Command & Conquer ceases production, Victory Games shut down

Command & Conquer has closed its alpha test and ceased production on the game in its current state. The announcement comes on the heels of rumors that Victory Games, formerly known as BioWare Victory, has been shut down.

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Update: EA has confirmed that Victory Games has been shut down.

Command & Conquer, the free-to-play game formerly known as Generals 2, has closed its alpha test and ceased production on the game in its current state. The announcement comes on the heels of rumors that Victory Games, formerly known as BioWare Victory, has been shut down by publisher EA.

An official statement from the Command & Conquer website explains:

Part of being in a creative team is the understanding that not all of your choices are going to work out. In this case, we shifted the game away from campaign mode and built an economy-based, multiplayer experience. Your feedback from the alpha trial is clear: We are not making the game you want to play. 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.

Rumors of the Austin, TX studio's closure stem from an individual alleging to be a Victory Games employee. The individual's email confirms that production on Command & Conquer has ceased entirely and that the entire staff has been laid off. Shacknews has reached out to EA for confirmation.

EA has confirmed the closure to Polygon, stating, "The team at Victory Games will be disbanded. Wherever possible, we are working to help these talented people find other opportunities within EA."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 29, 2013 11:35 AM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Command & Conquer ceases production.

    Command & Conquer has closed its alpha test and ceased production on the game in its current state. The announcement comes on the heels of rumors that Victory Games, formerly known as BioWare Victory, has been shut down.

    • reply
      October 29, 2013 11:37 AM

      GODDAMMIT

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      October 29, 2013 11:38 AM

      oh my. /pours one out for C&C

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        October 29, 2013 11:40 AM

        C&C died a long time ago as far as I'm concerned. :(

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          October 29, 2013 11:52 AM

          [deleted]

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            October 29, 2013 12:01 PM

            I'd say it was all downhill after RENEGADE.

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              October 29, 2013 12:09 PM

              Didn't RENEGADE have bitchin multiplayer?

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              October 29, 2013 12:15 PM

              Renegade MP was the shit, Generals was a ton of fun (but didnt have any story or universe connection with CNC stuff up to that point), CNC3 was pretty decent and had some pretty bitchin' production values, but RA3 and CNC4 were disappointing (sans Tim Curry, George Takei, and J.K. Simmons in RA3).

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                October 29, 2013 2:02 PM

                Generals was pretty much the start of EA's attempt to milk the franchise dead. It had nothing to do with C&C at all but was tagged with the name. That said, it actually wasn't a bad game.

                EA tend to do the same thing with any brand they get, like Bioware.

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                October 29, 2013 3:21 PM

                I had fun with RA3, but it definitely felt like it lacked something the previous RA games had.

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            October 29, 2013 12:01 PM

            C&C Generals was the pinnacle of C&C for me.

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            October 29, 2013 3:21 PM

            Nah, it wasn't that long ago. It died when they released C&C 4. That thing was pure, distilled garbage.

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      October 29, 2013 11:40 AM

      Hole shit, is this the frostbite version of the game that was looking so awesome?
      At the same time, if it aint working, FIX IT so hopefully they will rework the economic model (maybe it was pay to win crap)

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        October 29, 2013 11:51 AM

        Sometimes it better to just stop all together, some things can't be fixed because the choices were fundamental in the foundation.

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      October 29, 2013 11:43 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 29, 2013 11:49 AM

        Exactly. Probably a more accurate translation: "You don't want the game we want you to want."

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          October 29, 2013 11:58 AM

          ^^^ Accurate as fuck.

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          October 29, 2013 12:03 PM

          Spot on.

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          October 29, 2013 12:14 PM

          [deleted]

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            October 29, 2013 12:53 PM

            It was F2P and the testers just didn't care about the pay bits. They aren't going to make a pay-to-win system, so everything has to just speed up your progression or make cosmetic things, etc. No one wanted that. They just wanted the next C&C game. This wasn't it.

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        October 29, 2013 11:54 AM

        Oh man, I want to know what those internal discussions were. What was that alpha feedback?

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        October 29, 2013 12:12 PM

        how is that blaming the gamers? i took it as pretty good honest ownership of the blame, "we fucked up we designed a game noone wants to play"

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        October 29, 2013 1:01 PM

        My guess is not very educated but I'm going to say it deviated from the original too much, had some unpopular features such as gimmicky f2p schtuff and always online shenannigans.

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        October 29, 2013 1:05 PM

        lmao I can't believe a major developer/publisher would actually say something like that. EA is terrible.

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          October 30, 2013 2:04 AM

          Sounds like they're acknowledging they messed up. I actually give them props for that.

