Command & Conquer Developers Are Still Making Games (And Nobody’s Been Paying Attention)

After Westwood Studios merged with EA Los Angeles, nobody seems to have thought to check up on the people behind the franchise.

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The Command & Conquer series had its fair share of fans back in the day, but after Westwood Studios merged with EA Los Angeles, nobody seems to have thought to check up on the people behind the franchise. As it turns out, not everyone became part of EA, and the ones that remained went on to make more video games nobody seems to care about.

For example, a gameplay teaser trailer for an RTS-inspired FPS called Earthbreakers was released last November. The game is developed by a studio called Petroglyph Games, made up of ex-Westwood employees. Earthbreakers – considered the spiritual successor to Command & Conquer: Renegade – is also far from the first game the studio has been working on. Since Star Wars: Empire at War, released in 2006, they have had 18 additional video games, one board game, and a few cancelled titles.

Among the cancelled ones, as first reported by Escapist Magazine, was End of Nations, by the team considered their worst failed experiment. It was supposed to be an MMO, but using armies instead of single characters. When Petroglyph Games was let go from the project, Trion Worlds took over development. The state of the project is unclear, but it is presumed cancelled. “Ultimately, it became one of those products that lingered in development far longer than it should have,” explains Joe Bostic, former lead programmer at Westwood.

While they did experiment a lot with what could attract the attention of gamers, they remained faithful to their core genre: real-time strategy. “The winds of genre popularity may shift over time, but as with many genres, there remains a dedicated core — especially for the classics in the genre,” Bostic adds. While their previous games went under the radar, there is a faint hope for fans of the Command & Conquer series: Petroglyph is working with EA on Command & Conquer: Remaster.

The upcoming remaster, along with Earthbreakers, promises that the ex-Westwood team could come back into the spotlight – a few years too late, but better late than never. The RTS genre may not be at the height of popularity anymore, but a good game or two could attract even those gamers who were too young to be caught up by the hype back in the day, reviving the niche – even if the glory days are over.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/command-conquer-developer-new-game/