Hospitals aren’t much fun for kids — or anyone, for that matter.

But kids in particular need something to take their minds off the antiseptic environment and the stress of being ill while there. So Microsoft and the charity group Companions in Courage are working together to help make hospitals a little more inviting with video game consoles.

Starting this week, they’re installing Xbox 360 kiosks in children’s hospitals around the country, with the hope of having about 450 kiosks in place by year’s end. The first kiosks opened Wednesday in three hospitals in New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Other hospitals will be announced later, including those in the St. Louis area.

“The goal for this program is to give these kids a chance to have some fun and just be kids,” Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment division at Microsoft, said in a statement.

Companions in Courage is a foundation created by hockey Hall of Famer and St. Louis native Pat LaFontaine in 1997 to put playrooms in children’s hospitals.

The gaming kiosks are small stations where two players can sit or stand while gaming and resemble the demonstration stations found at most game retailers. Each Xbox will be preloaded with E-rated games, G-rated movies and Y-rated television programs, and they will permit play over Microsoft’s Xbox Live online media network.

Consoles at select hospitals also will have the capability to voice, text and video chat with other kiosks.

A Microsoft spokesman told Game Guy that because of LaFontaine’s background, the company hoped to work with the Blues hockey club in promoting the kiosks when they come to St. Louis. LaFontaine spent his entire NHL playing career in the Empire State, skating with the New York Islanders, New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres between 1983 and 1998.