The US Government is planning to shut down the servers for
America's Army,
a military first-person shooter launched as a recruiting tool
on July 4, 2002. The
game's official website (thanks
Vice) declares mission accomplished, saying the last choppers will lift off
on May 5th.
This
post has platform-specific details, saying private servers should still be
able to run the Steam version after that, but player stats will no longer be
available. Here's the big picture:
The free-to-play America’s Army PC Game
represented the first large-scale use of game technology by the U.S. government
as a platform for strategic communication and recruitment, and the first use of
game technology in support of U.S. Army recruiting. Three mainline titles and
more than 20 million AA players later, the series’ original purpose continued.
There have been over 30 million objectives completed, 180 million successful
missions accomplished, 250 million teammates assisted, and many more in-game
achievements attained in AA:PG alone.
As time has passed and AA has fulfilled its mission, it is time to shift our
focus to other new and innovative ways to assist the Army with comms and
recruitment.