Analog Game Studios Declares Presence Deficit a Canadian Public Health Crisis - Launches Free Tool

TORONTO - March 31, 2026 - PRLog -- Analog Game Studios, a Toronto-based board game publisher, is making a declaration that reaches far beyond the game industry: "Presence Deficit", the condition of being physically surrounded by the people you love while being genuinely present with none of them, is the defining social pandemic of our time.

And for the first time, it has created a way for households to measure it.

Statistics Canada's 2021 Canadian Social Survey found that more than one in ten Canadians always or often feel lonely, with nearly one in four Canadians aged 15 to 24 reporting frequent loneliness. A landmark peer-reviewed meta-analysis published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, drawing on 148 studies and more than 300,000 participants, confirmed that social isolation increases the risk of premature death by 29 percent, an impact comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

The epidemic has a name. What it has lacked, until now, is a way for ordinary households to see it clearly in their own lives.

Analog Game Studios has launched The Presence Score, a free, 12-question online self- assessment available at https://presencedeficit.com/. The tool provides individuals with a personalized measure of how much genuine, device-free interaction is occurring in their household each week, broken down across partner, family, and friends.

Grounded in published research and designed for simplicity, the assessment takes fewer than four minutes to complete and is offered entirely without commercial obligation.

"We're not only the entertainment business. We're also in the presence business. Board games are the only widely available activity that structurally requires people to be genuinely present with each other, not as a recommendation, but as a condition of play. That's an extraordinary thing in an age of Digital Drift and a key driver in our game development."

— Richard MacRae, President & Publisher, Analog Game Studios

Analog Game Studios publishes all of its titles under its "Presence by Design" standard, a founding commitment that every game must create authentic face-to-face interaction, fit a realistic household schedule, and generate shared moments that no screen can replicate.

Take The Presence Score: https://presencedeficit.com/
Learn more about this Toronto board game publisher: analoggamestudios.com Media enquiries: Richard MacRae

About Analog Game Studios

Analog Game Studios is a Canadian board game publisher dedicated to creating social games that bring people together through meaningful, device-free interaction. Every title is designed and developed in Canada under the company's Presence by Design standard.