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Ubisoft Signs Deal With U.S. Army
Pig Hogger writes "The French video game producer Ubisoft has entered an agreement with the U.S. Army to market America's Army-branded video-games. According to the Ferrago story (and this Eurogamer story), '...the full and vast resources of the army will be at Ubisoft's disposal.'"
Well it's good to know at least one company will have coffee and cigarettes for all.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Acting on newly received intelligence, U.S. Special Operations troops neutralized several cells of a dangerous terrorist group known as Electronic Arts.
Giving soldiers a white flag to get them out of dangerous situations.
So will the series be called "Freedom Games"? Que ironie.
I thought a free game like America's Army wouldn't need such a marketing department.
'...the full and vast resources of the army will be at Ubisoft's disposal.'" Reminds me of a great story, I was working *somewhere* for the gov and they we're testing a handheld device for the marines that would say simple phrases in arabic like "get down on the ground" "freeze!" etc. A bunch of grunts are sitting around in a room messing with these things while the CO is rambling on about how many millions they blew on this thing and how much its going to help, one marine manages to say the following "sir, I've got an M-16 with a huge frikin knife on the end of it, and, well, I'm pretty sure that will be all the translation I need. The CO looks around, shakes his head and dismissed them all. God I love the Mil.
I read at -1 So you don't have to.
Ubisoft has been putting out some really nice military games already. Ghost Recon, Rainbox Six, Splinter Cell, etc.
Hopefully with this deal they'll release an Xbox version of America's Army.
The great Soviet Russia!!
How can any experienced Slashdotter miss this phrase in their jokes.
ALL of the army's resources? Maybe they'll take over Belgium or something.
Karma: Bad (mostly due to all those "In Soviet Russia" jokes)
Another variation on this anecdote: A recent police academy graduate is on patrol with his training officer. There is an armed robbery nearby and they spot a vehicle and passengers that match the reported getaway car and suspects. They pull the vehicle over and the junior officer uses the PA system to instruct the occupants to put their hands out the windows. Nothing happens. The junior officer repeats the instructions in Spanish. Nothing happens. The training officer tells the junior officer to use the "Universal Translator". The confused junior officer say "What?". The training officer says "The Universal Translator" as he takes the microphone and places it near their shotgun and works the pump once. Hands immediately appear outside the vehicles windows.
Okay, I'm just trying to understand the motivations here.
Perhaps the Army is getting money from Ubisoft from foreign sales? If money from foreign sales is treated as icing on the cake, as additional funding, then this makes sense.
However, ultimately America's Army was built as a recruiting tool -- it's why it got tax dollars to fund production. It's intended to make a big deal out of the glamour of the Army to convince more people to enlist to help stop the shrinking ranks. I'm not sure what having this thing sold in, say, Belgium is supposed to do for America. Perhaps it will help build up the Belgian Army ranks?
I mean, spending tax dollars to produce a video game wasn't an easy decision with Army folks -- and the game is becoming even less recruiting-tool oriented.
May we never see th
Does anyone find this agreement weird considering one of their last titles was Beyond Good and Evil?
they might declare war on competing developers
is that icon for First Person Shooters supposed to be anyways?
Oh, please. I know we all like to lean over to the left here on Slashdot, but American troops don't just go around killing innocent civilians, and it's not fair to imply that they do. American troops go around killing innocent *brown* civilians. There's a big difference there. Try for a little more fact-checking and objectivity next time, mmkay?
Ubisoft would be smart to milk this chance for all they can get. I mean, if they develop some awesomely incredible AI and graphics engines for the military, think of the knowledge and techniques they have gained, at no expense to them - and the Military wins by getting more people and possibly more conscripts.. Winning situation.
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