Victory Studios has closed, according to its marketing manager, alongside the cancellation of its free-to-play version of Command & Conquer. A letter on Command & Conquer's website, which details the reason for ceasing production, was allegedly "not ok'd by the team."

The letter reads, "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." EA will be refunding users who spent money during the duration of C&C's closed alpha. IGN found Command & Conquer underwhelming earlier this year. At Gamescom, EA and Victory revealed that C&C would receive campaign content -- which was previously removed -- in 2014.

Victory Studios' last words on the site state, "We believe that Command & Conquer is a powerful franchise with huge potential and a great history, and we are determined to get the best game made as soon as possible. To that end, we have already begun looking at a number of alternatives to get the game back on track. We look forward to sharing more news about the franchise as it develops. Thank you again for your participation and support."

Source

It is never good when a a studio is closed & people lose their jobs. I guess EA didnt have faith in this product.

I kind of assumed this had already happened. Sucks for those who lost their jobs, especially so late in the year.

Daaaaaaaaaang. Canning the whole thing seems unfortunate, but I don't think F2P works very well for RTS.

Definitely sucks for those out of work after all this craziness, but it sounds like this game has had an incredibly troubled development, and basically no one could agree on what works best. Despite how this turned out, I think this:

The letter reads, "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." EA will be refunding users who spent money during the duration of C&C's closed alpha.

Is actually a really positive development, in the grand scheme of things.

At first I said, "wait, no!" but then I realised I have not heard a single damn thing about this game for so long other than very mediocre stuff. I still wish they make another C&C generals because i loved that version of C&C

Yeah, this doesn't sound like EA not having faith in the project, it sounds like they actually took feedback to heart and realized there was not point to continue on with it.

Well on the bright side, I guess this frees up Jon Van Caneghem to make the spiritual successor to Might and Magic I've been dreaming about!

What the fuck? How can people spend money during a closed alpha?

Anyway, this is what EA does best: getting a terrible idea for an old IP, then changing its mind way too late, fucking everybody over in the process.

Victory will now be known as Defeat.

@tycobb said:

/thread

Well too bad about the people loosing jobs.

But as far as the C&C goes, it was getting rather tiresome seeing that name getting dragged through the dirt over the last years. First abysmal C&C4 then the F2P stuff with no campaign.

Not sure how they were planning to look for alternatives to finish it considering C&C is owned by EA. So that message on the site was kinda dubious. (and moot anyway now that they're closed)

@grissefar: Did they mean closed beta?

Hope all those left unemployed land on their feet.

Man, I remember when this was revealed as the next Bioware game. That was so nuts!

@silvergun: I hope he either moves on from EA or gets to work on a new AAA Ultima game. After all the recent free to play crap I really could use a new epic Ultima and who better to make it than the creator of the other great RPG series of the 80's and 90's?

I haven't heard "Command and Conquer" in quite a while.

i don't get it why they closed/fired all the staff because they could have made a starwars rts if C&C was not liked by the alpha testers

i don't hope that's it for C&C i always liked the cheesiness of those games

This is the right move. The alpha of that game was atrocious. Sorry to everyone who lost their jobs. EA should never have made this abomination in the first place.

C&C had some fun games over the years, but I question the notion of a F2P RTS.

Actually, I question the notion of an RTS that doesnt have Starcraft in the title in this world of MOBAs.

EA = laughing stock. Clueless.

Remember when the studio used to be called Bioware Victory ? Man, that was really stupid.

@soulcake: Are there many people with lasting love/nostalgia for the series (honest question)? If so, then it will be back. This is one of those industries where franchises never die unless forgotten. Otherwise they just sleep.

dunno, they seem like they are a pretty successful company

C&C died with Westwood. I hope they put the franchise to rest at this point rather than beating its corpse like they did with the last few iterations.

Not as successful as you might assume. Fortunately for them their monopoly on the sport licenenses means they can be as incompetent as they like at everything else they try. An advantage they seem intent on using to breaking point.

I was on the Austin team. This came as a total surprise to us this morning. Such a shame to see all of that work go to waste. I hope everyone on the team lands on their feet, but given the talented people I worked with I don't think I have to worry.

Right move. Never nice to see people lose their jobs, but after the abomination that was C&C 4, I got kinda soured on the whole C&C thing, which is a shame as I absolutely adored C&C: Tiberian Dawn and C&C 3.

That really sucks. While the free to play aspect wasn't my cup of tea, the world needs more traditional RTSes, and more C&C in particular

Remember when "Bioware" was making this game? You know, back when the name Bioware ment something? Really sucks for those people, even though I was not interested in a F2P C&C, not even a bit. Wish everybody the best

What!? EA has a quality assurance dept?

I got an invite to the closed alpha for that game. Didn't touch it. Pity that people lost their jobs, but good on EA for cancelling it if it wasn't reaching expectations. The C&C name has been dragged through the mud enough.

Really though, the positive fallout from all of this is that Jon Van Caneghem can go back to making games I want to play. Like, he should make Heroes of Might and Magic VII. Seriously.