Command & Conquer - Free to Play Interview from Strategy Informer

[Sonic 302]

Strategy Informer has posted a new Command & Conquer - Free to Play interview with Senior Development Director Tim Morten. In this interview, they talk about why they settled on Generals for the new game and how they have balanced bringing AAA production values to a free-to-play game. A few more details about the plans for single player content are also discussed. Here's part of it....

 

Strategy Informer: How did you go about developing this one with so much history, so many angles you could have approached from. Why Generals?

Tim Morten: The franchise has such a history, seventeen products and everybody has experienced it from a different direction. Of the three Command & Conquer fictions though - Tiberian, Red Alert and Generals - it had been almost ten years since Generals had been revisited so we were due to go back to that. It turns out that Generals really was the fan favourite, too. It was one of the most successful selling universes and just the amount of requests on the forums for us to go back to that universe were astounding, so it felt like the right choice.

Strategy Informer: The obvious question to ask is what does the free-to-play model allow for that the traditional business model doesn't?

Tim Morten: I am really excited about this shift in how we develop. We didn't necessarily know what to expect at the outset but we quickly started to realise that it's very liberating for game development. Before we had to finish every feature that we wanted to put in front of players for a deadline to get on a disc, to get in a box, to get on a shelf. Now, we still want to develop the same breadth of features, but instead of having it all done at launch we can start with the core foundation of the game and then continually add to it. We can incorporate feedback while we do that too, instead of just guessing for day one.

Strategy Informer: Do you think there's been a shift in perception with the core gamer perhaps becoming more open to playing free-to-play games?

Tim Morten: Yeah I do. I hope that the gaming audience starts to embrace free-to-play gaming as evocative of the same quality as in boxed products. There is a certain class of free-to-play games that are flash-based or mobile based that - not that they're bad games - but they're not at the same level as what we would describe as AAA quality. So we're very sensitive to the perception that quality will somehow be compromised by this approach. Thankfully, some other products - World of Tanks, League of Legends - have really shown that it's not about the business model; it's about delivering a good game. First and foremost that's what we're focused on.

You can read the full interview right here.

[Gben 20]

I'm wondering about the monetization value of in-game advertising...

 

(Deletes' pessimistic comments about demand for single player campaign creating actual content... and then wonders how that is even going to be determined - online poll? monkey survey? pre-orders deposit? kickstarter campaign?)

[Sonic 302]

Well it seems obvious that any form of single player content like a campaign would be charged for.

[Gben 20]

I'm resigned on the issue of paying for a SP DLC... but since it's probably the most obvious add-on or DLC content that needs to be done... so surely they should be working on it right now... it should be a RELEASE DAY PATCH!

 

I'm wondering purely about the mechanics of showing the developers our "demands"... and how it's going to work for other features.

Are they just going to trawl through their own forums and pick something???

'm just wondering if they are thinking of a more formal process...

[Guest Stevie_K]

I don't mind paying for a good campaign, as long it's not using a real money to game credit method.