Ubisoft and the U.S. Army announced that they have entered into a long-term agreement to develop and publish games based on the U.S. Army's industry leading America's Army game. No one apparently has informed The U.S. Army that Ubisoft is, predominantly, French.
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.
Colonel Casey Wardynski, originator and Director of the America's Army game project promised, we're looking forward to getting their developers in the field with our Soldiers.
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. 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 official site, available by following the download tab above.
As E3 approaches the major publishers are beginning to announce their show line-ups and this year Ubisoft have a good chance of stealing the limelight. That is probably why they are the first company to have officially announced the titles that will grace their stand this year.
The flagship title for the French publisher is the sequel to Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, currently known as Prince Of Persia 2 and is expected to be out in time for Christmas and is under development at Ubisoft's Montreal studio.
The other major Ubisoft titles include Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 (PC, consoles), Brothers In Arms (PC, consoles), Far Cry Instincts (Xbox and other consoles), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Black Arrow (Xbox), Myst IV: Revelation (PC) and Settlers 5 (PC).
The list of Ubisoft titles continues however and some of the lower profile games to make an appearance at this year's E3 show include Rocky Legends (PS2, Xbox), The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of General Lee (PS2, Xbox), Playboy: The Mansion (PC), Pacific Fighters (PC) and Silent Hunter III (PC).
There are some noticeably absent titles and since most publishers like to keep a couple of surprises up their sleeves, we are still hoping that we will see a proper Splinter Cell 2 game, reportedly already under development and hopefully some sort of Beyond Good & Evil sequel.
