Gaming News - April 2004
San Francisco, CA (April 14, 2004) - Ubisoft and the U.S. Army
announced today that they have entered into a long-term agreement to develop and
publish games based on the U.S. Army's America's Army game.
From Ubisoft:
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 partnership gives
Ubisoft unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the vast resources of the U.S.
Army, to give console gamers the same realistic, action-packed, military
experience players have enjoyed with the award-winning PC game. With this
agreement, the Army will also exercise ongoing content review with regard to the
same features of realism, character progression, and gameplay motivated by Army
values that have made America's Army one of the most popular online games in the
world.
"America's Army is an excellent vehicle through which young adults can discover
how Soldiers are developed and employed in the defense of freedom," said Colonel
Casey Wardynski, originator and Director of the America's Army game project. "Ubisoft
has extensive experience in producing best-selling military games and we're
looking forward to getting their developers in the field with our Soldiers."
"Ubisoft is in the business of delivering what the consumer wants, and consumers
want officially licensed games," said Jay Cohen, Vice President of Publishing
for Ubisoft Inc. "When you play a sports game you want to play the game from the
official league, and now, when you play an Army action game, you'll be able to
play the undisputed leader."
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.
PC gamers have virtually experienced life as a U.S. Soldier since July 4, 2002.
Now, thanks to this agreement between Ubisoft and the U.S. Army, console gamers
will be able to join the experience beginning in summer 2005. The PC version of
America's Army has consistently ranked among the most popular PC action games
played online. Since its public release, more than 3.3 million players have
joined America's Army, completing more than 600 million missions logging over 60
million hours of gameplay. America's Army is rated T for Teen. The Army will
continue to develop America's Army for the PC with free distribution to end
users at local Army Recruiting stations, ROTC Detachments and Army events, and
free downloaded from various partners listed on the
www.americasarmy.com
site.
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