Command and Conquer 3

It is widely noted that Westwood was to be credited for the advent of the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) genre due their successes with Dune II, released in 1992, and the first Command and Conquer game, which was to be rechristened as Tiberian Dawn, released in 1995.

Going back to the above, it also has to be remembered that Westwood had never been a studio that focused on one particular genre ala DICE with the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre.






Their wide ranging genre works from the late 80s all the way throughout the 90s stands as testament to that fact. In addition to that, Westwood also had a fair share of its credited published work from licensed IPs including the Dune Series, Blade Runner, The Lion King, Resident Evil (1996) and Circuit's Edge.

Thus the above proves that Westwood were determined to not rest on their laurels after meeting their RTS success thanks to Dune II and Tiberian Dawn and that they were still keen to push the boundaries of their work.

At the same time however, it could have been argued that Westwood had been trying to overstretch themselves way too thin over too many genres and that a focused effort and reorganization of the company on their RTS sphere could have prolonged the studio's lifespan.

One probable evidence of the above was the amount of time it took Westwood to nail down the development, coding and graphics for Tiberian Sun as well as the plotline for the aforementioned game, going through numerous drafts before finally being pressured by EA to settle on the final one we would see published.

No matter the case, Westwood by the late 90s had a solid reputation as a AAA developer which could be flexible and bold in its creative attempts at delving into different genres, as attested from the following quote from a Kotaku retrospective tribute piece, published in 2011:

It too was a hit, especially with critics, proving not only that you could make good games out of movies (a rarity even to this day), but that a studio could do it multiple times across multiple genres, something that had never been done before, or since.Source: Kotaku

With that we end this piece with the idea of Westwood having laid the foundations of what would be a successful millennium ahead coming on the back of their success as a storied developer for RPG games as well as one which made genre-defining headlines with the introduction of the RTS genre and the credit they received from Dune II and Tiberian Dawn.

The next episode will focus on Westwood's history post-EA acquisition all the way till their closure in 2003 along with their hits and misses published, namely Tiberian Sun and Firestorm, Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, C&C Renegade, Emperor: Battle For Dune and Earth & Beyond!

A thousand apologies for the long wait and for the absence of this column last month. If you think there has been anything that I have left out, or if you have any feedback whatsoever do drop me your comment, it will be much appreciated!

Credit due to all of the sources mentioned and where mentioned in this article and do take the time to read them (links below) as they are in-depth and introspective in their own right, for no single article can be encompassing enough to cover the storied legacy of Westwood Studios.

Thank you!
FallenXE