What Happened to Command & Conquer? [OUTDATED] - A History of Failed Spin-Offs

This video was scripted and edited midway around the time of III 2018, don't worry, I'll mention the arrivals debacle at the end when I initially started writing the script for this video. I wanted to see if he would release a new Command & Conquer. game,

what

kind of game would I need, nothing hopeful, nothing hoping for a real new game from EA, just pure illusion, you know the music, the unit setting, it brings you back to Joe and you reconfigure, that's that game, like probably you'll know if you're watching this. Command & Conquer is practically dead if Doom 2 was the grandfather of RTS is the Vulcan Stein 3d of its genre then Command & Conquer was Doom first released by Westwood Studios in 1995, the first CMC games are PC classics and with Dune laid the foundation for real-time strategy and then, in 2003, after a

spin

-off that

failed

to impress and, in light of Westwood's unrealistic ambitions, parent company EA liquidated Westwood Studios.

When I initially started writing the script for this video, I wasn't planning on using it to criticize

what

it was. Not my intention, even as a lifelong fan of Westwood games I still enjoy the few games EA released under the name cnc tip Wars was pretty good Wrath of Kane, Rundlett 3 excellence does not rise, good job generals, it's not for me, but it has its fans. To its credit EA for the most part did a good job. I wanted to make it clear in the original scripts that no

spin

-

offs

or significant deviations from the main roots of the series have been successful and so I researched that CNC has many canceled titles, only one of which, as far as I know, would have been a core standard entry team, the c3 raid would have been Westwood's third major entry into the Tiberian universe, a direct sequel to Tiberian Sun, and Firestorm's developments on the raid were halted in favor of a planned Command and Conquer MMO called continuum, although both were canceled following the completion of Westwood, Tiberium Wars emerged from the remains of the raid beyond that, every other

failed

or bad canceled entry under the cnc name was a spin-off, this would be my point if EA released a new one.

The CNC game would have to be a core classic RTS during my research. I started to take a closer look at these major deviations and it was a little depressing, let's go over them. The first spin-off was Soul Survivor released in 1997 after Red Alert and the Soul sequels. Survivor uses resources from the first conquest, but instead of controlling a base and an army, the player has only one unit and must explore the map to power it up. It's been described as an early example of a MOBA released five years before Defense of the Ancients, but I think that's a bit generous.

Soul Survivor was something of an online multiplayer experiment in a time when not everyone has access to the internet. It was an independently released minigame. He didn't fail without reason. Renegade is probably the best. well-known spin-off and, although he played a role in the closure of Westwood Studios, he is still fondly remembered by his fans. It was the first of several attempts to bring Seed Seed into the lucrative FPS genre and the only one to be released, it's still a fun game. but you can tell it wasn't made by a team well versed in FPS between Renegade and Earth and beyond.

EA backed down. Renegade 2 was in development when the studio closed and it seemed like more of the same but in the red alert universe. continuing, we have already mentioned a planned MMO set in the Tiberium universe, the available concept arts paint a picture quite far from the imposing conquest. I can't say I'm not intrigued by a CNC MMO, but I also don't see how that would work without removing everything except the faction names. I'm also not sure how Westwood planned to maintain both the continuum and the land and beyond his other projects, the grand ambitions, Tiberium was going to be EA's shot at the FPS genre, the stuff in it.

It seems like one part intriguing and two parts bland, generic sci-fi shooter renegades, it was like a love letter to the first CNC, a love letter scribbled in crayon, but the feeling was there. Tiberium seemed to have little in the way of tibbe's wars of the heart and certainly Kane's. Wrath did a great job of bringing back the Patek essence of previous games, but I can't see any of that. Here you walk through an incredible Tiberium-infested Hell Gate and see the huge doorway in the background, followed by generic hallways, generic soldiers, generic sci-fi weapons. and some basic squad mechanics that don't really seem that fun, still Tiberium is an incredibly important title, as the cancellation announcement conclusively proves that yes, EA really does have standards.

A small collection of CNC games were released for mobile devices that were okay. I can't really tell if they were good or bad, they've all been eliminated by looking at them, they seem pretty ordinary. RTSs aren't made for small touchscreens, but their startup is reasonably innocuous given that these mobile games were tied to contemporary full releases doesn't change the fact that they were clearly cash grabs with little substance. The Camacho project was new to me, it seems like it was going to be an FPS in the generals universe and boy, did you think about the Siberian aspect. generic, the title was canceled in favor of Spielberg's joint game, lMNO, which was also subsequently cancelled.

