Today at EA PLAY, we revealed Command & Conquer™: Rivals, but the road to EA PLAY started at Redwood Studios about two years ago.
Redwood Studios was founded by a group of passionate gamers with the goal to create amazing strategy experiences for players around the world. At EA, there are several strategy games in development, with my team focused on delivering a great real-time strategy game on mobile. We set out to build the RTS experience we know and love – a game that delivers the core fantasy of commanding an army.
Once we had our goal, we knew we had the right franchise to deliver that vision with Command & Conquer. After all, Command & Conquer games defined real-time strategy for so many players. But if we were going to build something for mobile, we knew we had to reimagine gameplay. We had to take advantage of mobile’s touch interface, screen size, and on-the-go sessions. So, we deconstructed and reassembled the essence of an RTS battle: building an army, unit control, and adapting to the enemy.
Rivals gives players continuous unit control of all their units at all times. We think this adds a new and fresh dimension to gameplay. Many in the industry believe it isn’t something our players can handle – but we disagree. Players are sophisticated and hungry for this level of control and the strategy it affords.
Rivals delivers an RTS experience focused on competition, skill, and strategy. That means you test your commander skills against opponents in heated, live 1v1 matches that unfold in minutes. Every victory will be earned by your commander skills. We want every match to be fun, fair, and competitive. That’s when the game is at its best.
We truly believe we have started on the path to creating a great RTS experience, but it’s just the beginning. As a development team, we absolutely love playing this game and battling against each other. And now it’s your turn.
Today we’re kicking off our Pre-Alpha and we need your help! Open to Android users in the US and Canada, head to the Google Play Store and search “Command & Conquer: Rivals.” On the description page, tap the “Pre-Register” button. Starting today, we will then let in waves of players to start playing and providing feedback.
We need your help and feedback at scale. Two of the goals for the pre-alpha are for us to test combat balance and matchmaking, as both are critical to ensuring fun, fair, competitive matches. We will update our gameplay and matchmaking systems directly from player and community feedback we get in the Pre-Alpha and beyond.
Not in the US or Canada? Don’t worry, you can still pre-register to be notified when Command & Conquer: Rivals is available worldwide. Android and iOS players can pre-register on our website at www.cncrivals.com, and Android users can also pre-register directly on the Google Play store by searching for Command & Conquer: Rivals.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Welcome to Command & Conquer: Rivals
- Michael Martinez, Studio GM, Redwood Studios
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