The Pentagon-Funded shooter America’s Army is shutting down after 20 years.
America’s Army is the long-time controversial FPS developed by the US Army and soon it will go offline for good.
For those unfamiliar, America’s Army is a series of first-person shooter video games produced and released by the United States Army with the goal of informing, educating, and recruiting future troops.
The original was released in 2002 and branded as “a strategic communication device designed to allow Americans to virtually explore the Army at their own pace, and allowed them to determine whether becoming a soldier fits their interests and abilities.” The game featured medical training, Humvee driving, and weapon systems operation.
The U.S. Army stated in the official America’s Army forum that all support and official servers for America’s Army: Proving Grounds, the current iteration of the series, will be shut down on the 5th of May this year.
For Steam players, they stated:
” Privately owned servers, the Mission Editor, and offline features are expected to function, but player stats will no longer be available. Official servers will be shut down. User login, player stats, and other resources on the America’s Army website will no longer be available.”
As for PlayStation players they had this to say:
” The PlayStation™Store page for America’s Army: Proving Grounds will be removed, and the game will no longer be available to download. Players that choose to keep AA: PG in their library will not be able to access the Play Online feature and player stats will no longer be available. Offline features are expected to function.”
The game was steeped in controversy and even gained traction from the Canadian punk band Propagandhi in 2005 who wrote a protest song called Die Jugend Marschiert, which was hosted on a fake America’s Army Website that is still active.
America’s Army was pretty quiet until 2013 when they released the latest installment “Proving Grounds” which gained popularity.
As a recruiting tool though the U.S. Army has found more effective ways to recruit in the form of streaming and Esports.
If you are among the 300 players still playing the game on Steam you will be able to continue playing for the foreseeable future.
The statement concluded with the U.S. Army stating:
”Thank you to everyone who played AA: PG, and thank you to those who still enjoy it. While support and servers are still active, we encourage you to dive into matches with your battle buddies and continue the mission.”