CMC Arena actually released, of course, only Nolan under that name. I'd like to quote former EA developer Greg Black in his interview with org's Game Replays. The important thing to know is that scene c4 was never intended to be a true canon game in the Tiberium universe, but rather an experiment in online play. Originally starting out as an online version of the c3 scene for the Asian market at some point, company executives decided to make the most of it. It makes business sense to add a single-player campaign, call it C and c4 and put it in a box.

The team, of course, protested this change of direction, but the decision stood. The team did what it could to make a good game given the realities within EA, but it was ultimately a product of a dysfunctional corporate culture. Those EA quality standards seemed to be not that high. Medal of Honor rebooted until EA shut them down again; Meanwhile, Visceral Games was given the CNC intellectual property, but quickly removed it so EA could shut them down. A new company called Victory Games was created to handle the Command & Conquer brand that they are. Closed now the victory games were also developing generals, which was promising: the generals are a good blank canvas, a relatable world, you are not stepping on the toes of previous works, base building is back, a good thing, then it announced that it would be a free game. sounded, oh, and he won't have a running mate, just a few months later we'll have a quote like this one from Polygon here that Frank Gibeau, then president of EA labels, believes Electronic Arts can help dispel the misconception that some people They have about free.

To play titles with this release you didn't do it with EA, you really didn't. Generals 2 was renamed at this point to simply Command & Conquer. Sorry, we already had a game called Command & Conquer. You can agree with this practice or not. but there's a time and a place to release a new game with just the franchise title, reboots, retreads, sure I can see the value in making this Doom for example, it made a lot of sense, this game doesn't demand conquest, I would never have ordered to

conquer

, could. It has been an impressive conquest, but even after the name change it was still a general: it took place in the universe of generals, not in that of Tiberium.

A piece of advice, don't remake it, make sure you can just call it conquest, but not if it's a separate universe, no. if the single player mode is missing and no, if it is a free service, I was ready for a new game of generals for having the temerity to call this first game from a new studio, simply

command

and

conquer

after the disaster that was the advice of Twilight. an absolute insult to the first game and its fans, but of course it's not really your IP, is it? It was someone else's, so who cares if it's treated disrespectfully.

In the end, the game was canceled due to fan feedback, they said in the press release line. it was total nonsense, it wasn't any feedback from Alpha that shut down this project, but just little corporate politics and shenanigans, please enjoy the game live until they figure out how to shut down the servers, it may take a while for the final cutscene of the C game to be released was Tiberium Alliances, a free-to-play, browser-based, money-hungry insult to Command & Conquer's legacy. A red alert variant was also in the works before EA realized they hadn't closed any businesses that day, so between Westwood Studios Westwood Pacific EA the, which were then Danger Close games and when they were included in the games of dice, victory and now EA phenom ik, are five companies that EA closed immediately after a spin-off of CMC after the closure of phenomics, ez Studios was hired to support the alliances. and I bet you'll never guess what

happened

to them.

Alliances is your typical monetization show through the power system and is currently the only game on the main CNC website aside from a link to the source. I must say that we are very far away. from where we started, and you can see how little EA cares about tib alliances. I put the name into Google and at the time of writing this is what I got, but don't worry, they have standards, there were some browsers too. games on a gaming site called Pogo, but the one that really shocked me, the most egregious and blatant bite at Command & Conquer's legacy was CNC Battle, it was the discovery of this quickie that made me ask myself: do I really want to? to see another CNC game, of course, but EA clearly can't be trusted.

EA clearly has no idea how to handle the IPS they have acquired over the years. The fact that the scene C battle was canceled and never released does nothing to mitigate it. The fact that it was ever seriously conceptualized in the first place, this is what the intellectual property owner believes Command & Conquer should look like. C Battle, from what little we knew, was going to be a tablet game set in the Tiberium universe and quoting the translated French. Play the game for free with in-app purchases. The markedly unusual graphics are lifted wholesale from an earlier EA 2D game called Wall.

A one button game for Facebook. EA evidently looked at this seminal masterpiece, this masterpiece, this pinnacle of interactive art and thought to themselves. We could slap the Command & Conquer brand on this one. Much of the backstory came from the creative imagination of Brett Sperry and AD Larimore quotes John Bostick Joe Koukin in an interview with Imperial Westwood briefly recalled the origins of the beloved Brotherhood of Cain, the Brotherhood of Notes was an invention of the original designer of CNC and Larimore she and I spent hours discussing biblical metaphors and imagining a backstory this is where EA decided to take the Brotherhood of It's not how little they care about the intellectual properties they have in their hands this is the miserable state of the once great dominant conquest without Westwood Studios without Westwood Pacific without even EA this is the pitiful moan of the corpse of dominant conquest as EA squeeze it for all the money they can I mean, the CNC battle at least was canceled before from the launch It's a shame the same can't be said for alliances, which is exactly the same pathetic game for free business practice, just with a different coat of paint when you can go to the official website of a franchise that defines a genre and just watch a browser-based spin-off.

