EA Games recently made available a selection of its classic titles on Steam, featuring many games from the Command & Conquer series. This includes the brilliant sequel from 2000, Red Alert 2.
The resurgence of Red Alert 2 on Steam has attracted a significant player base, propelling it onto Steam’s trending list with a peak of 6,617 players - and the numbers continue to rise. The hope is that this growing interest might encourage EA to consider producing more Command and Conquer remasters in the future.
Red Alert 2 Remastered - Could it happen?
2020’s Command & Conquer Remastered Collection contained both Tiberium Dawn and Red Alert with all their expansion packs and bonus content in an easily accessible package.
It was the perfect remaster, with a lot of help from the community. Since then, fans have been crying out for a Red Alert 2 remaster. Now, it’s possible, that EA might be planning something…
Following the launch of the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection on Steam, Jim Vessella, Command and Conquer’s lead producer at EA, made a statement that contained a few comments igniting hope.
“I realize many of you have been wondering about the status of Command & Conquer over the past several years.” said Vessella. “After the launch of the first C&C Remastered Collection, I told our Community Council I would continue to try and find opportunities to support the C&C community and franchise wherever possible.”
“With that in mind, I do have an announcement we think the entire C&C Community can get excited about. The C&C Ultimate Collection is now live on Steam!”
“The first C&C Remastered Collection”, so is this hinting at a second?
Vessella mentioned that EA had once again been in touch with the C&C community to help bring this collection of games to Steam, with the collaboration described as “invaluable”
“With improvements like better compatibility for modern operating systems and additional supported languages for both the Steam and EA App versions, we believe this is the best release of the Ultimate Collection to date.” Vessella added.
“Until next time.” Vessella concluded, before adding that FinalSun and FinalAlert 2, under the GPL version 3.0 license, are now available on Steam. These are the map editors for Tiberium Sun and Red Alert 2, key components for the modding community, which would be perfect for any remastered edition.
We were slightly concerned about any future Command and Conquer games or remasters after EA’s recent financial results, where it was revealed that it was laying off 5% of its workforce and canceling an upcoming Star Wars game by Respawn Entertainment.
Bit Reactor is working on a Star Wars strategy game with Respawn Entertainment, and thankfully, this hasn’t been cancelled. It’s still in production, which gives hope for Command and Conquer.
Perhaps more concerning is a recent development where EA has shut down the official Command and Conquer YouTube channel.
All the historical videos from the franchise’s history have disappeared, some likely forever. Could this indicate that EA is done with the franchise, or are they planning a reboot?
It’s hard to know for sure, and EA declined to comment when we contacted them about it. Let’s see how this situation develops.
EA hosts private community event in Brighton, UK
Members of the C&C community have been talking about a recent community event in Brighton, in which EA Games and community manager CCHyper/EA_Hyper got together to celebrate the release of the Ultimate Collection on Steam. Interestingly, it has a Red Alert 2 and Tiberium Sun theme to it.
“My personal take away from this event is that EA hasn’t forgotten about the core C&C audience and has begun to test the waters to see where the future of the franchise lies.” said one of the attendees in their report of the event.
“The success of the Ultimate Collection has not gone unnoticed and it’s the continued support from the players for the franchise and for the various community initiatives such as CNCNet, C&C Online and W3D Hub that can only mean good things for C&C moving forwards.”
You can find more images and details on the event via Reddit.
Whatever happens in the future, it’s good to see more people enjoying it on Steam.
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