As Command and Conquer's 25th anniversary approaches, Electronic Arts is celebrating the RTS series with a remastered series collection. However, EA announced that it will also reward its community with another massive release. In a Reddit post, the developer announced that it would also release the source code for two Command and Conquer games for fans.
EA Producer Jim Vessella addressed fans of the franchise in his Reddit update. According to the post, EA is releasing the source code for the original C&C game and its sequel Red Alert. With this code, Command and Conquer modders can now create their own levels, use or replace art assets and edit the code for their own creations.
According to the Reddit post, this release also makes C&C "one of the first major RTS franchises" to go open source. Vessella also noted that EA collaborated with community members to make the source code compatible with other popular fan projects. EA has already allowed some modders to experiment with the code.
Overall, it is nice to see a developer acknowledge its creative fan community. EA's decision mirrors the approach Valve has taken with its assets over the years. Hopefully, this decision convinces more developers to integrate mod support into their games, and encourages budding programmers to experiment with the tools they are given.
Command and Conquer Remastered Collection will be available June 5th on PC.