Rebooting the C&C series Options

[Svea Rike]

Do you think that Command & Conquer could be rebooted some day? As of right now strategy games are falling out of focus and the latest one I played (Grey Goo) was meh even though it had an interesting new gameplay idea with the goo. Maybe in a couple of years EA will actually learn from its mistake and hire some competent people to reboot it because it looks like StarCraft dominates the industry unhindered. But anyway if they do reboot it I kind of want it to be a big mix of all three universes, or at least Tiberium and Generals (RA is a bit on the goofy end...), like the GLA could be an organization opposing both the GDI and Nod and China wants nothing to do with the GDI or something... But still, I really hope they do reboot it because StarCraft ain't really my thing and I only ever, you know, uber-loved the C&C series when it comes to RTS games.

[The_Hunter]

Do you think that Command & Conquer could be rebooted some day?

Short awser would be no on my end.

I'd prefer they wouldn't have an other go at it at this point because i don't have faith in a large corporate funded game to actually be worth while.
Everything that came after Zerohour became more mediocre with every successive game release.

The fact that the official community website run by EA has been shutdown as well as its forums is an indicator that they probably see no long term profit in this franchise anymore.
I would personally prefer them not to make any in the future anymore and just leave it with some dignity.

I would however still like to see more innovative RTS games in the future and at the moment i'm looking at this one very closely: http://www.actofaggression-game.com/

[MARS]

I see it the same way as The_Hunter. After the downward trend of the last years and instalments, C&C is basically scorched earth at this point and EA would be well advised to either leave it alone or pass it on to anyone else at this point. I have no faith that they will ever produce a single worthwhile C&C again and they won't even care to try because RTS are a niche genre nowadays. Why waste any time, effort and money on risky like that that if you can make another one of your established triple-A shooters, sports games, or a sequel to the more reliable franchises?

Now, if I could make a wish for a good new C&C game to fall out of the sky, it'd be something along the lines of my Tiberium concept or the Red Alert idea provided by DerKrieger further below in this thread.

[Kichō]

At this point I'd be more inclined to say no. However, considering that it'll be the 20th anniversary of the start of this franchise in August (Tiberian Dawn, specifically) I have just a little feeling that they might announce something on or around that date, it would make sense if they were planning to reboot the series but I guess we'll see what happens. The last thing they said, back during the cancellation of the last game, was that "the series wasn't finished" in so many words.

Apparently the forums itself have been moved to with an (sloppy) explanation http://forum.alliances.commandandconquer.c...d.php?tid=33799

Should they continue the Red Alert series, I'd rather they go back to the RA1 setting as that was more interesting and serious. Myself personally, I would've liked to have seen a fictionalised setting based on the Sino-Soviet split.

[Alias]

We've had dozens of threads on this topic for at least 5 years now...

If you really want to dig around you can find a more detailed opinion of mine with the wonderful search tool, but to ease your pain of searching through twenty different threads, here is a summary:

— C&C to me has been in decline since ZH, and there has been little to convince me that regardless of who took over the reins that the resulting product will be any good.
— I see it as a good thing if the C&C franchise is just left laid to rest at last, rather than the grave being repetitively defiled.
— The RTS genre as a whole has become more and more niche as time goes on, and most of what it has splintered into I am not the biggest fan of. Even the more recent releases that I had some hope for ended up being significant disappointments.
— Due to the above point, most of the RTS I will play these days will be games at least 5 years old (or minor updates like AOE2HD, RONHD or AOMHD) because there really hasn't been anything decent recently except for a little bit of Total War, but they are not entirely RTS anyway, and the RTS portion of the game is an entirely different flavour to the base-building style that most of us are accustomed to,
— As Hunter said, they killed the C&C website and Generals 2 was cancelled as well, it is very unlikely for there to be any revival of anything outside of perhaps a mobile game.

This is obviously a gross simplification of what I've said before, but I really can't be bothered repeating the broken record again, as my opinion on the matter has barely changed.

To slightly hijack this thread into something a little more interesting – for the sort of RTS game that would get me properly excited for the first time in a long time, a resurrection of either AOE/RON style mechanics that treats the core mechanics the same way Supreme Commander treated Total Annihilation (as in, keeps in almost entirely the same with very small differences and updates), Warcraft IV (highly unlikely, and with the recent Blizzard record, probably not much to look forward to...) or a worldwide scale Total War set in around 500BC-1300AD, as there is sadly so much Asian history (excepting Japan) that is missed out in all existing TW games.

