Remaster Update and Game Finaling

Fellow Command & Conquer fans,

Before we begin, we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy through this unprecedented time.  I apologize I was unable to deliver an update in April, as our teams have also been reacting to the impact of Covid-19, and prioritizing adjustments to our process so everyone can continue developing the game in a safe environment.  For this update, I wanted to outline our latest status with the game’s finaling effort, and also address some of the impacts Covid-19 has had on our development.

If you remember back on March 10, we revealed our trailer and announced the launch date of June 5 for the Remastered Collection.  This was such an exciting day for us on the development side, and we were humbled by the positive reactions from the C&C community and around the industry.  But over the following week, local governments here in California began enacting shelter-in-place orders, and by March 17 the large majority of our development teams around the world were working remotely from home.  At the time we were unsure what impact this would have on our velocity and ability to final the game.  However, I’ll simply say the development teams at Petroglyph in Las Vegas, Lemon Sky in Malaysia, and across EA have done a phenomenal job maintaining momentum and a commitment to quality over these past two months.  I’m so proud of the teams, and because of this dedicated effort, we were able to achieve our goals and are still on track to launch the game on June 5.  We hope the launch will provide an entertaining event for all of you to experience, especially for those of us who may still be staying safe at home in June.

With that in mind, this past week we did receive some unfortunate news regarding the impact of Covid-19 on our physical collector’s editions.  We originally had every intention of being able to deliver the collector’s editions alongside the June 5 launch, but the virus has caused significant manufacturing delays from Limited Run’s overseas vendors.  Because of this, we wanted to let the community know the collector’s editions will not be shipping out until later in the early Fall.  Trust me, we are as bummed about the delay as you are.  We wanted to highlight a few important points and provide some options going forward:

1)     You will still receive your Steam key via email starting June 1, so you will be able to pre-load the game and play the minute it releases.

2)     As a token of appreciation, the team will be including extra Limited Run trading cards with all shipments.

3)     All purchasers should also receive a direct email from Limited Run, providing this overview and keeping you up to date on the status of your order.

4)     We also understand this is a difficult financial time for many people, and personal situations may have changed over the past several weeks.  If for any reason you want to cancel your collector’s edition pre-order, please contact Limited Run by May 26, 2020 to fulfill this request.

5)     You may contact Limited Run at any time via their site at limitedrungames.freshdesk.com if you have questions to help through this process.

What I can say is that Limited Run has a deep commitment to quality for the final delivery.  I’ve been able to provide feedback on all the items, and I couldn’t be more excited about how the editions are coming together.  Limited Run has been humbled by the passionate demand from the C&C community, and wanted to share these words with all of you:

“As fans of Command & Conquer ourselves, it was an honor to be included in its historic anniversary.  While we always hoped the campaign was going to be a success, the response has absolutely blown us away.  We appreciate your understanding with the Covid-19 situation, and are going to include some extra Limited Run trading cards with all shipments for your patience.  Thanks for making us a part of the Command & Conquer legacy, and thanks to all of you for your support!”

Now, to provide some further insight into the past two months, our focus has been on bug fixing and reacting to player feedback.  We’ve continued to work with the Community Council as they playtest the daily builds, and even had an ongoing “Top 10 Council” label in our Jira database to ensure we prioritized their most important items (amongst hundreds of pieces of their feedback).  Our QA teams have been actively going through their finaling checklists, and this week we are preparing the game for submission to our certification team.  Then alongside the game’s development, we’ve been more actively engaging with the media to showcase the game, which you may have seen in coverage articles over the past two weeks.  Our goal is to get the word out to as many gamers as possible, and hopefully, we’ll continue to build positive buzz leading up to launch.

So, by now you should all know I love to tease you about upcoming items.  Well, we do have a few more surprises about the Remastered Collection to share prior to launch, some of which will hopefully answer a few of your remaining outstanding questions.  Be sure to keep an eye here on the subreddit for the latest info : )

In the meantime, please stay healthy and safe, and thanks again for all your support and feedback.

Cheers,

Jim Vessella

Jimtern