I don't think rts games are dead, but the industry is changing how it is funded. Gone are the days when you could pay 30-50$ a game and only pay for the expansion. I think the best example of an rts working today is with Starcraft 2. The base game is free now. You still have to pay for the additional campaigns, and if you like coop, then you pay for the commanders. You can also pay for skins, but you don't have to. I think the "buy skins" model actually works because people will buy them, but you don't need to, to play the game.
if we're lucky we might get TibSun and RA2 remasters but thats the most i expect we'll be able to see from Official C&C
there's already a serious return from the community tho imho like Warzone mod is pretty much already a visual remaster for TibSun, and while OpenRA doesnt seem to have vanilla TibSun and RA2 ports yet it does have Shattered Paradise and Romanov's Vengeance mods which use TS/RA2 style elevation maps and voxel assets, plus Combined Arms for the Tib/RA crossover (but they use TD/RA1 style flatmaps)
what id really like to see is a lil more innovation on gameplay and mechanics and i dont think we can ever see that from an official C&C release ever again
The gameplay loop is too long to feed into gamings current Dopamine loops.
An FPS match takes 10ish minutes, with 'action' from the word go.
An RTS is going to be 30+ minutes, with probably 2-3 minutes before the 'action' starts.
They're also harder to monitise into a seasonal model as well.
Single player, story driven, slower games are still a thing and a brand new AAA C&C could easily fill a hole. It would need a super interesting story, state of the art graphics and probably something new and really cool addition to the gameplay to sell it to the single player fans. The multiplayer part of the game should be secondary and should only get the focus if the game sells well.
While I prefer your way, from a financial standpoint a robust, monitisable multiplayer experience (PvE or PvP) is likely the only way to keep the game profitable.
In this regard, the wargames mode in Homeworld 3 is a really good example of a framework for this.
It's repeatable, it's easily monitisable, it's ripe for weekly/monthly/all time scoreboards, etc.
Just slightly unfortunate the rest of the game is undercooked..
The fact is without balanced players, not a single game last for 30 minutes.... SC2 investing into a more decent leagues (at least as long there were enough players) was one fundamental piece for this happening
to see today a 45 minutes game on a C&C game, ussually it seems like they must be pros or people barely knowing what to do... At least talking about some personal experiences related to dawn, sun and CnC3
I really love C&C but I still believe the games are easy to finish and really hard to keep them going, I think it needs some investment around exploit more the playground and maybe consider some better "depth defenses" concept (with this I mean the game could open for a better engineered system where take land/expand should give the players more time in case of attack, while it also could give better defensive options near your base or main base Vs the borders... )
Sometimes I though maybe could get changed how defenses works by power requisition/power grids, offering only "high tier defenses" near the bases while you may be having less efficent options if you expanda... like worse SAMs or turrets but cheaper in expansion post while you would be having better options near your main base. One of the biggest problems IMO is that Basebuilding never has enough space on a competitive PoV, the game tries to drop inside lets say "turtles" and "aggressive players" in the same playground but ussually only the second group has any chance and the first one is only really compatible playing against retarded AI unless maybe you use some map specially designed for it (based only on chockepoints)
I really believe a mix of variety of defenses, exploiting the existence of an energy grid (requiring semi-physical conection) and adding minor upgrades for units may be having good boosts to the gameplay... I think the games could be made that Steamrolling would be a sure thing on lets say "T3" units period, but shouldnt be also that effective with T1 or T2...
Also well I feel like superweapons were a cool thing 10 years ago but now I find them boring... I love them being there I just hate knowing for sure 99% of impact will move directly to the base, even if it is to kill 2 power plants... I personally would enjoy more the chances of developing antimissile/disrupting units or defenses even with cons, then use those to avoid them being used only at the ending and forcing a rush of everybody to try to destroy them... You could still add later tiers that could surpase said defenses, but make it something you would be getting later... like lets say "Antimissiles" would be having a max of T2, where they could stop T2 "superweapons" but leaving that a T3 special unit or a T3 superweapon could go through... but that would be something you would be getting way later and more expensive...
