Playing video games can be good for your mental health, new research suggests.

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The study by the team at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, focused on players of Nintendo's Animal Crossing and Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville by Electronic Arts.

Crucially, it included data from the games-makers on how long each participant had played the video games, rather than estimates.

This information was linked to a survey in which the gamers were asked how they felt about their experiences.

The team found that the actual amount of time spent playing was a small but significant positive factor in people's wellbeing.

The findings throw some doubt on long-held assumptions that gaming causes aggression or addiction - though researchers of the the non-peer reviewed paper admitted the study only provides a snapshot.

They also they said that a player's subjective experiences during play might be a bigger factor for wellbeing than mere play time.

Previous research has relied mainly on self-report surveys to study the relationship between play and wellbeing.

Professor Andrew Przybylski, lead author of the study, said: 'Without objective data from games companies, those proposing advice to parents or policymakers have done so without the benefit of a robust evidence base.

'Our findings show video games aren't necessarily bad for your health; there are other psychological factors which have a significant effect on a person's wellbeing.

'In fact, play can be an activity that relates positively to people's mental health - and regulating video games could withhold those benefits from players.'

He added: 'Through access to data on people's playing time, for the first time we've been able to investigate the relation between actual game play behaviour and subjective wellbeing, enabling us to deliver a template for crafting high-quality evidence to support health policymakers.'

A total of 3,274 gamers took part in the study.

The research was supported by grants from the Huo Family Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council.

It comes amid the launch of the new Xbox consoles last week, and the PlayStation 5 which hits UK shores this Thursday.

A review into the government's handling of the pandemic will accuse ministers of 'gambling with the UK's future' by relaxing restrictions over Christmas.

In the review, set to be published today, cross-party MPs have made more than 40 recommendations to the government 'so that its preparedness and response may be improved in future'.

The report says the government's approach has been 'based on the false choice between saving lives or saving jobs and the economy' and led to the UK 'mourning among the highest number of lives lost to the pandemic, while at the same time bracing for one of the deepest recessions in its aftermath'.

Nearly 60,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the UK since the start of the pandemic, according to government figures - the seventh-highest number of deaths per population globally.

The report also accuses ministers of taking an 'English exceptionalism' approach by not looking to other countries that had already handled similar epidemics.

'There's no doubt there was a delay in seeking advice from those countries, including Italy, where this experience had already happened,' it will say.

As well as working with other countries, the report recommends the UK government 'works more closely and collaboratively with the devolved nations'.

'Each devolved administration should retain the ability and capacity to respond to its own needs where necessary, but within the framework of an agreed four-nation strategy,' it adds.

It warned its recommendations are now 'more important than ever' as the government is 'gambling with the UK's future by relaxing restrictions over the Christmas period and returning to a tier system which we know has not worked before'.

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This is the All-Party Parliamentary Group's first interim report on COVID-19 after it was set up in July to conduct a rapid inquiry.

The group has heard from 65 witnesses in over 200 hours of live evidence sessions, with just under 3,000 separate evidence submissions.

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Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, one of the APPG's chairs, wrote in the report's foreword: 'The central objective of the APPG on coronavirus is to save lives but, as is laid bare in this report, to save lives is to save livelihoods. To do that, the government must listen and adapt.
'We write this report with the sincere hope that, by working cross-party with scientists, civil society and individuals, we can help the government to do what we need it to do at this time of national crisis: succeed.'