Electronic Arts is making good on its promise to revisit the originalCommand & Conquergames, announcing today that several remasters are in the works. Both the originalCommand & Conquer(rebranded asCommand & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn)andCommand & Conquer: Red Alertare being remastered to start. Neither remaster has started active development as of yet, but EA is confident thatCommand & Conquerfans are willing to wait just a while longer.
To develop theCommand & Conquerremasters, EA has recruited Petroglyph Games. Petroglyph was originally formed in 2003 by former members of Westwood Studios when EA closed the studio. Westwood, of course, being the original developers of theCommand & Conquerfranchise. Petroglyph went on to create theStar Wars: Empire at War,Panzer General,Graxia, and8-Bit Armiesseries. The studio is also currently working on aConan the Barbarian-themed RTS for release in 2019.
In fact, several current Petroglyph employees were members of the originalCommand & Conquerdevelopment teams:
“Joe Bostic is known as the co-creator of C&C, having also served as the Lead Programmer on Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert. Steve Tall joined Joe as a Lead Programmer on Red Alert, and Mike Legg contributed to all forms of audio systems at Westwood, having been an employee since 1986!”
Petroglyph and EA will also be bringing back Frank Klepacki as composer and audio director for the remasters.
A second studio, Lemon Sky Studios, is also being brought onto the project specifically to update the game’s assets for 4K. Lemon Sky Studios has previously worked on projects includingUncharted: The Lost Legacy,Gears of War 4, andStarCraft Remastered.
For those worried that Electronic Arts may be forgetting aboutCommand & ConquerandRed Alert’s expansions, EA’s way ahead of you. All three expansions, TheCovert OperationsforCommand & Conquerand bothCounterstrikeandThe AftermathforRed Alert, are being remastered alongside the base games. Even better, both remastered games and all three expansion packs are going to be bundled into one single package - “without microtransactions.”
EA announced its intention toremaster classicCommand & Conquertitlesjust over a month ago in a Reddit post within the franchise’s community. “We already have the ball rolling,” is what producer Jim Vessella said at the time, though few would have believed the project would be starting development just a month later. The franchise’s 25th anniversary will be in 2020 and it looks like EA may very well have given Petroglyph enough time to celebrate the event properly.
TheCommand & Conquer: Tiberium DawnandCommand & Conquer: Red Alertremasters have no currently planned release window but will be released on PC.
