The US Army and Navy are reportedly looking into ways to make virtual training more exciting for new recruits.
According to an article in National Defense Magazine, both the Army and Navy are seeking contracts for the creation of updated virtual PC simulation games that will look and play more like Call of Duty than the games already available.
“The industry needs to find a way to get past the older code that’s sitting out there,” Havok vice president of sales and marketing Brian Waddle told the publication. “[Soldiers] look at these simulators, and they don’t take them seriously because they don’t look as good as what they’re playing in their living rooms.”
According to the report, the Army is looking for a first-person, massively multiplayer online shooter to replace Bohemia Interactive’s Virtual Battlespace 2. It is offering a contract of approximately $44.5 million over five years to the winning application, which must include the ability to integrate more players across larger landmasses and accurately re-create territories like Afghanistan.
For its part, the Navy is also looking for games that will be able to train sailors in specific tasks, including a training program that will run on Crytek’s CryEngine 3. The Navy will offer three separate contracts of $100 million each.
