Electronic Arts announced that they have plans to launch Command & Conquer: Generals 2 as a free-to-play game. The game is planned as the first in an online series known simply as “Command & Conquer“.
BioWare Victory general manager John Van Caneghem also noted that the game will not have a story mode, with “co-operative and competitive” skirmishes serving as the core of the game. He noted that a single-player campaign could be added later, but “it is something we haven’t announced yet how we’re going to do it.”
Van Caneghem detailed that the goal is to “really want to get back to the roots of what made Command & Conquer great.” Thus, expect a lot of base building, harvesting and creating lots of units to “go out and kill all the bad guys.”
“As a live service I think the exciting part is you can try things,” said Van Caneghem. “You can see what the community wants, you can give it a shot, you can put it up for a weekend and see how it goes, develop towards what the fans like.”
“We decided to choose Generals as the first set of games we build under the universe, but we’ll be expanding after that, like Tiberium and Red Alert as well as some others as well,” he added, explaining the reason why they’re launching this new series with this game. “But Generals 2 was the first one, and it was one of the biggest sellers, as well as the fanbase has been asking for it for some time.”
Generals 2 will be tied to an online account that can be leveled-up the more you play. The plan is to add new maps and modes as time goes on as DLC, both free and paid-for.
When asked if the Red Alert and Tiberium entries in the series will share that same account, Van Caneghem said, “We’re obviously open to the concept. I know another person asked me the other day if they’d be able to fight games between factions. I guess that’s something we can look at at some point.”
There will be e-sports features built in along with the multiplayer deathmatch and co-operative modes. “We’re really going to run the gambit of what people enjoy in a multiplayer environment,” he said. “I don’t think we’re making a list of the features yet, but I think you can basically make a list of the assumed ones that you’d need to be an e-sports game, and it’s definitely part of the plan.”
Source: PCgamer.com
