C&C & Visceral Games - Clarifications & Further Reading

[Sonic 295]

So for the past few days the community has come alive with plenty of discussion regarding the news that the next Command & Conquer game is in development under the expanded Visceral Games brand. Now there has been a lot of speculation, confusion and guessing as to what the next Command & Conquer will be. So I thought I would post this news update to clarify a few things and share some links to some further reading.

 

Just because Command & Conquer is now under the Visceral Games brand, this doesn't automatically mean the next game will be some sort of action/FPS or third person game in the same style as Dead Space or Dante's Inferno, two of Visceral's previous games. Visceral will still continue with these sorts games within the realm of the development team responsible for those games. With the expansion of the Visceral brand, they are simply consolidating all of their best teams, games and genres into one large global brand. So with all that said, its safe to assume the team at EA Los Angeles headed by Jon Van Caneghem, have every intent of making the next Command & Conquer game an RTS. Or an innovative hybrid of some sort. While the community may want Renegade 2 or Tiberium resurrected from it's grave, its probably not going to happen. A past poll here on CNCNZ.com revealed that fans want either a sequel to Generals or a franchise reboot.

 

The other key part of this news is when EA senior VP and group General Manager, Nick Earl, said the next Command & Conquer is "pretty far out". Some people have taken this to assume this means it will be a radically different game with all sorts of new and strange features that haven't been done in any RTS or C&C game before. What this really means is the the next Command & Conquer is way down the track in terms of calendar months from being publicly discussed or announced. Besides, with Command & Conquer 4, we have already had a radically different C&C game. And I don't think the community could handle another one.

 

If your interested in some further articles and news items check these links out....

• Command & Conquer Lives On As One Of EA's Visceral Games (Kotaku)
• Interview: Earl Reveals EA's Expansion Of Visceral Label (Gamasutra)
• Visceral working on Command & Conquer game (Gameplanet NZ)

They basically cover the same areas as the original NowGamer article, but I feel Kotaku's article paints a much clearer picture.

[Guest Stevie_K]

Nice to get that cut and clear.

[master412160 0]

Ah nice read, got better insight into it now.

[General Kane Nash 0]

Ok... well, it's still Visceral so we can still trust whatever they do it will be cool, but I really really hope it's a good non-cartonish looking game.

[Silverthorn 0]

Nice read, I sure hope they don't think about lying again just like how Greg Black's promises were all broken before. I still have my doubts on JVC, after all, no matter how super their developing brains can be to help out C&C, as long as the execs are making the decision on when the game needs to released and how it's going to look like, then quality can fall.

 

Metaphor wise, no matter if you have a big badass 12 Megapixel digital camera and snap shot a beautiful scenery, you think your photo is going to the best quality, right? Yes it'll be, but if you're using very small and poor quality lenses, then your picture will look like pixelated crap for sure!

Edited October 19, 2010 by Silverthorn

[Chronojam 3]

An update on this, apparently Visceral / Redwood is not actually involved.

 

Next C&C Coming From L.A., Not Visceral

 

( http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/201...es-project.aspx )

 

Yesterday there was talk that EA's Visceral Games studio (Dead Space series) was starting work on a new Command & Conquer title. However, EA tells us a slightly different story.

 

The news originated from a Gamasutra interview with Visceral Games' general manager Nick Earl, who mentioned that EA was in the very early stages of a new Command & Conquer game. Apparently, however, Earl was talking about EA as a whole and not Visceral Games specifically.

 

EA confirmed with us that a new Command & Conquer title is indeed early in development, but that it was being handled by an Los Angeles-based team that reports to Earl in Redwood Shores, CA. Command & Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight (shown above) was developed by EA's LA studio, and although it is unknown at this time if that's the L.A. team that is on this nascent C&C game, given that developer's history with the franchise, we'd be surprised if it wasn't.

[Guest Stevie_K]

An update on this, apparently Visceral / Redwood is not actually involved.

Next C&C Coming From L.A., Not Visceral

Doesn't really bother me. I'm not at all impressed with the work of Visceral Games.

[Blbpaws 1]

A few months back I found out (I won't say from who) that the new C&C dev team is spread out over multiple studios in Los Angeles, Texas and Asia. EALA is basically part of the new Visceral Games brand.

 

However, EA tells us a slightly different story....EA confirmed with us that a new Command & Conquer title is indeed early in development, but that it was being handled by an Los Angeles-based team that reports to Earl in Redwood Shores, CA.

 

Sonic, how do these two statements match up (the first being from you, and the second being from EA at http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/201...es-project.aspx )? It seems like things haven't changed that much, but maybe I'm missing something.

 

All these threads and posts seem like an overreaction to one offhand comment. My take: there's a C&C in development in LA, by the new EALA team. What it is, we'll know soon enough, but I don't think anyone knows yet.

[Guest Stevie_K]

I'm confused.

[Inferno 22]

Well, at least we know that a C&C is in developement.

[PurpleGaga27 40]

I say that this new C&C game mainly developed by EALA is being outsourced to Visceral. Visceral develops most of the development and EALA handles the rest.

[Silverthorn 0]

It'll be like Kane's Wrath, Purple. Although I'm not sure if Visceral's studio is really outside of EALA, if it does, we can beg our hopes up on this one as long as the execs are not in the way. EALA's C&C games that are made in-house usually intend to **** it up really hard just like how C&C4 was made. So hopefully an outsource will be the ideal way to go. BreakAway Games did for Kane's Wrath I'm not sure how the company did, good or bad? But let's hope Visceral will be something better.