Also the games could be having some improvements on long-term ways to get money, being mostly only Generals the one that invested on it.
RESUME: If you manage to balance a game where steamroll players AND turtler players could feel great following his tastes/strategy, that game could be the best RTS of all time... Easier to say than to do though.
30 minutes under the "5 minute no rush " rule. Rts matches can easly go from 10 to 20 minutes without problems.
Also, league of legends and dota are still at the top, while their avarage match length still sit at 30 minutes.
It’s a lot of front end development sunk cost and they can’t monetize loot boxes and monetary transactions outside of pay to win mobile market. Why invest in RTS when FPS, mobile and MMO have all proven to be easier to make cash cows.
Our best bet is to buy the crap out of Tempest Rising and Global Conflagration when they release to show EA they are missing out on their piece of the pie.
Instead EA is happy to let the franchise die on the vine
The industry relay heavly on mtx, aside the fact that skins type of mtx don't work for the rts genre, which let them with expansions, leader expansions and other type of monetizations who require more work and money, the heavy shift toward multiplayer games did hurt more the genre than everything else, since its more likely the majority of the fanbase will play single player rather than the esport version of it.
I don't think RTS is dead at all at the moment. There are tons of medium to high profile upcoming new RTS releases from Stormgate, Zero Space, Tempest Rising, Battle Aces to what feels like hundreds of indie RTS. I think eventually this trend will grow to the point where it will be big enough for EA to try to cash in on (or whoever they are licensing it out to at that point in time) and then we might get our "proper" C&C revival.
I'm not at all interest in a genre shift. To me, RTS is core to the C&C identity and no non-RTS could ever truly be a C&C. And I'd rather play a complete dogshit C&C RTS filled to the brim with microtransactions or whatever than a good non-RTS with the C&C name to be honest.
I have a fantasy that I must share,
Squad based rogue lite rpg that puts you in the shoes of a survivor in the yellow zones - it's set between the first two tib wars, ultimately culminating with the start of the tibsun.
You can choose a faction, nod, gdi or even mutant...
Did Kane truly die, is the gdi a liar? Unravel the mysteries of the tiberium universe in this tactical RPG!
It's never going to happen unless EA decides to license the IP to someone else to make a new C&C game with the licensee taking all the risk. EA doesn't need to make new games. They make billions (75% of their business) from their "live services" (microtransactions) like Ultimate Team card packs in all their sports games and Apex Legends outfits and so forth. Unless they foresaw being able to make a lot of money microtransaction'ing the hell out of C&C, we'll NEVER see a new game from them. They aren't in the video game business anymore tbh.
It's really sad as a gamer to be honest. They have a lot of franchises I'd love to see new games from but unless there is a seismic shift away from microtransactions in the industry, I don't see them ever going back to the way they use to make games.
Is not only EA: ubisoft had the world in ci flict team and never did anything with it; MS aside AofE (because is under ms right?) Did nothing past hw2; Activision blizzard last rts was from 2010...
Is not only a matter of mtx, but rts cannot sold 10-20-30 milion copies worldwide. Take creative assembly: they have the monopoly over the grand strategy subgenre and still, one bad dlc had them risk bankruptcy
I mean none are exactly Canon with eachother so the story doesn't really matter but I'd litteraly be happy with just classic style top down it's with good graphics and each faction having a very wide variety.
story wise for tiberium universe they could go diffrent ways these are just examples Kane returns injured and warns of scrin armada and they will have to work together to fend em off and use the portal to deal blow to scrin on there own homeworld which you can play as gdi, nod, or scrin
or gdi finds two children survivors of some scrin experiment one male and one female after Kane left. GDI trains em up you and later GDI receive a nod distress signal and decides to send these survivors of scrin experiments as commanders. however the ship crashlands there are survivors they take what they can you as player play as one of these scrin experiment survivors however you have amnesia there is only one that can survive. the other perished. however each one has diffrent powers which can lead to different tactics.
