Unreal Engine purveyor and developer Epic Games has announced a partnership with Virtual Heroes--a division of Applied Research Associates--to deliver the Unreal Government Network (UGN). The deal is described as "a long-term, multi-platform Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) reseller and support agreement," which allows Virtual Heroes to license Unreal Engine 3 tech to "departments, agencies and units of the U.S. and allied governments," and support them through the aforementioned UGN.

Virtual Heroes will license and support Unreal Engine 3 on "iOS, Android, Flash, PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Wii U," as well as browser-based UE3-driven content over "secure government and corporate enterprise networks."

A number of UGN-supported projects are already underway, including one that encourages better decision-making, a couple related to medical training, and even a custom multiplayer crime scene training simulation for the FBI. The full descriptions of the examples provided in the press release are as follows:

• The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) awarded ARA-Virtual Heroes a >$10M, multi-year contract under the Sirius program. The goal of the Sirius program is to develop serious games that result in better decision-making by teaching participants to recognize and mitigate the effects of their own biases when analyzing information used to make decisions.

• Virtual Heroes, in collaboration with the Duke University Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center, is creating an anesthesiology training application for Army physicians.

• Virtual Heroes is developing the UE3-powered HumanSim platform for medical education and training.

• The FBI Academy is using UE3 to develop a multiplayer crime scene training simulation to meet the needs of the FBI.

• A top five defense contractor and a national laboratory have licensed UE3 and UGN to address their needs for custom model integrations and visualization.

"We recognize the growing market needs of our government customers and are excited to have Virtual Heroes provide a full spectrum of focused services and support using our game engine technology," said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games.