U.S. Army and Ubisoft Join Forces in Unprecedented Agreement to Deploy ``America's Army'' Brand Worldwide (thanks Frans) has the announcement of plans to for Ubisoft to publish console games based on the America's Army shooter for the PC beginning in the summer of 2005. Word is: "This historic agreement marks the first time that the U.S. Army has ever exclusively licensed its brand to a game maker and will dramatically expand the reach of 'America's Army' to the vast console game market." The release goes on to reiterate Ubi's militaristic ambitions: "This agreement marks the third major announcement from Ubisoft in the past few days and fires off the defining round in the company's quest to own the military games segment of the video game market. 'America's Army', 'Brothers in Arms(TM)' and 'Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon(TM) 2' are evidence of Ubisoft's commitment to bring the gamer quality titles from every segment of the military category, from historical to near future, and aggressively position itself in the competitive military games market which accounted for 5 out of the top 10 combat franchises in 2003." In an America's Army-related aside, John Kerry: The video game (thanks Hump) is a Salon.com take on the political implications of the America's Army video game that offers a startling factoid: "A third of the country's young people have an elevated view of the Army, not foremost for anything it's actually done lately, but because of the computer game they played, which just simulates it."