It's Not Just Dragon Age and Other RPGs. Bioware Once Worked On Its Own Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: Generals was a highly acclaimed entry to the cult RTS series. The game could have looked forward to a sequel from BioWare, but over time the whole project underwent a major overhaul, which ultimately plunged it.
BioWare studio has earned a reputation as a specialist in RPG games. While its popularity has waned in recent years, at the start of the second decade of the 21st century, the studio was at the height of its success due to the ongoing development of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. At that time, the team in question almost stood alongside Westwood Studios as the developers of a new chapter in the history of the Command & Conquer series.
From Command & Conquer: Generals 2...
Unofficial reports about "something" happening with the Command & Conquer series began circulating on the Internet sometime before the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. However, fans had to wait until the event itself to uncover the previously carefully hidden cards by Electronic Arts, where the game Command & Conquer: Generals 2 was announced. The sequel to the 2003 hit was specifically aimed at the PC (although the possibility of releasing console versions in the future wasn't ruled out) and was being developed by BioWare Victory, a studio established specifically for this purpose and operating under the guidance of RPG experts. The team overseeing it was headed by Jon van Caneghem, the "father" of King's Bounty, Might & Magic, and Heroes of Might and Magic.
Initially, the title looked like a dream come true for fans of the original. The devs promised an RTS faithful to tradition, with base building, resource gathering, recruiting diverse units, and finally engaging in dynamic real-time battles. It's worth noting that despite the genre being different from most BioWare projects, the company's "DNA" was clearly visible here. In February 2012, Ray Muzyka, then at the helm of the company, stated that the game would "be characterized by BioWare quality," ensuring "an engaging plot in real-time strategy."
Additionally, the strong point of this title was supposed to be the graphic design. It was created using Frostbite 2 technology, which powered games such as Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run. It was supposed to allow the devs to implement an advanced physics engine and realistic environmental destruction. What could have gone wrong?
...to the free-to-play Command & Conquer
However, in August 2012 we learned that Command & Conquer: Generals 2 underwent a thorough renovation. The decision was made to turn this project into a game service or even a platform combining the worlds of three brands: Command & Conquer: Generals, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, and Command & Conquer: Tiberium. Elements from other brands were intended to be added in the form of updates released after the premiere, even though initially it was supposed to contain only content related to Generals. Furthermore, new universes, which were still unknown at that time, were to join this trio.
If the news from Electronic Arts had ended there, fans would probably have taken it a bit more calmly than they ultimately did. Unfortunately, it was also revealed that the game will lack a single-player story campaign, instead focusing on multiplayer and allowing players to cooperate or compete online. Moreover, it was decided that the discussed item will be distributed using a free-to-play model with microtransactions.
Due to negative feedback from fans, one of these changes was quickly withdrawn. Frank Gibeau, who was the head of EA Games at the time, confirmed in September that Command & Conquer would have a single-player mode after all. Which Command & Conquer exactly? In order to reflect the new character of the game, a decision was made to remove the part "Generals 2" from its title. Furthermore, it could be argued maliciously that the project being described no longer represented the "BioWare quality" as mentioned earlier by Ray Muzyka, as in November 2012 BioWare Victory was separated from its parent studio and became a completely independent entity - Victory Games.
Ineffective strategy
A few community representatives gathered around the brand and were able to see how the strategy chosen by the developers and publisher would perform on the battlefield at a specially organized show for them. While the concept for the game's design was new to the series, the gameplay was intended to heavily draw from the series' legacy. Nevertheless, the devs weren't afraid to add new elements, encouraging players to create multiple bases, abandoning the black market (known from Generals), introducing significant differences between the sides of the conflict, and putting more emphasis on tactics rather than the numbers of troops taking part in fights.
In February 2013, the whole world could see the first gameplay from Command & Conquer and learn more about the three factions that were to be made available to players (the militarized European Union, the terrorist Global Liberation Army, and the Asian-Pacific Alliance). The closed beta tests for the game were originally scheduled to begin in the summer of 2013, but ultimately faced a "delay." To wipe away the tears, in August players were allowed to take a look behind the scenes of the title, and were promised that the game would have a story campaign, released in the form of paid episodes. In October 2013, it was announced that the title would launch in February 2014.
Lost battle
Unexpectedly, at the end of October 2013, news broke that the Command & Conquer project had been canceled, and the studio behind it had closed. Shortly thereafter, an anonymous employee of Victory Games commented on this matter on the game forum, blaming "corporate intrigues" for such a state of affairs. Meanwhile, as stated in the official announcement:
Part of being in a creative team is the understanding that not all of your choices are going to work out. Your feedback from the alpha trial is clear: We are not making the game you want to play.
That is why, after much difficult deliberation, we have decided to cease production of this version of the game. Although we deeply respect the great work done by our talented team, ultimately it's about getting you the game you expect and deserve.
The project was unexpectedly revealed to still be alive in November. Nonetheless, it was to be taken over and finished by another studio. Unfortunately, it seems that Electronic Arts didn't have any team in mind, as they were still searching for a new developer for Command & Conquer back in 2014... a search that apparently ended in failure, as the project eventually vanished without a trace. So it seemed that the game failed even before reaching the battlefield.
What happened next?
The Command & Conquer series remained silent for the next 4 years. It returned to EA's favor in 2018 thanks to... the mobile Command & Conquer: Rivals. In 2020, fans of the series saw a glimmer of hope for its future with the launch of Command & Conquer Red Alert Remastered and Command & Conquer Remastered. However, the next release under this banner was supposed to be another mobile game, the free-to-play Command & Conquer: Legions.
Time will tell if the Command & Conquer brand will ever see a large, high-budget game again.