I know it's dead, frankly, the less EA mentions the name the better because they've proven themselves completely incapable of handling it. EA has proven time and time again that they have no idea how to handle the franchises they take from the companies they eliminate. After the remains of the Western Pacific were absorbed by developer EA and then EA Pacific, they were tasked with making an RTS for The Lord of the Rings using the Westwood 3D engine as a base after the Battle for the Launch of Earth. Half. EA LA employees sued EA for enforcing extreme crisis times during development.

According to Wikipedia, the developer released two other games in the same year and had at least one release per year from 1996 until a tib Twilight crash, the employees won the lawsuits, but EA learned absolutely nothing from this slap in the face. Wrist balance designer Gregg Black said this when he initially left the company in 2009. To me, CNC was kind of a sacred game and I desperately wanted to do the series justice with all the CMC games I worked on, unfortunately , although we had a very talented team of passionate players. EA just didn't give us the time we thought we needed to make a great game.CNC.

In the case of the C 3 scene, the development cycle was something like 11 months compared to Blizzard or Relic who spent 3 to 6 years on their real-time strategy titles, our longest development cycle was 18 months on Red Alert 3, but at that point the team split in half and added another ps3 platform, so the extra development time was kind of a wash. EA simply needed to keep us going. created games to keep the Los Angeles studio afloat while many of its other teams failed. Our games were always rushed. Our engine technology has aged and degraded over the years. Our wayfinding was horrible.

Our online implementations were embarrassing and ultimately, in my opinion, our games were not up to par. for the original CNC, all red alert for the poor generals, unfortunately the player who just spent $50 on our games has no idea how much time we had to spend on them or what EA's internal policy was at the time, they can only see What's in the Box EA had broken many promises to us and continued to make bad decisions at the expense of the CNC franchise and despite protests from the development teams. I just needed a break from the EA madness.

This is where Tib Twilight came into the picture. Imagine a bad decision from the top and suddenly a franchise is created. Dead for everyone, the last attempt at revival was in the form of generals, which ended due to petty corporate politics and shenanigans that don't really sound that different because, after all, EA doesn't care about the game, the prestige the franchise once had. purchased in the 90s is irrelevant, so is the customer, unless they are part of the Facebook-glued oblivious masses who absentmindedly touch the fingerprints made of glass before them, obediently inserting their credit card when prompted, that It is what order conquer has become another stolen name to put.

Their fools ran out the door when I started writing the script for this video. I wanted to see if EA released a new Command & Conquer game, what kind of game would it be? I couldn't finish that script because I realized that From the Beginning I no longer wanted a new Command & Conquer game. I grew up with CNC. I loved the games, but couldn't bear to see another entry. I really can't, because even before loot boxes were rampant, EA couldn't be. I trusted him in the making of this video I started with a realistic pessimism tinged with a momentary fly he hopes that one day I no longer hope that day will come not with him in charge it is very possible that they decide to launch a new RTS under that name but I don't know see see it will be another advice from another Alliance God of Twilight forbids another battle

command

ing conker is a shame and we all know who is to blame I don't take pleasure in making sad, angry or crazy videos and I'm sorry, this is probably not the ending you expected According to Wikipedia, the last word that is not seen in the future was that in 2014 EA was still looking for a new developer to carry the torch, but given that seven companies we know of have been closed after contact with Command & Conquer, it is not surprising that no one wants to touch it with a barge pole.

As of this writing, there has been no official word, although rumors began in November 2017, when Greg Black is now several years into StarCraft at Blizzard. Under the credit of him having returned to EA there is still no news about the CNC annex. I think I'm cursed. This is the third scripted video I've attempted to make for this channel that suddenly became obsolete during production while I was editing a Smash Brothers roster. Hindsight a new hit game was announced so I have to work on an update for that, a video about the Master Chief Collection had to be scrapped entirely after development updates made many of its points moot and now, most unexpectedly, after four years of absolute silence.

Just as I'm ready to record this post-mortem, a new Command & Conquer game has been announced and in some ways it's worse than I had projected. This is worse than Federation Force. At least Federation Force managed to be a decent game despite its anger. and Nintendo didn't acquire the Metroid IP by snatching it from the rough hands of a dead developer licensed by EA Red Alert online is being developed by $0.10 games for the Chinese mobile market, it doesn't even have the common decency of being old and normal . bat by repurposing and recreating Red Alert assets online seriously tugs at the heartstrings of other nostalgics earlier in this script.

