Video Games News

March 18, 2025

Top Headlines

Researchers Create the World's Smallest Shooting Video Game Using Nanoscale Technology

Feb. 26, 2025 — A research team demonstrated the 'world's smallest shooting game,' a unique nanoscale game inspired by classic arcade games. This achievement was made possible by real-time control of the force ...

AI Generates Playful, Human-Like Games

Feb. 26, 2025 — A team of scientists has now created a computer model that can represent and generate human-like goals by learning from how people create games. The work could lead to AI systems that better understand human intentions and more faithfully model and ...

'Loot Box' Virtual Rewards Associated With Gambling and Video Game Addiction

Feb. 19, 2025 — A new study of more than 1400 adults who gamble and play online video games has found loot box buying is associated with real-world gambling, video gaming addiction, and other mental health issues. ...

New Training Approach Could Help AI Agents Perform Better in Uncertain Conditions

Jan. 29, 2025 — AI agents trained in simulations that differ from the environments where they are deployed sometimes perform better than agents trained and deployed in the same environment, research ...

Latest Headlines

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Innovative One-Minute Video Game Boasts 80% Success Rate in Diagnosing Autism

Jan. 28, 2025 — A new one-minute video game is able to accurately and efficiently identify children with autism from those who have ADHD or are ...

'Unprecedented' Level of Control Allows Person Without Use of Limbs to Operate Virtual Quadcopter

Jan. 21, 2025 — A brain-computer interface, surgically placed in a research participant with tetraplegia, paralysis in all four limbs, provided an unprecedented ...

Physics and Emote Design: Quantifying Clarity in Digital Images

Dec. 16, 2024 — When analyzing artworks, understanding the visual clarity of compositions is crucial. Inspired by digital artists, researchers have created a metric to quantify clarity in digital images. As a ...

Problems Developed Faster Among Gamers Who Started Early

Dec. 16, 2024 — People who started playing video games at an early school age developed problematic gaming more quickly compared to those who started playing a few years ...

Researchers 'See' Vulnerability to Gaming Addiction in the Adolescent Brain

Dec. 9, 2024 — Researchers found that adolescents with more symptoms of gaming addiction showed lower brain activity in the region involved in decision-making and reward processing; this blunted response to reward ...

How Neighborhood Enhances Cooperation

Dec. 6, 2024 — Helping out your neighbor or minding your own business? A challenging choice with different benefits for each decision. Game theory provides guidance in making such choices -- from a theoretical ...

Inside the 'Swat Team' -- How Insects React to Virtual Reality Gaming

Nov. 26, 2024 — Humans get a real buzz from the virtual world of gaming and augmented reality but now scientists have trialled the use of these new-age technologies on small animals, to test the reactions of tiny ...

Gaming for the Good!

Nov. 18, 2024 — It turns out gaming is good for you! New research indicates massive multiplayer online gamers learn by gaming and their skills in the workplace are enriched by those seemingly endless hours ...

'Shallow' Sports and 'Deep' Social Hierarchies: Not All Pecking Orders Are Created Equal

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have added a new dimension to the mathematics used to predict the outcomes of all manner of competitions, including sports, games and ...

How Virtual Cows Could Help Us Improve Human-Robot Interactions

Oct. 31, 2024 — A video game in which participants herded virtual cattle has furthered our understanding of how humans make decisions on movement and navigation, and it could help us not only interact more ...

11 To 12-Year-Olds Use Smartphones Mainly to Talk to Family and Friends

Dec. 26, 2024 — A research group has analyzed the digital ecosystem of 11- to 12-year-old children across the Basque Autonomous Community, and concluded that two out of three own a smartphone. They use smartphones ...

Dangers of the Metaverse and VR for US Youth Revealed in New Research

Oct. 22, 2024 — Research of online victimization in the metaverse is sorely lacking. A new study explored harm in the metaverse and VR devices among a sample of 5,005 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17. Findings show a ...

