We follow the suggestions published in “Therapeutic Video Game Recommendations”, a guide commissioned by Child’s Play. Child’s Play is a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games via a worldwide network of over 220 hospitals and domestic abuse shelters. The study was conducted by EEDAR, a market-leading video game research firm, in collaboration with mental health researchers at UCSD. The study suggests different types of games that can help distract children from pain, boredom, anxiety, sadness and other negative feelings they experience during a hospital stay.
Games need to be purchased and downloaded onto each individual console. Depending on circumstances, Child Life staff may choose to populate all consoles with the same games, or to target the game selection to the age of the patients in the room. The games included on the first units we delivered:
ESRB Rated Everyone
– Art of Balance
– EA Sports FIFA 17
– Frozen Free Fall: Snowball Fight!
– Overcooked!
– So Many Me
– Sparkle 2
– WRC FIA World Rally Champions
ESRB Rated Everyone 10+
– Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends
– Minecraft PlayStation 4 Edition
– The Lego Movie Videogame
– Trine Enchanted Edition
– Zen Pinball 2
ESRB Rated Teen
– Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5
– Marvel Heroes Omega (no longer available)
Purchasing and downloading games
We recommend purchasing PlayStation Network gift cards (available from Amazon or other retailers) and adding them to the console account wallet as needed (under Redeem Prepaid Card) rather than using a credit card. This limits financial exposure if the PlayStation Network account is hacked.
Find the games you want to purchase using the Search or Browse features. The current balance on funds on the console’s account is visible on the PlayStation Store screen when making purchases on the console. Once the purchase is complete, select “Download All”. NOTE: Games can take hours to download over a WiFi network so this should be done via a wired LAN connection if available.