A few days ago, we reported that BioWare Victory's Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will be a part of a free-to-play series of Command & Conquer games.
Despite that Generals 2 will be a full-fledged AAA free-to-play title unlike the series' first venture into the realm of microtransactions, Tiberium Alliances, the game will apparently ship without a single player campaign. Instead, Generals 2 will launch with co-op and competitive skirmishes, with other modes to be added into the game depending on player feedback.
For now, Generals 2 will launch as a purely online experience. The benefit of that, according to BioWare Victory general manager John Van Caneghem, is that "you can try things.
“You can see what the community wants, you can give it a shot, you can put it up for a weekend and see how it goes, develop towards what the fans like.”
Generals 2 will be tied to an online account—presumably an EA Origin one—for players to level up with matches. New DLC, both free and paid for, will be coming for the game to add new maps and modes with time.
BioWare also plans on adding e-Sport features to Generals 2, though Van Caneghem doesn't specify which: "I don’t think we’re making a list of the features yet," he said. "But I think you can basically make a list of the assumed ones that you’d need to be an e-sports game, and it’s definitely part of the plan."
Though a free-to-play Command & Conquer game may not be what most hardcore fans envisioned for the series, the fact that it's running on the Frostbite 2 engine and will be supporting e-Sport features does sweeten the deal.
