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Envision Entertainment rises from the ashes of EA Phenomic
The recent cancellation of Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances also sank developer EA Phenomic, but from that mouldering corpse springs a new studio, Envision Entertainment. Don't confuse Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances with that other C&C game EA recently canceled. Though both scrapped projects caused their studios to collapse, Tiberium Alliances was slated for release as a free-to-play title, whereas the game in development at the now-defunct Victory Studios was a more traditional strategy game. Back to Envision: According to GI.biz, the fledgling company boasts a staff of 25, including former EA Phenomic vice president Dirk Ringe. While GI claims that Envision has "several" projects in the works, the nascent studio has yet to publicly reveal anything of substance.
Command & Conquer cancelled, Victory Games closed
Command & Conquer has been cancelled and EA has closed developer Victory Games. The cancellation comes via a post on the game's site and the studio closure comes from EA in a statement to Game Informer: "This does mean that the Victory Games team will be disbanded. Wherever possible, we are working to help these talented people find other opportunities with EA." The cancellation post says the multiplayer approach to Command & Conquer was its downfall. "Your feedback from the alpha trial is clear: We are not making the game you want to play," the post reads. "That is why, after much difficult deliberation, we have decided to cease production of this version of the game. Although we deeply respect the great work done by our talented team, ultimately it's about getting you the game you expect and deserve." Victory and EA will refund all money spent in the alpha, expected to be handled over the next 10 days. EA say it is looking at ways to "get the game back on track." The blog post, attributed to Victory Studios, was not approved by the development team, Command & Conquer's Marketing Manager says on Twitter.
Command & Conquer's live service designed for 10-year support plan
Victory Games believes it has the tech in place to support Command & Conquer for ten years, according to an interview with VideoGamer. Command & Conquer is being developed as a live service and will be both free-to-play and require an Internet connection. "We built this Command & Conquer shell and frame to be the one-stop place for Command & Conquer for the next 10 years, so we want to add the other universes and maybe even a new universe that we didn't even have before, all under the same landing site, log-in [and] persona that you would keep track of," Victory Games General Manager Jon Van Caneghem said. Canegham also noted that he believes "the days of a boxed release are probably over," making an exception for any potential collector's editions of the game. Command & Conquer will launch this year for PC through EA's Origin service.
Command & Conquer being developed 'as a live service'
Victory Games' Command & Conquer, built on EA and DICE's Frostbite engine, is launching as a free-to-play game later this year through Origin. Tim Morten, development director, says that while Command & Conquer will require an internet connection, it makes for a more nimble game that can be updated far more frequently than a traditional retail product. With SimCity still fresh on everyone's mind, I asked Morten about the choice to take the online path. "First thing to know is this is not only a multiplayer game – we do offer skirmish so that people can practice up. I think with SimCity, a lot of people had an expectation to play solo. Many people are going to come to us to play multiplayer so we came from the mentality of, 'How do we the make multiplayer experience as good as we can make it?' The answer to that question is: we try to get rid of as much cheating as we can, and we try to get rid of as many problems with other peoples' lag impacting your own game."%Gallery-191297%
Command & Conquer hoping to 'wash the stain of C&C 4 away'
Electronic Arts and developer Victory Games really, really want you to know that the upcoming, free-to-play Command & Conquer is a legit game. To get back to the roots of what made C&C the franchise it was, the new game is doing its best to make us forget the last ... five years.
Navigating the free-to-play landscape in Command & Conquer
The term "free-to-play" carries with it a certain stigma in the video game industry. It invariably causes gamers to flinch, calling to mind social games like FarmVille. However, as more recognizable experiences enter the realm of free-to-play software, the knee-jerk reaction has begun to subside. With the Command & Conquer series launching under the freemium banner later this year, it would appear that EA is banking on tamer attitudes toward free, microtransaction-based titles.Despite the simplified, non-sequel sounding name, EA's free-to-play Command & Conquer is a continuation of the strategy series. First announced as Command & Conquer: Generals 2 in 2011, developer BioWare Victory plans to launch the game this year with a campaign that continues the Generals lineage, and later refresh the free-to-play game with content set in the Tiberium and Red Alert universes.There lies a very ambitious development plan in place for this series, with gamers playing a key part of the process. Immediately after launch, Victory says it will begin crunching numbers and plugging into the fan community to see what needs to be fixed, changed, or tweaked. Victory promises changes based on this feedback will be implemented every week. Calling it a "Live Service," Victory anticipates the instant feedback will allow Command & Conquer's new free-to-play focus to improve and expand quickly.The downsides of shifting to a free-to-play focus are immediate for franchise fans. Though there will be single-player content, Command & Conquer will not include a single-player campaign and Victory has no plans to include cutscenes or cinematics, which is a massive blow to series supporters. Additionally, Command & Conquer is another in EA's growing list of games that require a constant internet connection.%Gallery-179834%
Command and Conquer sets aim for beta in first half of 2013
Command and Conquer, EA's upcoming free-to-play iteration, is targeting its beta for the first half of 2013. Community Manager Eric Krause laid down the window in a candid blog post, saying the beta will be the longest ever for a Command and Conquer game.Krause also used the post to name-check Command and Conquer 4 as "especially far below the expectations and standards a lot of us had for C&C games." It's interesting to see EA openly criticize its previous efforts, but maybe not surprising given the publisher's approach to the new game. There's been much talk of new directions and bringing the franchise back to its roots, so it's clear EA wants fans to know it's trying to win them back.That includes listening to said fans. EA President Frank Gibeau recently revealed Command and Conquer will have single-player, in response to negative feedback about the decision to can it. By the sounds of it, Victory expects next year to be a slog through many months of further feedback from the beta.
