Just as the internet started to get excited about the prospect of one of the best PC strategy games of all-time, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, receiving a fan remake built from the ground-up for VR devices, Electronic Arts, the publisher behind the original game, stepped in to officially strike down the project.
According to a post on the Unreal Engine forums the remake’s creator, Adam Horvath, received the following message from EA’s Permission Requests Team:
Dear Adam,
Thank you for your interest in Electronic Arts Inc. EA appreciates the passion that players like you have for our games, and we’re always excited to see the creativity that comes from our community. While we appreciate your enthusiasm for our Command & Conquer: Red Alert games, we are unable to authorize your request to distribute a remake VR version of our Red Alert 2 game, regardless of whether it is commercial. We greatly respect our fans and hope this response does not diminish your interest in our games.
Kind regards,
LC
EA Permission Requests Team
It’s unfortunate news, but it doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Publishers have the right to squash projects like this from rising up due to the potential infringement on copyrights and competition regarding potentially existing projects in their pipelines. Whereas Sega hires fan modders to make games (Christian Whitehead, a prolific Sonic modder, is now working on Sonic Mania), Nintendo is well-known for its displeasure regarding fan creations, such as AM2R and Pokemon Uranium. It appears that EA falls in line with Nintendo’s views on remakes.
While this doesn’t mean EA is working on a VR strategy game in the C&C franchise, it’s certainly a fun thing to think about. The most likely cause for the decline of permission is simply that they don’t want someone potentially profiting off of their work.
We’ve reached out to Horvath, the remake’s creator, about the situation and his future plans and will keep you updated on the latest developments.