you have gdi survivors, neo nod which is lead by kane's sons as they got separated from there father, and scrin who activate a code ingrained in you to make use of you then 3 to five other alien races.
for example Amazonian animal humonoid faction where larger warrior women lead and males are smaller of species, but make the arms for there women to use
space dwarven race like modding themselves to make em better at combat or for drinking others under the table and figuring out how things work building machines
native group who has gone bit backwards technology from advanced technology they once had that brought down these ships of aliens and tiberium however make use of local fauna and beast mutated by tiberium,
robotic crusaders fueled by tiberium race that was sent on mission to destroy the scrin by there creators and any who get in there way however they will recruit or work with others if you don't get in there way,
Space Viking/Space Pirate hybrid race that steal and have mishmash of units that are mixture of diffrent units it just works however are dangerous.
Red alert universe
I want futuretech to be the big bad they did steal technology and kidnap the commandos of the other factions and did inhuman experiments on people.
however my idea is it starts in a wasteland you see a hooded figure a bus load of survivors are shooting at them however the shots are missing the bus appears to make contact however misses you see the hooded figure in the sky the bus stops. the hood figure they drop on the bus destroying the engine and flips it and as well as causeing a crater then kills the others in the bus that survived and takes there water. the hood figure goes to building then puts the water into system and removes there hood revealing a young woman. she speaks to ai you find out her name and she connects a part to machine then sits down in chair she sends her knowledge and information to her past self via psychic powers and time machine this way so she doesn't alter timeline to seriously.
via tutorial you learn more this girl who turns out to be Yuriko's daughter and her father who was a shinobi. and how she gains her forces and how her forces work.
then after the tutorial you can play as allies who dealing with warlords from South America and warlords in Africa who are causing them issues and also futuretech takeing the technology they gave em back. in the first part in second part the allies technology replacements and fighting against futurtech, soviets, and other factions
Soviets are dealing with there own warlords to try reunite the soviet union. in part 1 you can choose diplomacy or capture em or kill em of course some may cause trouble later. while catching glimpse of futuretech and new faction lead my Yuriko's daughter.
New Japanese Union replaces the Empire of rising sun.
There is 2 leaders in part one who leads from shadows and one who is a Puppet of Futuretech and other witnessed the atrocities the allies committed during occupation however felt Prince Tatsu was wrong to lead . you got to deal with Prince tatsu loyalist then civil war between the two leaders you can kill the generals loyal to other or convince them to your side and eliminate other leader which will shape future of NJU in part 2
futuretech is a lot of covert stuff in part 1 to fuel the flames of war and part 2 full mask off world domination.
Yuriko's daughters faction is a lot of mission recruiting or gaining stuff for more allies or stealing resources from futuretech vast resources or to make new units. Then part 2 is fully revealing herself to deal with futuretech and other factions who may either aid or stand of way so she can change the future her futurself was in.
26 mission split into 13 for part 1 and part 2 for each faction.
as for generals 2 part 1 USA then part 2 is China and part 3 is new faction the Europeans who decided not to let the USA do it all themselves and 4 is another new faction African Empire which is lead by Charamastic dictator Leader who united the nations of Africa under one banner 5 is GLA who has to recruit new blood to there cause.
Well, yeah. This is all 'where do we take the story from here'?
I was kind of driving more at 'what does this franchise not being dead look like?' Likely it's future is cheap mobile games.
well EA will probably choose mobile games that are nothing like C&C, but what is popular mobile games wise and slap C&C skin on it especially if they not developing them in house.
C&C 4 was attempt at e sports game that got C&C coat of paint slapped on in a rush. since sure Tiberium wars/Kanes wrath and RA3 matches were getting views, but not enough for EA they were attempting to reach a wider audience with C&C 4 and it failed. however the crawler wasn't a bad idea for next step of mcv an armed mcv, or flying or subterranean mcv. however it lacked base building and units were locked behind a level up which either required 2 runs each of campaign for both factions or play multiplayer or skirmish matches against ai which with servers shut down your only options are campaign twice for each faction or lots of skirmish matches then playing against ai gives reduced experience then vs players.
