EA has released the source code for several Command & Conquer games on Github. Along with the original 1995 game, the repositories include the first Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Generals’ Zero Hour expansion, Command & Conquer: Renegade, and a remastered collection of the first two games. Mod support for those games—and Command & Conquer: Kane’s Wrath and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3—has also been included.
Per RockPaperShotgun, the publisher commissioned a modder named Luke “CCHyper” Feenan to restore the source code for the old games. Feenan previously helped restore the aforementioned remasters back on Steam in 2024.
While EA has not provided a specific reason for the source code releases, it’s previously made some its technology and accessibility-related patents open source. After committing to opening up those patents for larger industry use, it recently permitted third-party teams to use its tech concerning speech pattern recognition and photosensitivity detection.
This is actually the second time EA has distributed source code for the real-time strategy series: alongside the remasters in 2020, it made the code for the first two games’ mod libraries open source so players could develop improved mods to their hearts’ content.
A history of Command & Conquer
Developed by the long-defunct Westwood Studios, Command & Conquer was one of the earliest entries in the real-time strategy genre, and based on the developer’s previous game, Dune II. The series was notable for its use of full-motion video cutscenes and several sub-series throughout its run.
Before the 2020 remasters, the last mainline entry was 2010’s Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. The series mainly lives on through the remasters and the free-to-play Command & Conquer: Rivals mobile game.
Throughout its lifetime, Westwood and later studios tried to expand the series with various offshoots that were later canceled. Two of the more well-known were the first-person shooter Tiberium and Command & Conquer: Generals 2. The latter received such a negative reception during its closed alpha testing, both it and developer Victory Games were shut down.