Three-city shop Victory Games will spearhead publisher's strategy efforts; boss Jon Van Caneghem promises "AAA" C&C game.
[UPDATE] The new Command & Conquer site is now live once again, complete with the Victory Games label and Van Caneghem interview. The original story is below.
Over the long weekend, it appears that someone at Electronic Arts flipped a switch early. On the President's Day holiday, a new Command & Conquer website appeared--and then promptly disappeared, according to several online reports. Website Rock, Paper, Shotgun spotted the prematurely posted site before it was yanked down, and conveyed its contents--which should prove interesting to strategy gaming fans.
First, the site revealed--as now shown by a Google cache page--that EA has created a new sub-studio called Victory Games. With offices in Los Angeles, Texas, and Shanghai, the shop will apparently handle EA's entire strategy portfolio. It will be headed by Jon Van Caneghem, a veteran developer who previously worked for NCsoft, the Trion World Network, and New World Computing (the Might & Magic franchise).
Caneghem says that Victory Games' first project will be a "AAA Command & Conquer game." He continues, "I can tell you it's a Command & Conquer game for the PC, but we're not yet at a stage where I can go into any details--we'll be prepared to make a more formal announcement later in the year. We're not just working on a game, though. Our general focus is on the future of Command & Conquer. That means updating a lot of the core technology to create a stable base for future development, and leveraging that work on this first game."
As of press time, the official website, www.cncstage.com, remained down and EA had declined to elaborate on requests for clarification.
Phil-teh-Pirate all I heard is that the next C&C is a reboot, I assume it is the Tiberium timeline, Im predicting if it is a success the red alert timeline will follow, it would be cool if the connection between both universes was more solid in this reboot, but Im just getting ahead of myself with such thinking.
I liked C&C 3. C&C 4 though ,felt like a underwhelming expansion pack from a story point of view, and the gameplay was like a tug of war match on Bnet.
Jesus, no matter what EA and Activision seem like the same to me. How about coming up with another title instead of another Command and Conquer?
As long as they dont make another cnc like the last one where its no base building collecting of resources and over all the worst cnc game ever made. I will be happy. I liked this series alot more when it was made by Westwood studios and not EA, they seem liked they cared alot more about making a RTS for the fans then for the profits.
I am Cautiously optomistic. I have bought any game that was C&C, but I felt totally burned by C&C 4 and was very unhappy with the online requirement. I will wait to see the reviews before I buy another C&C game!
@FastAce I agree, they're milking it too hard. Admittedly, I haven't touched them since Red Alert 2 or Renegade.
hm, I dont care anymore for C&C. EA ruined the game so much, that nothing will fix it.. For EA everything is $$$, and i hope they will bankrupt one day for destroying the C&C series.
I really want a new FPS C&C. I loved Command and Conquer: Renegade alot. I hope they make one soon!
@Gelugon_baat. actually looking at the tiberium series then yes i would say that the resource collection was also a key point. cant think of another game where your infantry couldnt guard early game mining cus they would all get turned into liquid globs of mercury (thats how i remember the vices in tiberium sun) so i suppose that added an interesting twist. but then look at the RA series. what does that have? fixed points of resources (past retaliation anyway), no fantastic storyline. whats left? the crazy OTT units and the base building. but the base building was done so well, so it had multiple strategies for every type of gamer, but wasnt so complicated as to confuse. and World in conflict didnt have base building because it wasnt designed or meant to be a base builder. WiC fitted the units only gameplay down to the ground. it would have been worse if they had introduced base building.
People keep saying generals 2.....generals was bad. Zero Hour on the other hand was amazing. Make a zero Hour 2. It had like 12 factions!
aww and i woulda picked up a copy if it was coming to consoles. ah well money saved i suppose
I can't wait, perfect time as well.as I'll FINALLY have my dream maxed out gaming pc by the end of the year ;)
Command and Conquer is one of the best RTS's out there, and the new developer is one of the best game makers ever (Jon Van Caneghem), so if EA manages to screw up this time too, I am sorry to say that Command and Conquer will be dead. But let's be optimistic, this will be a good game and I am really looking forward to it! Also a little off topic but welcome back Caneghem, missed ya all the 7 years you've been out of the gaming industry. :)
Well, a slow base building, resource gathering game would be pretty awesome. Starcraft could do it without ruining the game so series like C&C should be able to do it too.
It's about time EA Stops with that HORRIBLE SAGE Engine and makes a whole new one. I mean FFS EA..... you made like 8 games with the same damn game engine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please don't let it be General's 2. Anything but that. Make a whole new Series IDC Kill off Generals 2. That's what started this whole downwards spiral.
@ Ezmai_RauteZ Dune wasn't a C&C game so I think it won't be their next game...but it would be awesome!!!!!!!!!!!And of course Generals 2 too!!!:D:D
well THQ and Relic did a good job with the dow 2 game making something new (although some people didn't like it, don't know why) and now they release a new stand alone expansion that looks more promising than the game itself and chaos rising was amazing, EA did an awful job with C&C the units are exaggerated (huge, pathfinding issues, no strategy, no tactics , awfulll, the horrorr!!!!!...to sum up who had the biggest unit won in dow 2 you can have the best unit in the game and still lose, but comparing junk with dow 2 it's heresy)..............AWFULLL GAME
Funny, all I hear is how much ppl hated C&C 4 lol, did anyone like that game?? hahahaha
part 4 was so bad, I hope this one will be better, part 3 was quite good only the videos were poor, tiberian sun videos were quite better
Go back to the interface used in Tiberian Sun. The sidebar with the power down button. Base building and resource collecting should be the way they were also. I've heard alot of people say that this system is outdated, but it's part of what makes C&C games so unique and the best. Adding RPG elements was the final nail in the C&C coffin. Please go back to its roots!
