Summary
Electronic Arts has taken a significant step in game preservation by releasing the source code for fourCommand & Conquertitles under the GPL license. The titles include the originalCommand & Conquer (& Tiberian Dawn),Red Alert,Renegade, andGenerals, along with its expansion, Zero Hour.
This initiative builds upon EA’s previous release of source code for theCommand & Conquer Remastered Collectionin 2020. While the earlier release was adapted for the remaster’s engine, the current release provides the fully recovered original source code forTiberian DawnandRed Alert. Additionally, the source code forRenegadeandGenerals, previously unavailable to the public, has been open-sourced for the first time.
The project was led by Luke Feenan, a long-time member of theCommand & Conquercommunity. Feenan collaborated with EA teams to restore the Perforce source code archives to a buildable state. Feenan making the work easier likely had a lot to do with EA finally releasing the code. If it had cost a good deal of man power or time, EA may not have wanted to do this.
Feenan’s involvement originated from his work on theCommand & ConquerRemastered Collection and theCommand & Conquer Ultimate Collectionlaunch on Steam in 2024. Key EA personnel supported the initiative, including technical director Brian Barnes and producer Jim Vessella.
Beyond releasing the source code, EA has implemented Steam Workshop support for severalCommand & Conquertitles. This functionality now extends toCommand & ConquerRenegade,Command & ConquerGeneralsandZero Hour,Command & ConquerTiberium WarsandKane’s Wrath,Command & ConquerRed Alert 3andUprising, andCommand & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight. The updated Mission Editor and World Builder tools enable direct map publishing to the Steam Workshop.
EA has released aCommand & ConquerModding Support pack for modders. This resource includes source XML, Schema, Script, Shader, and Map files for all games utilizing the SAGE engine, addressing a long-standing request from the modding community.
As part of the announcement, EA also releaseda 35-minute video compilationfeaturing rare archival footage from the early development stages ofCommand & ConquerRenegadeandGenerals. This footage offers a historical perspective on the games' development process for the community. The source code and modding support pack are available onElectronic Arts' GitHub page.
EA could have had many reasons to do this, but one of the better ones is reputation. Releasing the source code for a game is an easy way to get into players' good graces. If a game hasn’t made money in a while, it arguably will not lose the company money to just release it for players to do what they will with it.
Regardless of why this was done, it is a big deal. There isn’t much incentive for publishers to release the source code to older games. If the games stop making money, it would be cheaper to just stop hosting the games on services like Steam. However, EA letting anyone take the game and do whatever they like to do is a rare win for players.
The open-source nature of the release means that we may soon see fan-made remasters or remakes of olderCommand & Conquergames. It’s hard for a big publisher like EA to greenlight something like this because player expectations are high and costly without a guarantee of financial return. Fans tend to do this out of love of the series, which means the cost is taken in stride.
We’ll have to wait a few years to see something big come from this open-source release, as those projects take time to start and complete. Either way, it’s nice to see what makes the game tick.
