In his address to Congress, Gen. Douglas MacArthur famously said, “old soldiers never die – they just fade away.”
Now the military’s video game series – one that was created by the United States Army as a recruiting tool –has seen its audience fade away, so much so that the service has announced it will be pulling the plug on America’s Army: Proving Grounds. The once popular free-to-play first-person shooter that was developed and published by the Army will officially shut down its online features on May 5.
With it ends a 20-year run for the game series that included three mainline titles, which combined attracted some 20 million players.
“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,” the Army said in a statement. “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.”
America’s Army: Proving Grounds is currently available for PlayStation 4 on the PlayStation Network and Windows PC via the Steam service. The shutdown will end the player stat-tracking and will remove access to the game’s Play Online mode. However, offline features are reportedly expected to continue to function.
Courting Controversy
Over the years the U.S. military has seen video games as both a tool for training and recruiting, and the America’s Army franchise has long been a key component. A total of 41 versions of the game were released between 2002 and 2014, and distributed as free downloads for the PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and even mobile platforms. The series was also used to provide a virtual military experience at air shows and sporting events around the country.
However, in recent years, some lawmakers have questioned why video games were being used to target the younger generation.
Last year, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) even proposed an amendment to a House appropriations bill that would permanently ban the U.S. military from recruiting on the platform. The bill failed a House vote, but Ocasio-Cortez – who is actually known to be a fan of video games – gave an impassioned speech on the House floor in advance of the vote.
“Children should not be targeted in general for many marketing purposes in addition to military service,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Right now, currently, children on platforms such as Twitch are bombarded with banner ads linked to recruitment signup forms that can be submitted by children as young as 12 years old. These are not education outreach programs for the military.”
The Military Themed Shooter
Even as it had attracted millions of gamers, the America’s Army franchise never had the mainstream appeal of big budget first-person shooter (FPS) series – notably Activision’s Call of Duty and Electronic Arts’ Battlefield. Moreover, gamers could be shown in battle fatigue with the military-themed shooters, and the last EA outing, Battlefield 2042, has seen underwhelming sales.
Younger gamers especially haven’t shown as much interest in the hardcore/realistic shooters that feature authentic weapons, vehicles, and settings. That could certainly help explain why it is time to pull the plug on America’s Army.
“It was the right product for the right time and arrived at a moment when it was able to prove a tipping point for recruitment efforts as they transitioned to a world of mass online connectivity and a generation raised on games and interactive entertainment,” explained brand marketing expert and video game industry consultant Scott Steinberg.
“Two decades of operation is practically an eternity in the space, however – and it’s not surprising that the game has earned itself an honorable discharge, as it makes way on the field of virtual battle for other promising young grunts of the industry to step up and vie to carry the flag into the next generation,” Steinberg told ClearanceJobs. “A long-running standby for Gen X and Y, I suspect it won’t be long before America’s Army is replaced by other novel offerings (AR apps, VR games, metaverse worlds, etc) designed to serve the same purpose and better speak to Gen Z and Alpha.”
Simply put, those few fans that were still playing America’s Army may have been loyal to the franchise but that didn’t translate to actual enlistment.
“I can understand that the Army is pulling the plug on their video game,” added technology industry analyst Roger Entner. “I don’t think a lot of people became a soldier because they played this game.”