I almost took note of the fact that red alerts on the iPhone reused the red alert for the era designs along with the new three and online red alert is shameless. his Asset Destruction Alliance is only tainted by Tibbe Wars, but Red Alert 2 was the pinnacle of the franchise and the best part, the last CNC RTS to bear the Westwood name, hearing those old voice lines coming from an exclusive mobile game of China is overwhelming when you remember so directly. to previous titles your pain is going to march to the previous works and you are paying tribute to the fans of those titles this is more than a slap in the face if you enjoyed the red alert to EA you just put your face between their cracks and said pull my finger I watch the trailer, you can see the war miners Harriers Kira calls the red light again to introduce a smallpox Patriots and Yuri it's been the better part of a decade since the last real-time strategy release and we get all this in a mobile game developed by a company that only cares about making as much money as possible off screen, inciting luddites and licensed by the company that just doesn't care at all, yes the only company that EA couldn't close.

I'm not sure how I can explain it. for people who are not familiar with C&C but imagine that Tendo announces a Clash of Clans rip-off packed with microtransactions under the name Earthbound using art and sounds straight from Mother 3 and it will only be available in Spain, you may be halfway there already What's overlooking the years of EA nonsense we've had to endure this is worse than I had imagined. I was on the verge of worrying that my script so far might have been a little overzealous, but then I saw this trailer and I wanted to cry for the states this beloved franchise had gotten into I cry for command conquer there's nothing left now there's no going back to this I mentioned that the alliances were an insult I don't know how they did it this is worse congratulations EA, I had no idea The dead franchise is so deep in the mud, but you have to give it to your credit that you found a way, so if there is a game or franchise you haven't heard of in a while, let me know in the comments.

I'll write a video about it and halfway through. will suddenly get an update, stay tuned for my retrospective on f-zero and I'm looking forward to it. I can't believe I have to write this, but everything I've said so far pales in comparison to what we saw in the e3 2018 video. New Command & Conquer mobile game, oh please, destroy the opponent's base to win control of the unit. It's not super simple, just ten. Do not you dare. You know it moves automatically. They are the most efficient way to destroy the opponent's base. It's with this giant. nuclear missile in the center of the map looks like yes, it looks like the nods fill up will fire the missile that looks like the double templum, right?

That's, oh my gosh, that's great, let's go to this match, absolutely, let's go. so conquer Oh God Greg Black you came back to EA for this this made me so happy because I love how angsty this is I'm sorry it's Jen you said I'm a singer's cell phone as a joke - wine - ah it's good John it's a good Jarrah, you killed, what the hell is something for the Command & Conquer franchise? What happens when you buy a company, take their IPs and close them? This is bullshit, they get nervous. I'm in the middle of editing your video. which is probably enough to rule out now there's like a 20 30 minute documentary about where Command & Conquer went wrong.

This was my conclusion. I don't have one of the things I wanted from EA and that was the lack of Command & Conquer because EA can't be trusted, but now you can, you can take the documentary and end it with me saying robot and you just lose Command & Conquer for a new generation. I could go on, but I think at this point everything that needs to be said has already been said. It's a bit strange to reread this script in retrospect. Originally, as I say, I started out hoping that EA would simply forget that CMC ever existed because I couldn't stand to see what new ways EA would find to bastardize a beloved name.

I started writing. this sometime in mid-April, after years of information drought and in the time since I started recording this script, a council game that looks like a previous attempt by rivals circa 2014 was discovered and two titles were announced mobiles that completely eclipse previous projects that I hadn't felt enough to expect one of my favorite game franchises to stay dead. I wasn't happy to find out about CNC Battle and that's where this whole video came from, but looking at the rivals that's it, yes, visually. It looks a lot better, although anything will look better than investing assets in a Facebook game, let's be honest, but it has become clear that this is what EA wanted from the beginning, they wanted the C scene to be free, they wanted it to be for mobile devices and wanted to fill it with all the disgusting business practices that have made them so rich and so despised.

Well, where do we go from there with each edition? I had to make this script, the ending became more and more bleak and I really don't want to end this video like this, we tried it like they did. EA can't remove old games. There may be a little future to control, but you can still conquer the past if you want to set scenes. never got around to it here is a video on how you can get each cnc game working on your pc link below quick synopsis the first ones are free the later games are on steam if you could call this video first they are actually for sale on The Moment and Middle ones are a little harder to find if you want to avoid the source and while you're at it check it out, it's open, a modern fan motor running the dawn red alert and June 2nd , all free and balanced for competitive multiplayer. check out youtuber 5 aces who makes some stellar comments on open ra, while it appears that Command & Conquer may have died in 2010, it is thanks to the work of an incredible fanbase that the series truly lives not on new releases but on celebration and the The preservation of the old Command & Conquer belongs to the fans now my name is Stefan.

Thank you very much for watching brother. Illness in the name of Kane in the name of time. Saw's name cannot kill the Messiah.