14 DAY TRIAL // As far as a single nation and official involvement goes, America is without a doubt the most active country from a military standpoint. And above everything else, wars need soldiers. The old “Uncle Sam wants you!” line doesn't really work anymore, so the Army had to catch up with the times. The way it did so was by appealing to potential candidates through one of the most popular media formats currently available. The United States Army got its wheels rolling and a video-game project was started back in 2000. As time would eventually tell, this was a very wise move on its part and, as research has shown, America's Army has become one of its most effective recruitment tools.
Since the franchise was first started in 2002, the game got a number of updates and expansions before the series could properly evolve. And evolve it did, as America's Army 3 was launched this year, but also had a big publisher like Ubisoft become part of the team. The company released the console spinoffs America's Army: Rise of a Soldier for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, and America's Army: True Soldiers for the Xbox 360 last year.
But one can't help but ask just how much money do taxpayers pay to generate a video game. GameSpot is at least one of those that have not only asked themselves, but the Army as well and, under the Freedom of Information Act, it requested that this question be answered. As such, over the past ten years, the US government offered the project a $32.8-million budget. If you think that's a lot, then you should at least be aware that some cutbacks have been made, to a certain degree, as the team responsible for the original America's Army, Emeryville, is no longer involved with the series. It looks like the “no man gets left behind” policy doesn't apply to civilians.
Composed of three main titles, the game series doesn't seem to be going anywhere and the project will endure for times to come. Still, further details were withheld by the Army, which stated that, “Disclosure of this information is likely to cause substantial harm to the Department of the Army's competitive position in the gaming industry.” Which is somewhat surprising, considering that one would expect the Army to try to be competitive in other areas, not in video gaming. It looks like interaction with an experienced game publisher left its mark on the Army.