EA has officially announced remasters of Command & Conquer and Red Alert, along with all their expansions, which will come bundled with the base games.
The publisher promised back in October that it was going to approach any potential remasters with a deep love and care for the originals. To that end, Petroglyph Games, a studio created by employees who worked on the original Command & Conquer, will be developing.
If that wasn’t enough for you, composer Frank Klepacki – who did the music for the original games – is returning to work on a remastered score. I’ve got chills already.
Command & Conquer co-creator and Petroglyph co-founder Joe Bostic wrote on Reddit:
Here we are 20+ years later and EA has reached out to us regarding C&C. They had decided it was about time to revisit the original C&C games to give the fans what they had been asking for. Petroglyph has many former Westwood employees and is a perfect fit for bringing the original Command & Conquer games back to life.
Bostic said that the team were “excited” to return to their baby, and suggested that the battle plan is to “remaster, rather than remake” the original games.
He explained the team want to tweak the game and take advantage of technology that wasn’t around in ’95:
If you could turn back the clock, what would you have wanted in the original C&C games? How true to a remaster should we adhere do? What modern improvements can be added without deviating from the core game? Balance changes? We will be starting development soon, so now is the time to let your voice be heard.
Development on the Command & Conquer remakes hasn’t begun yet, but the team is eager to get the community involved, take their feedback on board, and work together to create “the best possible remasters of C&C and Red Alert.“
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.