The video game the US Army made for recruitment is shutting down

America’s Army: Proving Grounds ends official support in May

In 1999, the US Army reasoned that if children enjoyed shooting people in video games, perhaps they could be encouraged to later shoot people in real life too. Thus beganAmerica’s Army, a series of tactical first-person shooters funded and released for free by the Army as a recruitment tool. But the series has seemingly petered out and now they’re preparing to end support for the latest,America’s Army: Proving Grounds. Official servers will shut down in May, though offline bits and privately owned servers will remain playable.

“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,” they explain. “User login, player stats, and other resources on the America’s Army website will no longer be available.”

That’s for the PC versionon Steam. The PlayStation version will be removed from the store and no longer available for download, though offline stuff should still work.

The military have increasingly been using livestreaming and esports in their recruitment arsenal. This isn’t wholly new; South KoreanStarCraftteam Air Force Ace formed way back in 2006 for players undergoing their mandatory military service, with members over the years including the legendary Lim “BoxeR” Yo Hwan. But the USArmy,Navy, andAir Forceare now using Twitch and esports teams for recruitment, especially with many branches missing recruitment goals in recent years and the pandemic hindering in-person recruiting on top.

Sentiments like that have, unsurprisingly, not gone down super-great with everyone. Like America’s Army before it, the military’s use of Twitch to influence children has been the subject of much criticism. They did not help the image of their recruitment tactic when they started banning people in Twitch chat who raised military scandals including US war crimes.

just having a good time with the US Army esports twitch stream@JordanUhlpic.twitter.com/qnjyxg1KP0

Some observed that US government departments trying to shut down criticism on social media might constitute a first amendment violation. The Army soon stopped streaming for a month, and when they returned theyremoved the bans. The Army also got in trouble with Twitch for runningmisleading prize giveaways, where trying to win an expensive Xbox controller directed people to recruitment forms.

All this is but the tip of the military-industrial iceberg in video games, with other entanglement includingusing military advisers,deals with arms manufacturers, theesports accepting sponsorship from the military, and so much more. And it’s not just the US military, obvs.