Today we have some big news for you guys. In an email to methuselah, resident Director of CnC, Aaron "Apoc" Kaufman provided information on why Jeremy Feasel publicly informed everyone he was moving over to Blizzard. No other EALA employee has been given the liberty to state in advance their planned new destination.
"Both Jeremy Feasel and Dustin Browder will immediately begin work on Red Alert 4 the week after Starcraft 2 ships to retail", stated Aaron. Both Blizzard employees worked extensively on the development of C&C products. Aaron also added, "another juicy technical detail I have for you includes RA4s development on the SC2 engine." Apoc continued with more details stating: "Because the Starcraft 2 engine is so incredibly flexible and because of Jeremy and Dustin's previous work on C&C we'll move forward with an RA4 beta test in early 2011. Blizzard wants to leverage the more than four years of development time they put into the Starcraft 2 engine."
Although the Blizzard development studio will make the game corporate EA will publish Red Alert 4. Aaron added this, "Blizzard wants to maintain an aura of majesty with the three pillars upon which the company was built, Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo. Therefore, it made the most sense to let EA publish, distribute and otherwise create all incoming revenue streams for Red Alert 4."
Regarding the single player campaign Apoc noted: "Cut scenes as you knew them in C&C will still be in, though in a less costly way. The cost savings from expensive Hollywood-style production will be used to extensive play testing and a full six month balance and beta testing phase. Red Alert 4's primary focus will be in the competitive RTS multiplayer aspect."
"After carefully observing SC2 beta activities in North America, Europe and Asia it is clear North Americans need a simpler more visceral RTS. Activision-Blizzard will focus SC2 on the Asian and European e-Sports markets while the simpler and easier to play RA4 will be targeted towards to less sophisticated and more viscerally oriented North American market by EA."
With two distinct products Blizzard feels it can make RTS competitive multiplayer viable as an e-Sport across the globe.
Aaron sort of ended things on a down note informing Methuselah: "I can not provide any further details at this time."
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