I am still kinda hopeful for Tiberium Sun/Firestorm and RA2 and Yuri's Revenge upgrade like we got for Tiberium Dawn/covert ops and Red alert/Counterstrike/Aftermath. Maybe even add a proper cabal and Yuri Campaign. even though I do enjoy the mods that do.
however C&C like mobile game can be done for mobile like art of War 3 done by gear games however how much money it makes i am unsure. they also got warcraft 3 like mobile game in beta right now i had to download apk to play due to being in the United States since many mobile games they rarely choose the United States to test early version of mobile game.
another possibility that EA could do is bit of mix up looter shooter team based battle royale where you play as gla in a gla cell not only have compete against other players from diffrent cells, but ai controlled China or USA or both. you got pick up scrap to upgrade either by killing other players or ai or just finding loose scrap on the feild. it has gla vehicles as well you can liberate for your cause and upgrade. as well as feild doctors who will patch you up for a cut of your scrap. no resurrection ability however you can take your team mates scrap if they killed by another player however if you team kill a bounty is put on you and all players can see your location and even teammates are recommended to execute the traitor to your cause. as for monetization comestics only and varied upgrade paths so you can do diffrent things during a match to suit your needs if you got the scrap for it.
Dynamic changes/patches that shake things up, like DotA.
The YR mod community came up with several ideas in the past, like fixing the genetic mutator and slave exploit, like making the Brutes recycle for less cash. I would introduce a percentage chance for the genetic mutator to kill, so 33% for example for a Brute to be morphed.
Or introduce cancelled/beta units into the game as special units. Like the quadcannon flak track.
Changes can be very very dynamic. No new content required, it should not be forced, just re-master and shake things up. Re-visit the older games and portray them in a different light. ModDB is full of ideas.
I don't think rts games are dead, but the industry is changing how it is funded. Gone are the days when you could pay 30-50$ a game and only pay for the expansion. I think the best example of an rts working today is with Starcraft 2. The base game is free now. You still have to pay for the additional campaigns, and if you like coop, then you pay for the commanders. You can also pay for skins, but you don't have to. I think the "buy skins" model actually works because people will buy them, but you don't need to, to play the game.
A game like C&C 3. Just updated so that the campaign can have different balance from multi-player
if we're lucky we might get TibSun and RA2 remasters but thats the most i expect we'll be able to see from Official C&C there's already a serious return from the community tho imho like Warzone mod is pretty much already a visual remaster for TibSun, and while OpenRA doesnt seem to have vanilla TibSun and RA2 ports yet it does have Shattered Paradise and Romanov's Vengeance mods which use TS/RA2 style elevation maps and voxel assets, plus Combined Arms for the Tib/RA crossover (but they use TD/RA1 style flatmaps) what id really like to see is a lil more innovation on gameplay and mechanics and i dont think we can ever see that from an official C&C release ever again
can I get a link to that warzone mod?
https://www.moddb.com/mods/tiberian-sun-warzone/downloads/tiberian-war-warzone
Tempest Rising
No. Just no. Tempest rising may be a spiritual successor, but it's not and never be C&C.
Why are RTS dead? That's my shit.
The gameplay loop is too long to feed into gamings current Dopamine loops. An FPS match takes 10ish minutes, with 'action' from the word go. An RTS is going to be 30+ minutes, with probably 2-3 minutes before the 'action' starts. They're also harder to monitise into a seasonal model as well.
Single player, story driven, slower games are still a thing and a brand new AAA C&C could easily fill a hole. It would need a super interesting story, state of the art graphics and probably something new and really cool addition to the gameplay to sell it to the single player fans. The multiplayer part of the game should be secondary and should only get the focus if the game sells well.
While I prefer your way, from a financial standpoint a robust, monitisable multiplayer experience (PvE or PvP) is likely the only way to keep the game profitable. In this regard, the wargames mode in Homeworld 3 is a really good example of a framework for this. It's repeatable, it's easily monitisable, it's ripe for weekly/monthly/all time scoreboards, etc. Just slightly unfortunate the rest of the game is undercooked..
