Diehard Command and Conquer fans probably considered the series dead to rights when Westwood Studios closed in 2003. It has been a long time since we've seen a great RTS, aside from Star Craft, and the military style strategy game hasn't been "epic" since Red Alert 2 dropped back in 2000. To make matters worse, the Victory Studios C&C project was promptly canceled just a month ago. The future of the RTS we have all come to love and respect seems bleak, but the coffin isn't ready to close to just yet, according to EA.

CNCNZ has spotted a post on EA's official customer service help site that suggests the company will be reviving the Command and Conquer brand with a new development studio. The short article apologizes to any Victory Studios alpha testers and promises to refund any money that individuals spent on the project. What is most interesting is the statement made towards the end of the article, which reads as follows:

For those of you who bought The C&C Ultimate Collection, your early access to the beta will be honored once production of this title resumes under a new studio. We would like to thank you for your time and interest in Command & Conquer, and we look forward to sharing the news with you when production resumes on this title in the future.

Seems like pretty solid evidence to me that EA is going to bring the RTS back to market. Unfortunately though, we don't yet know who is going to be working on the release, or if it's going to be ported as a "free to play" title. Regardless, this is both good news and bad news for C&C fans. I am sure that most of you are excited to hear that the beloved franchise is not dead, but are also disappointed that the original developer, Westwood, won't be involved in the project. Hopefully a company with expertise in RTS development will take on this task.

Maybe EA will toss the project towards Blizzard's Star Craft division. Can you imagine a C&C complete with a "marine rush?"