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      October 29, 2013 11:47 AM

      RIP KANE

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      October 29, 2013 11:47 AM

      RIP NOD

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        October 30, 2013 2:58 AM

        haha, in hebrew "nod" is also a word for fart

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      October 29, 2013 12:13 PM

      RIP Westwood

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        October 29, 2013 2:06 PM

        We should pour one out the next time we get together for beers/whiskey.

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      October 29, 2013 12:19 PM

      See, I told you there was a God. Here he is flexing his muscle for ya'll. Let you know hes shelving this abortion. PRAISE THE LORD!

    • reply
      October 29, 2013 12:21 PM

      that is just lame. such an easy thing to continue, and they botched it completely.

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      October 29, 2013 12:38 PM

      Was this the Generals sequel being built on Frostbite? What was wrong with it?

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      October 29, 2013 12:49 PM

      Make a proper fucking game assholes.

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        October 29, 2013 1:04 PM

        Publishers dude. (EA) A proper or spiritual successor to C&C of olde would need to spawn from a kickstarter and preferably by the old Westwood dudes.

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      October 29, 2013 12:57 PM

      JVC please go back to making party-based first person RPG's. Thanks.

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      October 29, 2013 12:58 PM

      Another EA casualty. At least this time gamers stopped it before it was an aborted birth that lived to term.

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      October 29, 2013 2:02 PM

      C&C RA2 is the first game I used this handle in =(

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      October 29, 2013 2:08 PM

      Good. C&C has been dead since Generals.

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      October 29, 2013 2:50 PM

      Was anybody playing it and enjoying it?

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        October 30, 2013 11:51 AM

        let me compare it:
        generals1: duke nukem 3d
        generals2 aka command&conquer free: duke nukem forever

        better graphics, trying hard to be as fun as the old one, but failing at it. in every aspect except for pretty graphics.

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      October 29, 2013 3:19 PM

      No great loss. A free to play Command and Conquer game? What the fuck were they thinking? I wish they'd just make a straight up Generals 2. I would have bought that at launch. :-/

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      October 29, 2013 3:51 PM

      I was on the Austin team. Such a shock and shame to see this happen today. I take some solace in the fact that I got to work with such a talented team of industry veterans. Hope everyone lands on their feet.

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        October 29, 2013 11:23 PM

        Me too. It's easy to armchair this but the reality is people have lost their livelihoods.

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          October 29, 2013 11:24 PM

          EDIT: wasn't on the team, was just reiterating the sentiment.

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      October 30, 2013 3:19 AM

      Damn we have not have an interesting RTS game in ages, I really miss the old school C&C, REd Alert and Age of Empires.

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        October 30, 2013 3:46 AM

        [deleted]

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        October 30, 2013 4:23 AM

        What about Company of Heroes 2? I thought that was pretty good and like the other fellow said Planetary Annihilation looks good.

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        October 30, 2013 5:18 AM

        COH 1/2 beg to differ

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      October 30, 2013 6:22 AM

      i don't think there is anything to be sad about unless you know people that lost their job. they were making a F2P command and conquer game that nobody wanted after all

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        October 30, 2013 8:47 AM

        I'm sad about how EA has dragged Command & Conquer through the mud for the past 4+ years (and I haven't even played any of the C&C games).

        Command & Conquer 4 was announced in July 2009, as an "always-on single-player campaign" ...and later on it was revealed (I forget where or by which news source) that the project was originally going to be a multiplayer-focused title (maybe even download-only), but then it was decided that it would have a campaign (but still hang onto the always-on DRM, which didn't have enough public outrage built up at the time to be opposed in the product design phase, apparently!). It launched, it got terrible reviews, and an even worse response to the persistent-connection DRM. In November 2009, rumors abounded that the entire C&C4 team at EA LA was laid off, pretty much only leaving the team working on Medal of Honor 2010 in the building.

        Generals 2 (and the studio "Bioware Victory") was announced in December 2011 at the VGAs: http://www.shacknews.com/article/71505/command-conquer-generals-2-runs-on-frostbite-2-coming-2013 . Fans said it looked interesting, but in August 2012 they made the "it's going free to play" announcement, and then painted themseives into a corner that the fans wouldn't have liked, wouldn't have been economically sustainable, and apparently was also not in line with executive decisions after Andrew Wilson took over as CEO.

        I hope EA eventually makes an actual, worthy C&C game... but I have no idea what dev team is going to do that, considering that EA has starved away Westwood, EA LA, and Victory. Let's let it lie fallow for at least 3 years, I guess.

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      November 1, 2013 5:59 AM

      They should've paid me a million dollars to tell them this when Generals 2 was axed.

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