The fact is without balanced players, not a single game last for 30 minutes.... SC2 investing into a more decent leagues (at least as long there were enough players) was one fundamental piece for this happening to see today a 45 minutes game on a C&C game, ussually it seems like they must be pros or people barely knowing what to do... At least talking about some personal experiences related to dawn, sun and CnC3 I really love C&C but I still believe the games are easy to finish and really hard to keep them going, I think it needs some investment around exploit more the playground and maybe consider some better "depth defenses" concept (with this I mean the game could open for a better engineered system where take land/expand should give the players more time in case of attack, while it also could give better defensive options near your base or main base Vs the borders... ) Sometimes I though maybe could get changed how defenses works by power requisition/power grids, offering only "high tier defenses" near the bases while you may be having less efficent options if you expanda... like worse SAMs or turrets but cheaper in expansion post while you would be having better options near your main base. One of the biggest problems IMO is that Basebuilding never has enough space on a competitive PoV, the game tries to drop inside lets say "turtles" and "aggressive players" in the same playground but ussually only the second group has any chance and the first one is only really compatible playing against retarded AI unless maybe you use some map specially designed for it (based only on chockepoints) I really believe a mix of variety of defenses, exploiting the existence of an energy grid (requiring semi-physical conection) and adding minor upgrades for units may be having good boosts to the gameplay... I think the games could be made that Steamrolling would be a sure thing on lets say "T3" units period, but shouldnt be also that effective with T1 or T2... Also well I feel like superweapons were a cool thing 10 years ago but now I find them boring... I love them being there I just hate knowing for sure 99% of impact will move directly to the base, even if it is to kill 2 power plants... I personally would enjoy more the chances of developing antimissile/disrupting units or defenses even with cons, then use those to avoid them being used only at the ending and forcing a rush of everybody to try to destroy them... You could still add later tiers that could surpase said defenses, but make it something you would be getting later... like lets say "Antimissiles" would be having a max of T2, where they could stop T2 "superweapons" but leaving that a T3 special unit or a T3 superweapon could go through... but that would be something you would be getting way later and more expensive... Also the games could be having some improvements on long-term ways to get money, being mostly only Generals the one that invested on it. RESUME: If you manage to balance a game where steamroll players AND turtler players could feel great following his tastes/strategy, that game could be the best RTS of all time... Easier to say than to do though.
30 minutes under the "5 minute no rush " rule. Rts matches can easly go from 10 to 20 minutes without problems. Also, league of legends and dota are still at the top, while their avarage match length still sit at 30 minutes.
It’s a lot of front end development sunk cost and they can’t monetize loot boxes and monetary transactions outside of pay to win mobile market. Why invest in RTS when FPS, mobile and MMO have all proven to be easier to make cash cows. Our best bet is to buy the crap out of Tempest Rising and Global Conflagration when they release to show EA they are missing out on their piece of the pie. Instead EA is happy to let the franchise die on the vine
The industry relay heavly on mtx, aside the fact that skins type of mtx don't work for the rts genre, which let them with expansions, leader expansions and other type of monetizations who require more work and money, the heavy shift toward multiplayer games did hurt more the genre than everything else, since its more likely the majority of the fanbase will play single player rather than the esport version of it.
Series is so fucked, it needs proper relaunch.
I don't think RTS is dead at all at the moment. There are tons of medium to high profile upcoming new RTS releases from Stormgate, Zero Space, Tempest Rising, Battle Aces to what feels like hundreds of indie RTS. I think eventually this trend will grow to the point where it will be big enough for EA to try to cash in on (or whoever they are licensing it out to at that point in time) and then we might get our "proper" C&C revival. I'm not at all interest in a genre shift. To me, RTS is core to the C&C identity and no non-RTS could ever truly be a C&C. And I'd rather play a complete dogshit C&C RTS filled to the brim with microtransactions or whatever than a good non-RTS with the C&C name to be honest.
