14 DAY TRIAL // Frank Gibeau, who is the leader of the EA Labels division at Electronic Arts, has confirmed that the upcoming Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will have a single-player element, despite statements from developer BioWare Victory that suggested that the free-to-play game would focus on multiplayer only.
Speaking to Polygon, the executive stated, “The beauty of free-to-play, is that we can adjust and adapt to what we’re hearing as opposed to, ‘I’m sorry, it’s two months from ship and it is what it is.’ It’s a very different model because you don’t have to build as much. You build in response to your audience.”
It’s not clear whether the single-player element of Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will be available when the game is first out or will be added later during its life cycle.
Gibeau added, “We started with, ‘How do we build a triple-A Command & Conquer experience?’ Is the best way to go to market, premium or is the best way to go to market, free-to-play? We’re like, ‘We’ll get the biggest market with free-to-play and we can evolve it over time based on what we see happening inside the service.”
The EA Labels leader sees the free-to-play business model as being a good fit for Electronic Arts because it allows the developers to gather information from the player base and then react quickly in order to deliver the kind of content they are interested in.
BioWare Victory, the studio that was formed in order to create Generals 2, has said that the new Command & Conquer video game will have the same core elements that have always made the strategy series a success but with more of an emphasis on connectivity and shared experiences.
Command & Conquer: Generals 2 is set to arrive during 2013 exclusively on the PC.