The Institute for Creative Technologies, which is jointly operated by the United States Army and the University of Southern California said on Thursday it would develop two combat video games, with financial and tactical backing from the Army. The Los Angeles-based institute said it will partner with FCS -- itself a joint venture of studio Sony Pictures ImageWorks and video game developer Pandemic Studios -- and Quicksilver Software to develop two games to be released over the next two years. ``C-Force'' will be released for next-generation consoles, while ICT and Quicksilver will partner on ``CS-12'' for PCs. Both games will have as executive producer Rob Sears, who produced the combat titles ``Mech Commander'' and ``Mech Warrior 3.''
[snip]
The institute was formed in 1999 with a $45 million grant from the Army as a partnership among academics, video game makers and creative talent in Hollywood to design advanced ''virtual reality'' and simulation training systems for the military. [snip]