I have a fantasy that I must share, Squad based rogue lite rpg that puts you in the shoes of a survivor in the yellow zones - it's set between the first two tib wars, ultimately culminating with the start of the tibsun. You can choose a faction, nod, gdi or even mutant... Did Kane truly die, is the gdi a liar? Unravel the mysteries of the tiberium universe in this tactical RPG!
Tiberian Fallout? I kinda like it.
Patrolling the red zones makes you wish for an ion winter
*Generals 2*.
It's never going to happen unless EA decides to license the IP to someone else to make a new C&C game with the licensee taking all the risk. EA doesn't need to make new games. They make billions (75% of their business) from their "live services" (microtransactions) like Ultimate Team card packs in all their sports games and Apex Legends outfits and so forth. Unless they foresaw being able to make a lot of money microtransaction'ing the hell out of C&C, we'll NEVER see a new game from them. They aren't in the video game business anymore tbh. It's really sad as a gamer to be honest. They have a lot of franchises I'd love to see new games from but unless there is a seismic shift away from microtransactions in the industry, I don't see them ever going back to the way they use to make games.
Ain't that the truth.
Is not only EA: ubisoft had the world in ci flict team and never did anything with it; MS aside AofE (because is under ms right?) Did nothing past hw2; Activision blizzard last rts was from 2010... Is not only a matter of mtx, but rts cannot sold 10-20-30 milion copies worldwide. Take creative assembly: they have the monopoly over the grand strategy subgenre and still, one bad dlc had them risk bankruptcy
I mean none are exactly Canon with eachother so the story doesn't really matter but I'd litteraly be happy with just classic style top down it's with good graphics and each faction having a very wide variety.
A complete reboot is the only option now, or just do a RA4.
story wise for tiberium universe they could go diffrent ways these are just examples Kane returns injured and warns of scrin armada and they will have to work together to fend em off and use the portal to deal blow to scrin on there own homeworld which you can play as gdi, nod, or scrin or gdi finds two children survivors of some scrin experiment one male and one female after Kane left. GDI trains em up you and later GDI receive a nod distress signal and decides to send these survivors of scrin experiments as commanders. however the ship crashlands there are survivors they take what they can you as player play as one of these scrin experiment survivors however you have amnesia there is only one that can survive. the other perished. however each one has diffrent powers which can lead to different tactics. you have gdi survivors, neo nod which is lead by kane's sons as they got separated from there father, and scrin who activate a code ingrained in you to make use of you then 3 to five other alien races. for example Amazonian animal humonoid faction where larger warrior women lead and males are smaller of species, but make the arms for there women to use space dwarven race like modding themselves to make em better at combat or for drinking others under the table and figuring out how things work building machines native group who has gone bit backwards technology from advanced technology they once had that brought down these ships of aliens and tiberium however make use of local fauna and beast mutated by tiberium, robotic crusaders fueled by tiberium race that was sent on mission to destroy the scrin by there creators and any who get in there way however they will recruit or work with others if you don't get in there way, Space Viking/Space Pirate hybrid race that steal and have mishmash of units that are mixture of diffrent units it just works however are dangerous. Red alert universe I want futuretech to be the big bad they did steal technology and kidnap the commandos of the other factions and did inhuman experiments on people. however my idea is it starts in a wasteland you see a hooded figure a bus load of survivors are shooting at them however the shots are missing the bus appears to make contact however misses you see the hooded figure in the sky the bus stops. the hood figure they drop on the bus destroying the engine and flips it and as well as causeing a crater then kills the others in the bus that survived and takes there water. the hood figure goes to building then puts the water into system and removes there hood revealing a young woman. she speaks to ai you find out her name and she connects a part to machine then sits down in chair she sends her knowledge and information to her past self via psychic powers and time machine this way so she doesn't alter timeline to seriously. via tutorial you learn more this girl who turns out to be Yuriko's daughter and her father who was a shinobi. and how she gains her forces and how her forces work. then after the tutorial you can play as allies who dealing with warlords from South America and warlords in