KEY POINTS

  • The success of "Command & Conquer Remastered Collection" may have breathed some much-needed life back into the real-time strategy gaming genre after a miserable decade
  •  EA producer Jim Vesella shares apprehension leading up to the game's launch and gratitude that fans and critics alike have embraced the result of their efforts
  • Vesella didn't directly address if future remasters are in the works from other "Command & Conquer" games, instead focusing on support for this title at present

Following the successful June launch of “Command & Conquer Remastered Collection,” a few questions were raised about both the past and future of the franchise.

In an interview conducted by Eurogamer with EA producer Jim Vesella, they discussed the future of real-time strategy (RTS) games, the possibility of other “Command & Conquer” games getting remastered, and perhaps a whole new “Command & Conquer” title to come.

“It's been fantastic, to be honest,” Vesella admitted. “The reception we received from fans was really meaningful to us. We've been hovering around a 9.0 user rating on Steam and on some of the sites. That's just fantastic to see.”

“Our top priority in building the remastered collection was to do this for the fans, to rebuild that community sentiment, try and rebuild that trust,” he said.

Regarding the reception “Command & Conquer Remastered Collection” has been getting from critics, Vesella said, “I'll admit it has exceeded my expectations. We weren't really sure how the greater industry was going to react to the game.”

“I think it has exceeded everybody's expectations for threading the needle between that kind of authenticity and staying true to the original experience, but also modernizing and updating the right things in the game. It's been great to see that vision is landing,” he said of the balance that this remaster has tried to achieve.

“Command & Conquer Remastered Collection” has also proven to be a commercial success for Electronic Arts. Vesella noted, “We had a really strong launch. We were at the top of the Steam sales charts for a few weeks. We got great support from our teams and from Valve going onto Steam for the first time.”

Regarding the future of the franchise that hasn’t exactly had the best decade, Vesella is buoyed by the reception this remaster has achieved when he said, “I'm hopeful there's now some really good data here, tangible data between the critical reaction, the player reaction, and the commercial impact to try and say, 'hey, is there something else we should continue to do with the franchise?'”

RTS games have kind of fallen by the wayside in recent years but Vesella is optimistic that their success will breathe new life into the genre. “As an RTS fan I certainly hope it still has a good future ahead of it,” he said while admitting that it boils down to economics and that these games are huge investments.

“We're going to look at how the genre continues to play out,” Vesella said. “But for us in particular with ‘Command & Conquer,’ this remaster has been a really strong step in the right direction. That's exactly what the franchise needed right now.”

For Vesella, the inevitable questions he has seen following the success of “Command & Conquer Remastered Collection” concern what they can do as a follow-up. Will they remaster “Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun” or perhaps “Command & Conquer Red Alert 2” now?

“Obviously, we love to hear that,” he admitted. “We love to hear people want to see more of this kind of remaster path we've gone down. But we're focused on the support for the first remaster collection.”

“We're in the middle of doing some of these major patches, trying to support the community, and react to a lot of their top requests, and really get this game into the state where it could continue to live on, with community collaboration in terms of mod support. So, we're focused on that right now,” Vesella said.

Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer will have 4K remaster collection. EA