opposed to passively watching a video, to exhibit altered cognitive brain activation in key areas of the brain involved in cognition."

While learning about advanced computing concepts, machine learning and other technology of the future, Maldonado realized a need to create a …

If you're like most people, you probably think of video gaming as a pastime for youngsters hunched over their phones or laptops, controllers in hand, immersed in imaginary worlds. But the gaming industry is far more complex and sophisticated than that. It has been revolutionized by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and data science. Let's take a look at how these cutting-edge technologies have helped shape the gaming industry into what it is today. There is nothing wrong in it that only one industry that has been transformed by the advent of AI technologies and data science, it's video gaming.

Activision Blizzard intended 2020 to be the year the Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues would capitalize on the company's vision of creating an esports setup that mirrored traditional sports. Teams would host events before live audiences, traveling from one host site to another. Covid derailed those plans just as they were beginning, and while both leagues held online competitions from remote locations, a linchpin of their economic model -- one in which esports teams have access to local market revenue through ticket and merchandise sales, as well as regional corporate sponsorships -- completely fell apart. Ahead of the 2021 season for both leagues, Activision Blizzard laid off its esports events team.

The Stadia is nothing short of revolutionary. Its core technology delivers on a promise decades in the making: console-quality gaming, without the console. But revolutions have unpredictable outcomes, leave a trail of destruction in their wake, and have a tendency to destroy those who start them. Will Google be able to see this through? Once Stadia is up and running, the system is nearly indistinguishable from playing a game on a console sitting under your TV, except there's no fan noise, no downloads or discs, and, well, no console. The bulk of my time on the Stadia was spent with the system in traditional TV mode.

Sam Haberern, 20, was playing Call of Duty on Xbox at his family's house in Connecticut, and he was on a roll. After several dozen high-scoring rounds, other gamers started to take notice. He began receiving invites from players asking him to play with them. He accepted one and joined in the group's online conversation through his headset. "It was great," said Haberern in an interview with The Washington Post.

The Chinese government has announced plans to intensify its crackdown on video gaming in order to counter worsening short-sightedness among minors. Regulators are directed to limit the number of new online games, restrict playing time and develop an age-restriction system in the industry, according to a statement posted on the Education Ministry website late on Thursday. The authority justified the new curbs as a way to counter worsening visual impairment among minors, after President Xi Jinping earlier this week called for greater national attention on optical health. Beijing is tightening government oversight of the country's booming video games industry But the move adds to perceptions that there is a broader campaign to rein in China's fast-growing video game sub-culture after authorities already made clear their concerns over gaming addiction and the violent content of many shoot-em-up titles. The education ministry statement, also endorsed by seven other ministries, said they will'implement regulations and controls' on the number of games that can be played online, limit new releases, explore an age-restriction system for games, and take steps to reduce playing time by minors. No specifics or timeframe were given.

Kendal Parmar's son went from being a sporty and sociable boy who loved school, to a child who would stay in his room and rarely go outside. The change in his personality was down to a gaming disorder that crept up on him at the age of 12, when he started secondary school. Three years later, Joseph is still struggling with the problem. Parmar says the biggest sign that something was wrong was the amount of arguing that would occur when she asked him to stop playing video games. "Eventually his habits developed and he was gaming all the time. He became too terrified to go to school and he was terrified of people," she says.

Snooker player Neil Robertson claims a ruinous addiction has harmed his professional career. It's not alcohol, it's not drugs – it is video games. In a recent interview with Eurosport, the Australian said his compulsive need to play the online fantasy game World of Warcraft interfered with his training and preparation for a tournament in China. "I'm two months sober from playing them," he told the site. "My friend said to me: 'you don't get to choose the crack you are addicted to'. And the multiplayer online ones I can't touch because I just get too hooked on them."