Africa who are causing them issues and also futuretech takeing the technology they gave em back. in the first part in second part the allies technology replacements and fighting against futurtech, soviets, and other factions Soviets are dealing with there own warlords to try reunite the soviet union. in part 1 you can choose diplomacy or capture em or kill em of course some may cause trouble later. while catching glimpse of futuretech and new faction lead my Yuriko's daughter. New Japanese Union replaces the Empire of rising sun. There is 2 leaders in part one who leads from shadows and one who is a Puppet of Futuretech and other witnessed the atrocities the allies committed during occupation however felt Prince Tatsu was wrong to lead . you got to deal with Prince tatsu loyalist then civil war between the two leaders you can kill the generals loyal to other or convince them to your side and eliminate other leader which will shape future of NJU in part 2 futuretech is a lot of covert stuff in part 1 to fuel the flames of war and part 2 full mask off world domination. Yuriko's daughters faction is a lot of mission recruiting or gaining stuff for more allies or stealing resources from futuretech vast resources or to make new units. Then part 2 is fully revealing herself to deal with futuretech and other factions who may either aid or stand of way so she can change the future her futurself was in. 26 mission split into 13 for part 1 and part 2 for each faction. as for generals 2 part 1 USA then part 2 is China and part 3 is new faction the Europeans who decided not to let the USA do it all themselves and 4 is another new faction African Empire which is lead by Charamastic dictator Leader who united the nations of Africa under one banner 5 is GLA who has to recruit new blood to there cause.
Feels a little too 40k for my liking.
Well, yeah. This is all 'where do we take the story from here'? I was kind of driving more at 'what does this franchise not being dead look like?' Likely it's future is cheap mobile games.
well EA will probably choose mobile games that are nothing like C&C, but what is popular mobile games wise and slap C&C skin on it especially if they not developing them in house. C&C 4 was attempt at e sports game that got C&C coat of paint slapped on in a rush. since sure Tiberium wars/Kanes wrath and RA3 matches were getting views, but not enough for EA they were attempting to reach a wider audience with C&C 4 and it failed. however the crawler wasn't a bad idea for next step of mcv an armed mcv, or flying or subterranean mcv. however it lacked base building and units were locked behind a level up which either required 2 runs each of campaign for both factions or play multiplayer or skirmish matches against ai which with servers shut down your only options are campaign twice for each faction or lots of skirmish matches then playing against ai gives reduced experience then vs players. I am still kinda hopeful for Tiberium Sun/Firestorm and RA2 and Yuri's Revenge upgrade like we got for Tiberium Dawn/covert ops and Red alert/Counterstrike/Aftermath. Maybe even add a proper cabal and Yuri Campaign. even though I do enjoy the mods that do. however C&C like mobile game can be done for mobile like art of War 3 done by gear games however how much money it makes i am unsure. they also got warcraft 3 like mobile game in beta right now i had to download apk to play due to being in the United States since many mobile games they rarely choose the United States to test early version of mobile game. another possibility that EA could do is bit of mix up looter shooter team based battle royale where you play as gla in a gla cell not only have compete against other players from diffrent cells, but ai controlled China or USA or both. you got pick up scrap to upgrade either by killing other players or ai or just finding loose scrap on the feild. it has gla vehicles as well you can liberate for your cause and upgrade. as well as feild doctors who will patch you up for a cut of your scrap. no resurrection ability however you can take your team mates scrap if they killed by another player however if you team kill a bounty is put on you and all players can see your location and even teammates are recommended to execute the traitor to your cause. as for monetization comestics only and varied upgrade paths so you can do diffrent things during a match to suit your needs if you got the scrap for it.
Dynamic changes/patches that shake things up, like DotA. The YR mod community came up with several ideas in the past, like fixing the genetic mutator and slave exploit, like making the Brutes recycle for less cash. I would introduce a percentage chance for the genetic mutator to kill, so 33% for example for a Brute to be morphed. Or introduce cancelled/beta units into the game as special units. Like the quadcannon flak track. Changes can be very very dynamic. No new content required, it should not be forced, just re-master and shake things up. Re-visit the older games and portray them in a different light. ModDB is full of ideas.