Army licenses game to entertainment company.

• Author: Peck, Michael

The U.S. Army will license its official video game to a commercial entertainment company, in an effort to reach millions of youngsters who play Microsoft X-Box and Sony Playstation console games.

Though the Army uses commercial games as training tools, this marks the first time that the commercial world is using a military-designed game.

Computer game maker Ubisoft Entertainment Inc., headquartered in Paris, will have a license to develop console versions of America's Army, the popular first-person-shooter developed by the U.S. Army as a recruiting tool. Currently, the game is available only for the PC. Ubisoft, which makes several popular shooters such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, will also be allowed to develop additional games based on America's Army, and to do it for platforms ranging from consoles to cell phones.

The PC version of America's Army has been and will remain a free download, but Ubisoft will sell the console version on a for-profit basis. Ubisoft will pay less than $2 million as an upfront advance on royalties, plus about 5 percent royalties per game, according to Army Col. E. Casey Wardynski. The game cost the Army $2.5 million to develop, and it is certain to more than recoup the development costs. The PC version has snagged 3.3 million registered users, and Wardynski estimates that there are three to five times as many consoles as PC gamers, so the potential royalties are substantial.

But it was the expense of producing console games, rather than a desire for...