America's Army: Proving Grounds will be shutting down on May 5 after a 20-year run. The free-to-play FPS developed and published by the United States Army will finally come to an end after about two decades of being frequently criticized by most everyone. The Army made the announcement of the closure on Monday.
This shutdown will end player stat tracking and will remove access to the game's online mode. If you really want to keep playing the game, you can continue to play using the offline features. The PC version will also keep access available to the mission editor and private servers, features that are lacking from the PlayStation 4 release.
The closure also means the end of the America's Army website along with any login that was created through the site. America's Army was flat out created as an easy way to push Americans to join the military. Accounts that were created provided recruiters with contact details and other information about their young audience. Around 2013, there were some 13 million people that signed up for the site and game at some point or another.
America's Army first launched for the PC back on July 4, 2002, roughly one year into the war in Afghanistan. Its use of a propaganda tool was criticized relentlessly at release and for quite some time afterwards. Other fair complaints focused on how the game targeted teens and children, and how it gamified and trivialized the combat that actual soldiers were engaged in.
In 2013, America's Army: Proving Grounds was launched. This re-release of the original included missions and drills set in the fictional lands of Czervenia. The game will be pulled from the PlayStation Store and Steam on May 5.
Real hot take here, but I'll say it: Good riddance.
