Video game preservation scored a win today with EA’s decision to make four Command & Conquer games open source. The company has released the source code for Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Renegade and Command & Conquer: Generals through a GPL license. All four projects are available to the public on Github.
In addition, EA is adding Steam Workshop support to more contemporary entries in the real-time strategy franchise, including a modding support pack with assets from the series titles on the SAGE engine, such as Command & Conquer Red Alert 3. This game genre has fallen out of vogue in recent years. But the C&C series still has a lot of fans, so a fresh boost of modder interest could bring new players to the franchise. (Plus, never forget that Red Alert 3 also contains the in all of video game history.)
EA released meticulous remasters of the first two installments of Command & Conquer , which included the release of those games’ source code. In December, the company made several of its open source as well.
It’s also encouraging to see EA taking a positive action around a beloved franchise, especially when its recent efforts to remaster was riddled with technical issues at launch that required to fix.