Building in Progress
In a surprising announcement, Electronic Arts has stated its intention to release the source code for Westwood Studios’ 1995 strategy title Command & Conquer, along with its 1996 sequel Red Alert. The code will be released under a General Public Licence on June 5, coinciding with the launch of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection.
“This is a key moment for Electronic Arts, the C&C community, and the gaming industry, as we believe this will be one of the first major RTS franchises to open source their source code under the GPL,” said EA’s Jim Vessella on Reddit. “Along with the inclusion of a new Map Editor, these open-source DLLs should assist users to design maps, create custom units, replace art, alter gameplay logic, and edit data.”
“Overall, we are incredibly excited to see what the community creates over the coming months. We anticipate some fantastic content for the Remastered Collection itself, some great updates in current community projects as they incorporate the source code, and perhaps we’ll even see some new RTS projects now made possible with the source code under the GPL.”
EA hopes that releasing the source code will encourage the C&C modding community, affording them easier access to the tools and assets required to expand the Command & Conquer homebrew universe. Elsewhere in the post, Vessella noted that C&C Remastered will not support LAN multiplayer at launch, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as having delayed development. LAN support will remain a high priority for post-release.
Open source is exciting news for the C&C tech-head community, who will no doubt put these new tools to excellent use, creating a catalogue of new maps, missions, units and storylines. But you know what I’m looking forward to the most? Starring in my own FMV cinematics. I wonder if Ivana Milicevic is free…
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection launches June 5 on PC via Steam and GOG.