America's Army is finally closing for good

After 20 years of operation, America's Army—the videogame, not the real-world military force—is going away. The US Army said in the official America's Army forum that all support and official servers for America's Army: Proving Grounds, the current iteration of the series, will be shut down on May 5.

America's Army first appeared in 2002, and in case the title leaves any doubt, it was designed as a promotional tool for the US Army. It was a free-to-play tactical shooter at its core—and a pretty good one—but also featured more mundane aspects of military life such as medical training, Humvee driving, and weapon systems operation. It was surprisingly popular, and made enough of an impact to land a spot in our 2018 list of the 50 most important PC games of all time.

One design quirk of the FPS-as-propaganda was in how America's Army structured its multiplayer. Everyone who played was on the side of the US Army, but saw their opponents as a generic enemy faction—an unsettlingly deep message about the nature of war, if you think about it.