''America'' is a historical

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

game developed by

Related Designs Ubisoft is a French video game publisher headquartered in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, Montreuil, founded in March 1986 by the Guillemot brothers. Since its establishment, Ubisoft has become one of the largest video game publishers, and it has ...

and published by

Data Becker Data Becker GmbH & Co. KG was a German publisher of computer books and a company for software and computer accessories based in Düsseldorf. The company ceased operations in March 2014. History It was founded in Düsseldorf on January 7, 1981 ...

, released in December 2000 and January 2001 to mixed reviews. Set in a post-

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

America in the

wild west The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

, the game plays similarly to ''

Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first title in the series, ''Age of Empires'', focused on events in Europe, Afri ...

''. The player may choose to control a group of either

settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

, Native Americans,

Mexicans Mexicans () are the citizens and nationals of the Mexico, United Mexican States. The Mexican people have varied origins with the most spoken language being Spanish language, Spanish, but many also speak languages from 68 different Languages o ...

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

s of that time.

Development

''America'' was the first released game developed by German studio

after the studio had been founded in 1995, and the first full-price game published by

. The game was conceptualised at Data Becker in 1998 and developed in less than 23 months. In Germany, the game was released in late December 2000; a release in North America followed on 15 January 2001. The game was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, specifically supporting the

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

, 98,

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and Me versions.

Reception

''America'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. John Lee of '' NextGen'' said that the game was "still a kick, even if the history is skewed. Many of us grew up playing cowboys and Indians, and we're primed for covered wagons, and cavalry charges. The fun wears thin quickly enough, but the game still has its charm. Now if only the Germans could polish up their American history."

Expansion

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

to ''America'', titled ''America: Expansion Pack'', added eight further missions, a

level editor A level editor (also known as a map, campaign or scenario editor) is a game development tool used to design Level (video games), levels, maps, campaigns and virtual worlds for a video game. An individual involved with the development of game levels ...

, a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

mode, a revamped

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

to allow for improved

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, gameplay and graphics, as well as new units and buildings, to the game. It was also developed by Related Designs, and announced by Data Becker in May 2001, scheduled for release in Germany in September 2001. In North America, Data Becker released the expansion pack on 17 December 2001.

Sequel

On 9 March 2001,

CDV Software CDV Software Entertainment AG (formerly CDV Software GmbH, stylized as cdv) was a German publisher of video games founded 1989 in Karlsruhe. In April 2000 CDV became a Frankfurt stock market traded company. In the beginning of the 2000s, CDV wa ...

, by

press release A press release (also known as a media release) is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing new information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public releas ...

, announced that it was producing a real-time strategy developed by Related Designs, tentatively titled ''America II''. Data Becker, which owned the rights to the ''America'' name, took notice and inquired CDV to

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

shortly thereafter. CDV declined to do so as it found no

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

in ''America II'' title, though opted to file for a caveat to protect itself from a

preliminary injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...

. Data Becker subsequently filed for a preliminary injunction with the

Landgericht Berlin The Landgericht Berlin is a Judiciary of Germany, regional court in Berlin, divided into two divisions for civil and criminal cases. In the German court hierarchy, it is above the eleven local courts (Amtsgerichte) of the city and below the Kamme ...

on 29 March 2001. At the time, Data Becker intended to produce an ''America'' sequel of its own. Data Becker won the case by May, wherefore CDV had to drop the ''America II'' title, though it was allowed to continue producing the game under a different name. As a result, ''America II'' was retitled '' No Man's Land''. and was set in early colonial america of the 17th century to the 18th century rather than 19th century to early 20th century american frontier However, CDV continued advertising ''America II'' through press releases and its

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

, prompting further action by Data Becker. CDV also registered the

internet domain The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, publ ...

"america2.de" with registrar

DENIC DENIC eG is the manager of the .de domain, the country-code top-level domain for Germany. It was founded in 1996 and is organised as a non-regulated not-for-profit cooperative. DENIC provides the Domain Name System (DNS) as well as registrat ...

, which redirected users to the website of ''No Man's Land''; a judgement reached by the

Kammergericht The Kammergericht (KG) is the , the highest state court, for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. As an ordinary court according to the German Courts Constitution Act (''Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz''), it deals with criminal and civil cases, super ...

in Berlin in December 2002 ordered CDV to inquire the deletion of the domain with DENIC and publicise a press release to announce that it was not releasing a game titled ''America II'' in 2003. Data Becker proceeded to produce its own sequel to ''America'', to be titled ''America 2'' or ''America II'', by June 2001, planning to release it in the first quarter of 2003. Data Becker announced its sequel in February 2003, with its release scheduled for later that year. A website for the game was launched in May 2003. It was also scheduled to be displayed at E3 2002. ''America II'' was later cancelled.

References

External links

* {{MobyGames, id=/3249/america/ 2000 video games Data Becker games Real-time tactics video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Germany Video games set in the 19th century Video games set in the United States Video games with historical settings Western (genre) video games Windows games Windows-only games