Wow.
The last Command and Conquer game, CNC 4, came out in 2010. It was a disaster. The previous major game before that, Red Alert 3, came out more than a decade ago, in the fall of 2008. Since then, EA announced and then canceled C&C Generals 2, firing a large portion of the team in the process. It seemed fair to say that C&C was left for dead. Most of the many C&C fan sites closed their doors, including long time stalwarts like CNC Den and PlanetCNC. We kept ours open but, by necessity, became tremendously less active. Our forums continue to sustain an active conversation around modding, mapping, and playing all sorts of C&C games, but it is fair to say the C&C community is much, much smaller than it used to be. I did not think we would ever write this post.
C&C is coming back. Or so EA says. In a post on the Command and Conquer subreddit, EA producer Jim Vessella announced that the company is working on a remastered version of the first games, suitable for modern hardware.
Today, I’m thrilled to tell you we are going back to the beginning. We have decided to remaster Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn. And while this is incredibly exciting on its own, we’re also aware of how passionate the community is about the Red Alert universe. So, we will also remaster the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert™. But what about the classic expansion packs you may ask - Covert Ops, Counterstrike, and Aftermath? Well, C&C and Red Alert wouldn’t be the same without them, so all three expansion packs will be bundled with the base games into one remastered collection - without microtransactions.
Now, in addition to the excitement and support of this remaster initiative over the past month, there has also been a healthy skepticism that we can pull this off. How are we possibly going to remaster these titles while maintaining the authenticity of the original experiences? Bottom line, there is no better way to achieve this than to partner with some of the talented developers who brought these original games to life.
So, after years of the fans asking for their involvement, I am humbled to announce that EA is going to partner with Petroglyph Games to develop the C&C remastered collection. Petroglyph Games includes many of the original developers from Westwood Studios, and some of the most influential members of the original Command & Conquer development team from 1995.
It is fair to be immensely skeptical, as Jim himself notes. The track record over the last decade is quite bad. Nonetheless, Vessella has been around C&C long time (I believe I met him briefly at the 2008 community summit for Red Alert 3). The veterans from Petroglyph Games go back even further with the franchise. Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert are classic games that, around here, we love so much we made them into C&C All Stars; it is a shame that so many younger C&C fans never got to play them, and perhaps this will remedy that. After a decade with no real news, EA's announcement is a spark of much-needed excitement. At C&C Labs, we will continue to keep you posted, but for the first time in a long time, it is fair to say that things are looking better.
