America’s Army dev costs surpass $30m

A Freedom of Information Act request has forced the US Army to reveal the total development budgets for its free-to-play FPS series, America’s Army.

The US Army revealed that, since 2000, a total of $32.8 million has been spent on developing the PC-bound series.

The figures, published on consumer site GameSpot, are wildly different to projected expenditure. In 2002 the US said it would use a $7 million budget over five years.

America’s Army – a Frankenstein of a Serious game, a recreational FPS, and recruitment tool – was first released in 2002 on PC. The game was given several expansion packs before the game’s full successor, America’s Army 3, launched in June 2009.

Days after launch, the US Army shut down the Californian studio behind the game, while future projects have been earmarked to take place some 2,000 miles away at a U.S. Army post in Alabama.

America’s Army development costs YoY
2000–$3,500,000
2001–$5,600,000
2002–$1,862,985
2003–$2,600,000
2004–$3,866,482
2005–$1,288,552
2006–$4,050,748
2007–$2,788,137
2008–$3,887,450
2009–$3,395,702