The Unreal Engine 3 has gone a step further to take gaming to something serious. The engine is now aiming at serving the simulators of FBI and helping then train better. Epic Games has joined hands with Virtual Heroes, a company that is into serious gaming. The partnership has been made to license Unreal Engine to the government agencies with “Unreal Government Network”. IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) has awarded $10 million contract to the partnership between Epic and Virtual Heroes. The funding will be used for making games that would help the analysts detect some activities in their work.
The engine is not new to the government agencies. UE3 is already in the use for developing a multiplayer crime scene training simulation, something like the Counter Strike: Zero, and this is being built by the FBI Academy. But for Virtual Heroes, working with the government is not new. They have worked with the American Army for a military recruiting tool that would put the soldiers to test and produce a score based on their performance. This also uses the Unreal Engine, but the older versions of it. I think this is a very cool way to marry Government agencies and technology to perfect their teams, and we hope this widens as the days go on!
Source: Epic Games