Submission deadline: May 25th 2012. This year, 18 conferences will be available on 2 different tracks will be organized at the same time: 1 track will deal with Human Resources/Training (introductory & advanced level), 1 track will deal with Communication/Marketing (introductory level) . Regarding the Serious Game Expo awards, 3 projects will be awarded: Best Serious Game HR/Training award 2012 , Best Serious Game Communication/Marketing award 2012 , Innovation prize Serious Game Expo 2012.

Serious Game Expo will take place in Lyon, France on 22-23 October 2012.

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L-3 Communications announced today (April 11th 2012) that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Thales Training & Simulation Ltd’s civil aircraft simulation and training business. The purchase price is GBP 83 million (approximately $132 million) and will be funded with cash on hand.

Video game developer, Epic Games, is known for giving players realistic experiences thanks to its popular Unreal Engine platform. But while games like Batman: Arkham City and Gears of War are certainly entertaining, virtually beating up thugs and fighting subterranean creatures doesn’t exactly translate into real world skills. However a new agreement with teaching software developer, Virtual Heroes, could see Epic’s platform used to create more practical experiences and train medical staff and law enforcement officers to handle high-stress situations. By using Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, some United States government agencies like the FBI and US Army are hoping to give their employees tools for virtually practicing their skills in a more realistic environment and better prepare them to save lives. More.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has introduced the Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Simulator (TARS), a software-based training capability for Lynx® Multi-mode Radar operators that can be run on a laptop computer.

“TARS bridges the gap between classroom training and cost-prohibitive aircraft flight training, combining Lynx command and control simulations with synthetic EO/IR [Electro-optic/Infrared] video simultaneously” said Linden Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, GA-ASI. “This training software also uses satellite imagery and 3D models to generate SAR [Synthetic Aperture Radar]-like products in real-time, alleviating the need for costly operational imagery.”

The DOD virtual worlds framework was announced last week at gametech and made available for download via Github.

The Virtual World Framework (VWF) is a fast, light-weight, web-based architecture for creating and distributing secure, scalable, component-based, and collaborative virtual spaces. It leverages existing web-based standards, infrastructure, and emerging technologies with the intent of establishing a powerful yet simple to use platform that is built on top of the next generation of web browsers. These technologies include:

Epic Games’ Unreal gaming engine has been licensed to countless big name titles since its debut in 1998. The current iteration — Unreal Engine 3 — has been the building tool for many of this generation’s most successful games, and has recently been licensed to U.S. government agencies, including the FBI and Army.

The government plans to use the popular engine primarily for training purposes. Specifically for the development of training tools by Virtual Heroes, a company dedicated to creating teaching simulations. Virtual Heroes used previous iterations of the Unreal engine to develop the America’s Army series, a multiplayer first person shooter title designed to grab new recruits. The company plans to develop training tools across internet browsers, game consoles, and smartphone platforms.