Source: Blue’s News

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 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.