Original Command & Conquer will remaster series' first games in one package

After soft-announcing a new Command & Conquer project last month, EA has taken the wraps off a plan that will hopefully satisfy that '90s real-time strategy series' biggest fans. Production has officially started on a full remaster of the first two Command & Conquer RTS games-the original 1995 and the 1996 sequel Red Alert-With all games' expansion packs included as part of the complete package.

What is more, development is being spearheaded by Petroglyph Games, a studio formed from the ashes of original C & C Westwood development studio.

"This is getting the band back together," Petroglyph Audio Director Frank Klepacki said in an announcement on Wednesday. "This is how it should be."

Klepacki's hire as part of the C & C Remastered Westwood veterans Joe Bostic (co-creator series) Steve Tall (co-creator)Red Alert's lead programmer), and Mike Legg (an audio team member since Westwood's 1986 inception). Petroglyph will partner with a Malaysian art outsourcing studio, Lemon Sky, to develop the remastered games' new 4K-ready assets. Lemon Sky's work on the last year's solid StarCraft Remastered may have had something to do with it.

No release window or hints of console versions were announced yet, EA's news post includes a frank clarification: "We have not started development yet." Still, this is the first time, the team has announced that it will release the full package of packaged games, intended for launch on PC, will come in one full bundle "without microtransactions." That specific phrase may be meant to make you feel good with your mouth 2018's smartphone-only game Command & Conquer: Rivals, which tried to capitalize on Clash Royale-style microtransaction bloat-and felt little like a classic C & C game as a result.

We can only hope to access the original C & C license is what Petroglyph needs to return to its old glory days. A peek at the studio's game output since 2006 includes a shift in recent years to capitalize on early-'10s MOBA fever.

Louis Castle, another member of the original Westwood team, will have his own C & C thoughts to offer in 2019: a post-mortem presentation at the March Game Developers Conference about the original game's development. Castle currently works for Amazon Game Studios, and the EA's announcement did not include any hint of swiping for this project.