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Ubisoft Signs Deal With U.S. Army

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the setting-sights-on-success dept.

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.'"

11 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. I'm glad by Oriumpor · · Score: 5, Funny
    '...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.
  2. Joke prompting... by Godeke · · Score: 4, Funny
    ... but they are all so obvious that I will leave them as an exercise for the reader. Simply combine the following fragments as desired with a few connector words:

    • US Military
    • France
    • Game company with
    • More powerful than
    • Finally a chance
    • Surrender Monkey
    --
    Sig under construction since 1998.
    1. Re:Joke prompting... by Mattb90 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sorry to say, but you're kind of speaking nonsense: Ubi Soft is not Canadian, and they're not based in Montreal. Their mini history profile on the bottom of their press releases states "Founded in 1986 in France", and their corporate website has a history page which tells us this, and that they only opened the Canadian studio in 2001/2002.

      At the start they were a French distributor, and in 1994 they opened studios in Montreuil, which is where you may be getting confused. But Montreuil-sous-Bois (to give the town it's full title), as you may have guessed, is in France.

      --
      Mattb90
      Editor, allaboutgames.co.uk
  3. In other news today... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Acting on newly received intelligence, U.S. Special Operations troops neutralized several cells of a dangerous terrorist group known as Electronic Arts.

  4. Ubisoft's first order of business.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Giving soldiers a white flag to get them out of dangerous situations.

  5. At the disposal of the French? by tchdab1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So will the series be called "Freedom Games"? Que ironie.

  6. WOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I thought a free game like America's Army wouldn't need such a marketing department.

  7. great by Areeves · · Score: 5, Funny

    '...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.
    1. Re:great by catphile · · Score: 2, Insightful

      nice attitude. That's exactly why I *loathe* the military. "I have a big gun, so I don't have to try and communicate." Assholes.

  8. I don't get it by 0x0d0a · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:I don't get it by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Interesting
      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.

      True, but think about it this way :

      First off : America's Army is a good game (I won't say great since to tell you the truth I haven't played it myself.) What the Army succeeded in doing is making a fun game. How many independently funded and developed games fail to simply do that? (True they had millions and millions of dollars to do it, but look at EA Games...)

      Secondly, what do you think will happen if they figure out how to convey the message they wanted to convey in the first place, being encourage people to join the military (read : subliminal messages)? America's Army 2? America's Navy?

      America's Army succeeded at nothing less at making a fun game.