Producer Rade Stojsavljevic recalled the atmosphere in 2000: ‘‘The degree of hype and expectations that Tiberian Sun had to fulfil was staggering. It was anticipation that the team felt very heavily on their shoulders. God, was that year great for games.īut there were still many cheap imitators, and Command & Conquer was still a franchise whose forthcoming entry was highly anticipated. Other games like 1997’s Dark Reign: The Future of War, Age of Empires and Total Annihilation were shaking up the RTS in new ways. StarCraft’s monumental legacy needs no introduction or explanation. Blizzard Entertainment, after riding Westwood’s coattails with its Dune II clone Warcraft, revolutionised the genre with 1995’s Warcraft 2 and unleashed a juggernaut in 1998. You build, you train, you attack before your enemy does simple, but effective enough to make Red Alert one of the most iconic games of the dial-up age.īut the RTS was not living in a vacuum. With 1996’s Command & Conquer: Red Alert came the peak of the ‘old-school’ RTS. They had invented the genre with 1992’s Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty and refined it into its modern form in 1995 with Command & Conquer (known as Tiberian Dawn amongst fans and Westwood themselves). You see, there was a time when Westwood ruled the RTS world. It’s also ambition that makes Tiberian Sun stand out from the rest of the Command & Conquer family. Reasons for this are complex, but they can be simplified to a single word: Ambition. In fact, Tiberian Sun had already been delayed by the time of the acquisition – and would be a second time.
They were hard at work on Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun, a game that wouldn’t see the light of day until just over a year later.
Electronic Arts’ purchase of Westwood in 1998 – a bonus for its annexing of Virgin Interactive’s US branch – cast the studio’s independence into doubt, as its new masters put it to co-development duties and seemingly dragged down its other iconic franchise.īut EA had purchased Westwood in the midst of a creative firestorm. Its more successful titles like 1997’s (excellent) Blade Runner failed to turn a significant profit.
1997’s Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor and 1998’s Dune 2000 were both shrugged off by critics. The late 90s were a turbulent time for Westwood Studios.
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