Here's the Command & Conquer Generals 2 concept video that gave us that screenshot [update: video's gone]
The teaser image for Command & Conquer Generals 2 depicted a guy flying out of an exploding truck in a somewhat cartoony style. Turns out the source for that image isn't exactly the game -- it's a teaser video, part of which artist Eli Guerron worked on.Superannuation spotted the video on Vimeo, posted by Guerron under the working title "Warzone." So you can see for yourself the strangely unreleased origins of the circa-VGA Awards teaser image. At least we know the concept for teaser video was always about vehicles being blown up.Update: The video has been deleted.
BioWare announces Command and Conquer: Generals 2 [Update: First screens!]
The hand-wringing tweets and posts about the possible direction for BioWare's unannounced game have proven all for naught, as EA and BioWare announced the Frostbite 2.0 powered Command and Conquer: Generals 2 at tonight's VGAs. The game is set to be released in 2013. Update: We've got the official PR from Electronic Arts, found at the Source link below. Most notable is this line: "Command & Conquer Generals 2 is being developed by a new BioWare studio, BioWare Victory, and is coming exclusively to the PC in 2013." So Victory Games is now BioWare Victory and its plans for a PC-exclusive C&C game are still in place. Wow! %Gallery-141548%
New game from new BioWare studio could be Command & Conquer by Victory Games
In August, EA brass restructured the company putting Peter Moore in the role of COO and converting the illustrious BioWare brand from developer to "label," joining the ranks of EA Games (DICE, Visceral, Criterion, EA Partners, etc.), EA Sports (Madden, FIFA, Fight Night) and EA Play (Maxis, The Sims, MySims). With this new understanding of "BioWare" we bring you the latest scuttlebutt from internet scuttlebutter Superannuation, who spotted a LinkedIn resume (since edited) that described the Marina del Rey-based Victory Games as a BioWare studio. Victory Games, you might recall, is a new "strategy studio" announced by EA last February, as an offshoot of its EA Los Angeles location. Like Danger Close and Visceral Games, Victory is more of a "rebranding" than an entirely new studio; Victory was set up as the EALA shop handling all things Command & Conquer, much like Danger Close was established to handle all things Medal of Honor. Now, onto the new "BioWare" game being revealed on December 10 at the Spike Video Game Awards. With the latest teaser promising "a new direction, a new game, from a new BioWare studio," that sounds vague enough to contain a new Command & Conquer installment. New direction? That sounds like Victory's mandate for the franchise. New game? Well, yeah. A new BioWare studio? We're not sure what makes Victory a BioWare studio (per the above LinkedIn resume) instead of an EA Games studio, but there you have it. We'll find out on the 10th!
Command & Conquer site is back up, Victory Games confirmed as new dev
Oops! After a premature publication of the new commandandconquer.com earlier this week, which spoiled the whole surprise, EA's finally ready to re-reveal the news that its created a new studio – following in the wake of studio rebrandings like Visceral Games and Danger Close – to handle all things Command & Conquer. Victory has offices in Los Angeles – home of EALA, the former studio brand responsible for C&C, following the acquisition of Westwood – Austin, and Shanghai and is led by former Trion CCO Jon Van Caneghem. "Victory Games was created to be the focal point for the creation of strategy games for the Games Label at EA," Caneghem said. "Our current focus is making a AAA Command & Conquer game, which I am very excited to be working on." While Caneghem didn't have much more to add regarding that game – it's "for the PC" but Victory's "not yet at a stage where [it] can go into any details" – he did say that the studio's mandate "the future of Command & Conquer" and that this work on this first game will help "create a stable base for future development." If you're a C&C fan, it sounds like EA's not through with the franchise by a long shot.
Rumor: New Command & Conquer site goes live, disappears
Electronic Arts apparently flipped the switch on a new Command and Conquer website today before intended, deciding shortly after that it wasn't too keen on sharing it with the world. Rock Paper Shotgun spotted the site, which announced the project is being developed by EA's newly dubbed Victory Games, a collaboration between three studios in Los Angeles, Texas and Shanghai. Victory Games will apparently be headed by Jon Van Caneghem, an executive who "transitioned out" of his role as Trion World Networks president and chief creative officer in April of 2009. According to RPS, before the information was pulled, there was an "interview" with Caneghem on the site that noted the new title was for PC and that a formal announcement was coming later this year. We'll likely get more details when EA commands the web team to conquer the publish button.