People Sympathize With Bullied AI Bots

Oct. 17, 2024 — In a new study, humans displayed sympathy towards and protected AI bots who were excluded from ...

Sharing Biosignals With Online Gaming Partners to Enhance a Mutual Sense of Social Presence Between Complete Strangers

Sep. 27, 2024 — Although interactive online platforms, including esports platforms, aim to foster close connections between people, they often fall short of supporting the creation of bonds between the interaction ...

Shrinking AR Displays Into Eyeglasses to Expand Their Use

Sep. 25, 2024 — Augmented reality (AR) takes digital images and superimposes them onto real-world views. But AR is more than a new way to play video games; it could transform surgery and self-driving cars. To make ...

Specially Designed Video Games May Benefit Mental Health of Children and Teenagers

Sep. 24, 2024 — Scientists conclude that some video games created as mental health interventions can be helpful -- if modest -- tools in improving the mental well-being of children and teens with anxiety, depression ...

PTSD Symptoms Can Be Reduced Through Treatment Including a Video Game

Sep. 20, 2024 — A single treatment session, which includes the video game Tetris, can reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This has been shown in a new study carried out with healthcare ...

Keep Devices out of Bed for Better Sleep

Sep. 3, 2024 — Despite what we've been led to believe, the timing of evening screen use, rather than the activity itself, negatively impacts youth sleep, a new study has ...

Video Gaming Improves Mental Well-Being, Landmark Study Finds

Aug. 27, 2024 — A new study on the causal relationship between video gaming and mental well-being challenges commonly held views about the effects of ...

Hydrogels Can Play Pong by 'Remembering' Previous Patterns of Electrical Simulation

Aug. 22, 2024 — Non-living hydrogels can play the video game Pong and improve their gameplay with more experience, researchers report. The researchers hooked hydrogels up to a virtual game environment and then ...

How Researchers Are Using Digital City-Building Games to Shape the Future

July 1, 2024 — Researchers have come up with exciting and sophisticated new mapping technology enabling future generations to get involved in creating their own future built landscape. They say that planners are ...

AI Recognizes Athletes' Emotions

June 17, 2024 — Using computer-assisted neural networks, researchers have been able to accurately identify affective states from the body language of tennis players during games. For the first time, they trained a ...

Great News, Parents: You Do Have Power Over Your Tweens' Screen Use

June 5, 2024 — For many parents, it can feel like curbing kids' screen use is a losing battle. But new research has found the parenting practices that work best to curb screen time and addictive screen ...

Virtual Reality Becomes More Engaging When Designers Use Cinematic Tools

May 14, 2024 — Cinematography techniques can significantly increase user engagement with virtual environments and, in particular, the aesthetic appeal of what users see in virtual ...

Researchers Develop a New Way to Instruct Dance in Virtual Reality

Apr. 29, 2024 — Virtual reality dance made easier with crowd wave technique. Open source code can be downloaded for Quest 2 and ...

Computer Game in School Made Students Better at Detecting Fake News

Apr. 24, 2024 — A computer game helped upper secondary school students become better at distinguishing between reliable and misleading ...

Super Mario Hackers' Tricks Could Protect Software from Bugs

Apr. 23, 2024 — Video gamers who exploit glitches in games can help experts better understand buggy software, students ...

Millions of Gamers Advance Biomedical Research

Apr. 15, 2024 — 4.5 million gamers around the world have advanced medical science by helping to reconstruct microbial evolutionary histories using a minigame included inside the critically and commercially ...

Virtual Reality Better Than Video for Evoking Fear, Spurring Climate Action

Mar. 18, 2024 — Depicting worst-case climate scenarios like expanding deserts and dying coral reefs may better motivate people to support environmental policies when delivered via virtual reality, according to a ...

Accessibility Toolkit for Game Engine Unity

Mar. 11, 2024 — New work makes it easier for game developers to implement game aids for people with disabilities. The toolkit focuses on players with visual ...