Command & Conquer aiming for ten-year life

Command & Conquer is aiming for a ten-year lifespan, and Victory's Jon Van Caneghem acknowledges that may mean the series is done with boxed releases.

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Victory Games has the long view in mind for the upcoming Command & Conquer. General manager Jon Van Caneghem says that the studio ultimately wants to make the free-to-play strategy title last a full decade, and acknowledges that means a boxed C&C game isn't in the cards for the foreseeable future.

"It's a long-term goal," Van Caneghem told Videogamer. "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. We definitely believe it will [last 10 years]. And if we can keep it updated it'll last even longer."

Of course, Van Caneghem also acknowledges that as a F2P game and the only C&C on the horizon, boxed releases are probably fading away unless they produce some special physical bonus items.

"I think maybe the days of a boxed [Command & Conquer] release are probably over," he said. "But there's always a need sometimes for Collector's Editions that are nice to put in a box where you get extra materials, so that's not out of the question [for Command & Conquer 2013]. In fact, a lot of people in a lot of territories have asked for those. I think there's still a desire for that in a lot of places. People want the art book or the figurines or whatever we decide to do in a Collector's Edition that you can't get digitally."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 22, 2013 12:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Command & Conquer aiming for ten-year life.

    Command & Conquer is aiming for a ten-year lifespan, and Victory's Jon Van Caneghem acknowledges that may mean the series is done with boxed releases.

    • reply
      August 22, 2013 12:18 PM

      Starcraft had a ten year lifespan. So did DotA, Counterstrike, WoW and Diablo 2.

      To predict that they'll be joined by your (non-Westwood) F2P Command and Conquer game strikes me a somewhat optimisitic.

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      August 22, 2013 2:22 PM

      Good luck with that!

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      August 22, 2013 2:27 PM

      C&C and Red Alert were good, Red Alert 2 was sort of ok, the C&C sequel was, mm, I dunno... but everything else is stankity stank.

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        August 22, 2013 2:30 PM

        The C&C series had such a bright and promising future... until EA bought Westwood. After that, it never had a chance, and it still doesn't. It's long dead and buried, this is just playing mannequin with its deceased and decomposed corpse, selling its decayed flesh for dead-man-soups, and it's pretty disgusting.

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        August 22, 2013 2:32 PM

        This is a new studio that made none of those games. Also, C&C Generals is stankity stank?

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        August 22, 2013 10:52 PM

        Everything up until C&C 4 was in the good to great category. Then it hit a wall and everything fell apart. Pisses me off too, because it was one of my favorite franchises for a long time. :-/

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        August 22, 2013 11:38 PM

        C&C Generals got a message for you: A nuclear launch has been detected.

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          August 23, 2013 4:33 AM

          Fuck that, SPUD STORM. God I loved General MP

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        August 23, 2013 1:38 AM

        Generals was fun! :(

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        August 23, 2013 3:18 AM

        [deleted]

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        August 23, 2013 4:06 AM

        RA2 was amazing what is this madness

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        August 23, 2013 5:51 AM

        C&C3 was great except for a lot of imbalances from the scrin.

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      August 22, 2013 2:33 PM

      its quite do'able in a perfect world, but it will depend on how often new content is released and how much it 'really' costs to play the game.

    • reply
      August 22, 2013 2:38 PM

      From reddit, footage of two matches played in the alpha:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3CXrvuBHAU&feature=youtu.be
      (warning: narrator has an intensely irritating voice)

      It actually looks pretty good! I'm not sure it looks ten-year-lifespan good, or what damage the F2P model will do but at least they're heading in the right direction.

    • reply
      August 22, 2013 6:53 PM

      He's dreamin'

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