This post has been edited by Alias: 16 Feb 2015, 15:58

[Svea Rike]

Yes I see... I've kind of been thinking of an RTS game that'd get me really hooked, something akin to Planetary Annihilation except the maps were literally the size of planets. An entire god damn planet is the battlefield. Don't tell me it ain't possible with today's technology! Minecraft is bigger than Neptune! Sort-of a cross between real-time and grand strategy in that you managed entire nations instead of armies and then conquered the world! That'd be awesome.

[Shiro]

CnC has been killed by corporate greed and incompetence like so many other things. Let it rest alone and in peace rather than forcing any more full games that will almost inevitably be bad due to the aforementioned reasons.

[GeneralCamo]

Despite statements to the contrary, C&C has been in decline much longer than EA had it.

I love it when people claim that Westwood should have "kept" C&C and not have been "taken over" by EA. The truth is? EA did not come to them, Westwood's corporate executives came to EA. And most of them still have high positions in EA, or at least a nice share of the stock.

Westwood were sellouts. Yes, there were good people in there, like Frank Klepacki. But the management were greedy. They rushed Tiberian Sun, to a significant degree. They brought out RA2. While good, the Expansion Pack was terrible. They brought out C&C Renegade. It had a great start, until they hired Dan Cermack. Who decided to retool it and turn it into what it is today, in 1 year. And apparently, they were planning on outsourcing C&C. They apparently got Point of View studios to attempt to make "C&C commando", which.. well.. look here:
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showt...ll=1#post782317
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showt...-amp-C-Commando

As for now, they can either create a decent one (which diehard fanatics will claim is "ruining the franchise"), sell it, leave the copyright to expire (like it did with System Shock), or create a terrible game. Not great choices.

[Shiro]

As for now, they can either create a decent one (which diehard fanatics will claim is "ruining the franchise"), sell it, leave the copyright to expire (like it did with System Shock), or create a terrible game. Not great choices.

Yeah, or they could make a great one that... ah who am I kidding, corporate greed would never allow that.

[Dangerman]

Personally I think a C&C reboot could have potential but I dobut EA would be able to make something enjoyable or thematically interesting.

I've always had thoughts what a new Red Alert would look like basically being Allies VS Soviets (5 subfactions and no 3rd side crap) with a more grim tone ala RA1.

or a worldwide scale Total War set in around 500BC-1300AD, as there is sadly so much Asian history (excepting Japan) that is missed out in all existing TW games.

I was thinking of a Worldwide Total War for a while but that would but on a far larger scale; think the grand campaign map that is basically the most geographically zoomed in and scaled to the entire world, think Shogun 2's Japan but stretched to the entire planet or similar and have many eras (like 7 or 8 from Rome's Rise to Industrial Revolutions), basically a "platform".

[GeneralCamo]

Yeah, or they could make a great one that... ah who am I kidding, corporate greed would never allow that.

Do nothing with a copyright, and it can be taken. This actually happened with System Shock last year, which is why I have begun seeing a large amount of remake projects pop up since the company that took the copyright is an insurance company who is not going to do anything with the video game.

[Planardweller]

While not about rebooting the franchise, i liked this retrospective on 20th anniversary of C&C and would like to share

TIBERIAN ORIGINS20 Years of Command & Conquer

[Jam Hacker]

i don't see many rebooting in video games, either you get a remake of the same stuff, or you get a pre/sequel, or start another story all together. but i certainly agree that rebooting is the best chance to revive the franchise.

[zourv]

Blizzard should buy C&C franchise .... :

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Patches

[Commander-GDI]

I say no, EA won't release another C&C full-prize game.

Why?

Because it had to be good after all this rubish. And develpoing good games cost a lot of money and years of development time.

And because PC-RTS games dont sell as well as console-games, EA is not going for an expensive RTS game anymore, they just release another COD instead..

[Basilisx]

The series died for me with Tiberium Wars after the so called "pro-gamer" whined for so long that EA patched the game broken.
With every patch more and more features that were meant to be fun were simply removed and in the end a game with potential was again destroyed by EA like so often before and afterwards.

Don't even let me start on C&C4. IIRC that game was meant as a free to play game for the asian markets and EA just said: "Nah, just slap a campaign on it and charge it as full price game and let's call it day then."

So personally the last CNC that is really enjoyable was and still is ZH. And I would rather hope that they just let the series rest in peace, before we see CNC with microtransactions, DLC-premium-insanity, preorder exclusives and gameplay for 8 years old.