I'm a bit torn on C&C 4. The franchise is one of my personal all time favorites, and I threw the game of my PC within 5 minutes... But it's hard to say EA is idiotic for trying to innovate, we've all been complaining about their activision-style milking business, pumping out meaningless sequal after sequel without innovating. Innovate... just don't do it on 15-year old franchises EA.
c&c 4 is trash...the moved away from the previous games...and i guess, nobody likes it, why experiment if EA had big succes whit previous games...i just dont get it...! i wonder what will the new one be like...! probably trash, i guess...!
Well if it goes back to the old C&C games im in. C&C 4 was a total shocker but if they bring back everything the older games had with C&C 3 being my favourite and i'll be happy. Base Building, Harvesting, no unit limit, no having to unlock units etc etc.
when people say "go back to the old C&C" they mean it like this (at least my interpretation of it anyway): - go back to base building. this is the keystone of C&C, which is why C&C4 is the ultimate failure - thats it. as far as i'm aware the formula hasn't really changed at all over the series. you build a base, pump out some units, smash them together with the other teams units until one of you defeats the other. but the older games just did this so well. and also i think the essence of C&C has kind of worn off over the years due to games like Supreme Commander (epic scale allows for epic strategy), Starcraft (while i hate this game to the core, i do see its merits) and the Dawn of War series (the 40k universe never gets old). i think what EA was trying to do with C&C4 was make something different from all the other base building RTS's out there but in doing so completely destroyed any C&Cness. i think the next C&C game will be a failure no matter what EA do since they tarred themselves pretty badly with C&C4 and the simple fact that all the good C&Cs have already been made. by Westwood. so if you want to play a good C&C, you're just going to have to go back in time to tiberium sun and red alert 2. well those are made by EA, but some of the older games were the best but thier graphics are just too old now, so best stick with the middle of the group.
apparently they are gonna finally stop stringing along the C&C generals game engine and retire that retched thing.
C&C was what got me into RTS games, such a brilliant franchise but then EA Destroyed it completely with shovel-ware development. I'd love to think the franchise could come back, but I think EA officially steam-rolled it into the ground.
I thought the franchise could not be more dead just look at C&C4, they deserved a spot in hell reserved for them after butchering that game. Any true fan knows its been dead since RA3.
C&C fans are well known for their rose-tinted nostalgia. I've recently started playing RA2 and the original C&C again, and they have aged poorly. I'm not sure what people are asking for when they want "old C&C".
How about you sell the rights to Petroglyph(which as i recall, contains many of the good ol' Westwood)
C & C please dont make some crap game again. The last one was the worst one of all them I couldnt even stand playing one game with it. C&C Original was the best!!!!!!!!! Go back to it!!!!!!!!!!!
Now will it continue the Tiberium timeline, the Red Alert timeline or go in a random direction like Generals? Time will tell.
As long as it's built upon the proven and lovely C&C3 engine and formula, stripped off all the bloody damn "streamlining" and doesn't suffer from "consolitis", I'm in.
Unless this 'AAA' C&C game goes back to the cool and 'old school' feel of the older ones they can keep it, I hate what they did with Command & Conquer 4 and Red Alert 3, just ruined it.
Just give us back the pure C&C you know the first ever one, the one that actually got me into playing rts games and gave birth to every other rts game out there, or if not a Generals 2 would be good...
Well I can only pray to god that they return to classic cnc formula, not cnc4 style :( cnc means a lot to me haha
i wonder what genre will it be... will it be an RTS or FPS? or any other genre that havent make it to C&C yet... an RPG perhaps? or an MMO? lol
New EA studio adopts branding of RPG developer for latest title in long-running strategy series; Generals 2 being released in 2013, built on DICE's Frostbite 2 engine.
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
As part of multiyear exclusive arrangement, DICE and Visceral will work on new "core" Star Wars games. Full Story
[UPDATE] Patrice Desilets says Ubisoft terminated his position today and did not allow him to collect personal belongings. Full Story
New research finds frequent exposure to violent games can have numbing effect on teenagers, though no cause-and-effect relationship proven. Full Story
Subscriber base for aging MMO dips 1.3 million in three months; Activision Blizzard posts $456 million profit on $1.32 billion in revenue for Q1. Full Story
"FIFA continues to be very strong," says EA, which has been making FIFA games since 1993. Full Story
MachineGames' upcoming shooter will be single-player-only experience. Full Story
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag producer says Sony has created a compelling piece of technology and it is up to designers to make most of it. Full Story
NPD: Injustice: Gods Among Us April's top seller in US
NetherRealm's DC brawler the best-selling title in region last month; overall industry sales slide 25 percent; Xbox 360 sales hit 130,000.
