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PC | America's Army bill: $32.8 million
December 10th, 2009 | 
Author: Government tallies total budget for free-to-play first-person shooter and military recruitment tool’s first decade of development.
The America’s Army series of free-to-play PC first-person shooters that double as recruitment tools has cost the US government $32.8 million over 10 years, according to data obtained through a GameSpot Freedom of Information Act request.
The US Army first revealed America’s Army in 2002, although expenditures on the project began in 2000. At the time, it was touted as a five-year project with a budget of $7 million.
The PC game received a number of updates and expansion packs before a true sequel, America’s Army 3, was launched earlier this year. It has also spawned a pair of Ubisoft-published console spin-offs, America’s Army: Rise of a Soldier for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, and last year’s Xbox 360 game America’s Army: True Soldiers.
While operating America’s Army 3 does involve ongoing expenses, paying the game’s original development team isn’t one of them. Days after the game launched in June, representatives with the Army confirmed that ties were severed with the Emeryville, California-based team behind the project, and future development efforts were being consolidated at the America’s Army program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
A decade after its initial foray into the world of gaming, the Army doesn’t appear to be withdrawing from the industry anytime soon. In denying other aspects of the FOIA request, the Army stated “disclosure of this information is likely to cause substantial harm to the Department of the Army’s competitive position in the gaming industry.”
America’s Army year-by-year budget summary
2000–$3,500,000
2001–$5,600,000
2002–$1,862,985
2003–$2,600,000
2004–$3,866,482
2005–$1,288,552
2006–$4,050,748
2007–$2,788,137
2008–$3,887,450
2009–$3,395,702
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PC | America's Army bill: $32.8 million
Government tallies total budget for free-to-play first-person shooter and military recruitment tool’s first decade of development.
The America’s Army series of free-to-play PC first-person shooters that double as recruitment tools has cost the US government $32.8 million over 10 years, according to data obtained through a GameSpot Freedom of Information Act request.
The US Army first revealed America’s Army in 2002, although expenditures on the project began in 2000. At the time, it was touted as a five-year project with a budget of $7 million.
The PC game received a number of updates and expansion packs before a true sequel, America’s Army 3, was launched earlier this year. It has also spawned a pair of Ubisoft-published console spin-offs, America’s Army: Rise of a Soldier for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, and last year’s Xbox 360 game America’s Army: True Soldiers.
While operating America’s Army 3 does involve ongoing expenses, paying the game’s original development team isn’t one of them. Days after the game launched in June, representatives with the Army confirmed that ties were severed with the Emeryville, California-based team behind the project, and future development efforts were being consolidated at the America’s Army program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
A decade after its initial foray into the world of gaming, the Army doesn’t appear to be withdrawing from the industry anytime soon. In denying other aspects of the FOIA request, the Army stated “disclosure of this information is likely to cause substantial harm to the Department of the Army’s competitive position in the gaming industry.”
America’s Army year-by-year budget summary
2000–$3,500,000
2001–$5,600,000
2002–$1,862,985
2003–$2,600,000
2004–$3,866,482
2005–$1,288,552
2006–$4,050,748
2007–$2,788,137
2008–$3,887,450
2009–$3,395,702
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Sony filing details motion-sensing controller attachments
Recent patent application with the USPTO details possible add-ons for upcoming PS3 gamepad, including microphone, flashlight, biometric reader, baseball bat.
Sony plans to launch its camera-based motion-sensing controller for the PlayStation 3 in just a few months, but the publisher has yet to delve too deeply into what gamers can expect from it. However, a number of possible functions came to light, courtesy of a Sony Computer Entertainment patent application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office last week.
According to the filing and a range of associated schematics, Sony appears to have its sights set on introducing a variety of attachments to flesh out the controller’s functionality. Attachments for what appears to be the PS3’s new controller run the gamut from the technical to the mundane, with examples in the filing ranging from microphones to flashlights to maracas to crosshairs. The filing also details a way to connect two controllers together.
Sony’s patent application also goes into depth on ball attachments that can be illuminated with different colors. Exemplary uses for these colored balls include differentiating between players; providing user feedback, “such as when the player is being ‘hit’; or to let a player know when the controller isn’t being recognized by the PS3’s camera.
The patent application also details possible uses for a USB slot in the controller. Namely, Sony notes that the built-in USB slot would let gamers transfer certain information to the controller’s onboard memory, conferring a range of options ranging from user-profile recognition to downloadable content transfers.
“For example, one file is a game that is loaded to the base station for playing, another file contains karaoke songs that can be used in a sing-along game, another file contains new player rosters and statistics for an update to a sports game,” the patent application reads.
Yet another interesting potential attachment for the PS3 controller is what Sony refers to as a biometric reader. The attachment “includes a thumb reader used to validate the identity of the person holding the controller by analyzing the biometric data provided by the attachment.” With said data, the filing notes that the controller could be disabled if picked up by an unauthorized user or activate alternative preset configurations for different players.
Though the objects in the patent have not been officially announced by Sony, there is good reason to believe some–if not all–will make it to market. Previous patent filings by Sony have revealed new technology, including one that surfaced last October that unveiled the motion-sensing tech itself. In August, another application surfaced that indicates Sony is also working on emotion-sensing technology.
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PlayStation 3 | Shippin' Out Dec. 6-12: Legend of Zelda, The Saboteur
Nintendo’s iconic adventurer Link boards the Spirit Tracks on DS joined by Pandemic’s open-world actioner and Konami’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
By the first week of December, the annual herd of game releases has thinned considerably. However, the second week of the month will see Nintendo launch the latest installment in its long-running action adventure franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.
Announced for the DS at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, Spirit Tracks features the same visual style as Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, released for the GameCube in 2003. The game focuses on a magical locomotive, which hero Link uses to travel around an equally magical island. Railway-based gameplay will consist of blowing up powder kegs on the tracks and shooing wild animals away with a horn blast. The game will also have numerous puzzles and dungeons
Just weeks after Pandemic Studios was folded into EALA, The Saboteur arrives for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The Saboteur tinkers with the stale World War II genre by introducing gameplay similar to Pandemic’s open-world action adventure Mercenaries. Taking the role of Irish-racecar-driver-turned-resistance-fighter Sean Devlin, players are encouraged to wreak covert havoc upon the Third Reich in Nazi-occupied France.
Konami’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii represents the final big-name release of the week. A remake of the maiden installment in the survival horror franchise, Shattered Memories features a revamped user interface and puzzle system. Shattered Memories will reportedly be the last overseen by producer/composer Akira Yamaoka, who has been credited as the driving force of recent installments in the franchise. (The game is expected to arrive for the PlayStation 2 and PSP next year.)
For further details on the week’s games, visit GameSpot’s New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and the Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.
DECEMBER 7, 2009
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks–DS–Nintendo
DECEMBER 8, 2009
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game–PSP–Ubisoft
Playmobil 2 Pack–PC–Dreamcatcher
Puzzler World–DS–Atari
The Saboteur–X360, PS3, PC–Electronic Arts
Salon Superstar–DS–505 Games
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories–WII–Konami
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God–WII, PC–Telltale Games
DECEMBER 9, 2009
No new releases announced.
DECEMBER 10, 2009
PixelJunk Shooter–PS3–SCEA
DECEMBER 11, 2009
No new releases announced.
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DS | Rayman dials into DSiWare
Nintendo Store Update: Ubisoft’s classic platformer leads quintet of additions to portable library; Ball Fighter, Pop Island on DSiWare; Shinobi, Street Fighter Alpha 2 hit Virtual Console.
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