This post has been edited by Basilisx: 23 Mar 2015, 19:50

[__CrUsHeR]

^ This reminds me of this:

[Svea Rike]

Valve... I want Half Life 3. Where is it

[Basilisx]

^^ __CrUsHeR, fitting to your list, the following old but gold video...even more relevant today regarding Maxis

EA and the AAA industry in a nutshell

This post has been edited by Basilisx: 24 Mar 2015, 11:46

[Imperium]

CnC needs to have a total restart with a dedicated permenant "CnC" dev team assigned to just this series and nothing else, ala westwood. Boot it with a new Red Alert (possibly featuring the chinese?, if not just RA1) and then follow that up with RA2 (keep a serious grim tone here, we have enough silliness) and have that game directly lead into Command and Conquer Tiberian Dawn (rename stuff if you have to, idk) and go through the Tiberium universe like that, as a direct no-nonsense continuation of the red alert story. CnC Generals can exist as either a spin off or a side story based around what the actual nations are doing during the years between the red alerts and command and conquers.

The only problem is Kane. Joe Kucan (sp?) is kind of done with the series and I really cant blame him. I say this; keep kane in the setting but have him off screen. Use recordings of him, either from old games or from VA work with Mr. Kucan. Keep him this mysterious force that never seems to die and is always off pulling strings. We can get hints via text intel or little nods in game from charachters.

If a solution can be found for Kane that doesnt involve outright replacing him with some fool then more power to the series. If Kucan doesnt want to do it, make kane omniscient and distant.

The thing is that this franchise is dead in the eyes of the people with money. We, the fans, know that isnt true, but EA has had something like 4 or 5 of its CnC related projects fail, and fail in a short period of time between one another i might add. Command and Conquer looks like a risky investment to devs.

Thing is, while I would love for this series to be resuscitated, it needs to be done right or it really will kill the entire franchise and poison the community. I dont have confidence in EA Games to pull that off. Not after the last five or six years of Command and Conquer happened.

So Im actually hoping more that other developers and publishers make CnC 'Killers', and build their own franchises. Heres hoping Act of Agression is good and well recieved. Eugen, despite my intense dislike of Wargame and Ruse, is one of the few people that give a damn about real RTS games.

...and for the love of all that is right and good in this world, the stigma against base building needs to stop. It doesnt overcomplicate the game, it doesnt turn it into starcraft, it isnt a worthless relic of the genre, its a core component of this kind of game, along with its macro scale economic model. This is a strength of the series and the genre. As much as I liked stuff like Blitzkrieg, Sudden Strike, World In Conflict, and Men of War, the lack of a traditional RTS model is why I am still playing Command and Conquer generals all these years later.

[Adoge]

I saw MARS posted a great idea rebooting and remaking Tiberian Dawn essentially into a more politically realistic and epic story with Grey morality. The GDI represented the power elite: the United Nations, Military-industrial complex etc. whereas Nod represented a mix of neo-political ideas. I think C&C is going to have to shed its less serious skin and come into a darker context. Rebooting anything is going to need a serious look at it. Infact I'm with MARS and Hunter, there isn't much left after the shattered pieces of Alliances, 4 and F2P. Petroglyph is just using its Westwood tag to sell sub-par games (I mean come on, who doesn't have a beta testing phase), EA couldn't give a shit and Victory's gone. I wouldn't mind to see a return to the very original concepts with Tribalistic Africans+ mutants, Khan and the High-Tech US, but I doubt that will happen. i found myself jotting down some C&C ideas the other day, but I can't see any real direction for Red Alert or Tiberium and Generals was killed by F2P. I mean hell they were going to even put Tiberium and RA factions into the Generals Universe... which is both fun and downright Canon-breaking. I one heard a rumour that Switzerland was considered instead of the Empire of the Rising Sun for Red Alert 3... and I thought Yuri was crazy enough. I would have liked to see a continuation of RA2 into RA3, or even better a linking of the Tiberian and Red Alert series would have killed it.
Paradox died, but ROTR continues to carry the torch for Command and Conquer...
I guess what comes after ROTR will be interesting, if SWR does go on with a game after ROTR perhaps it can be the Command and Conquer, the Grey Goo, the Etherium we deserve.

Edit: The only real idea I could think of was that the GDI (A mix of militarised peacekeepers and Private Military contracts) was deployed to secure resources for the West, whereas Kane and Nod represented the Third World and their struggle to claim their own resources. But I decided that that was too close to MARS' idea I read later so not worth positing in any length. (Also mine was far more shitty of an idea anyway).

This post has been edited by Adoge: 23 Apr 2015, 13:34