Last week, EA madecontroversial comments (opens in new tab)about their upcoming free-to-play RTS title, Command and Conquer: Generals 2, indicating that they had chosen not to include a single-player mode in this iteration.
This, of course, made lots of long-time C&C fans particularly angry as the single-player experience is probably C&C’s most celebrated mode. However, today EA has responded saying that they have heard the fan feedback and are adapting to suit fans’ desires.
EA CEO Frank Gibeau responded today to Polygon (opens in new tab), saying, “Our intention with Command & Conquer is to create a triple-A experience, and by that I mean we’re using Frostbite tech, we’re using very high-end graphics. Does that mean it’s not going to have single-player? No, that’s something we’ve obviously heard loud and clear that is important to people. The beauty of free-to-play, is that we can adjust and adapt to what we’re hearing as opposed to, ‘I’m sorry, it’s two months from ship and it is what it is.’ It’s a very different model because you don’t have to build as much. You build in response to your audience.”
There’s no word yet on what form that single-player experience will take, or how it will be sold. Perhaps as an in-game purchase in the F2P game? Or as a standalone product? Who knows, but we’ll be curious to see how EA adapts to this one.