The free-to-play Command & Conquer will be aiming to appeal to fans of eSports, but Senior Development Director Tim Morten admitted that the features may not be there at launch. Speaking at a preview event he explained, “We absolutely want to put features in that gets them in. We won’t have them all there at launch, but we’re definitely looking at spectator mode, session recording, built-in moderating.” In good news for competitive gaming fans he added, “Everything that we can do to provide a framework for eSports, over time we will do and hopefully then they will come.”

It is only natural that Victory Games would like to emulate the successes of fellow free-to-play RTS titles such as League of Legends and Defence of the Ancients, both of which have a strong following within the competitive gaming community. Morten said, “We would love it if the community embraces us in the way that many of the really high quality free-to-play titles that are out there have been embraced.” However, he pointed out that the company doesn't choose this audience, but instead "that audience chooses you."

Morten also acknowledged the importance of the modding community. Modders provided the basis for Defence of the Ancients, which in turn inspired League of Legends. Again, modders may have to wait to get their hands on the tools, which will allow them to edit the game. Morten said that the team definitely want to make it possible, but need to make tools available which will make it straightforward enough for users without hours of training. He added, “We will get there, but it will just take some time.”

Command & Conquer will be released this year, but doesn’t have a firm release date in place. We recently got to try out the Alpha build and you can see our impressions here.