[benzino112]

Those games were mean. From Retaliation to Red Alert 2, they seem to drop off when they did that renegade series

[millar J]

Short answer is: Westwood Studios was bought by EA.

Of course, it's more complicated than that, but not by much. As you know, C&C was split between what became the "red alert" universe with the typical USA/Russia/etc factions and the "Tiberium" universe with CDI/Brotherhood of Nod. Both had their ups and downs. And both were competing with, say, Blizzard and their Warcraft series followed by Starcraft. But I don't think it's competition with Blizzard that killed them at all. Most RTS gamers are going to play both unless they just don't like the style of one or the other. I've certainly played both. But Blizzard being more successful as time went on did, I think, highlight how Westwood's quality was becoming... inconsistent. Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge were loved and seen as well made games. C&C Generals and Zero Hour were seen as innovative... but very messy. And for good reason; gods, they looked like shit if nothing else. Previous titles made with obsolete graphics had more appealing visuals a lot of times. So, when Westwood put something out that wasn't up to the standard people expected of them, it should be no surprise that they'd turn to Blizzard or other companies.

There's a documentary on YouTube I'll post if I can remember the name of it. The author breaks down things in great detail far better than I could from scratch.

[Rathow]

it was waaaaaay too good to be left alone.. haha

[Gpunter]

I saw Yuri's revenge as the last good C&C game/expansion after that EA were in complete control and the games just became gimmickey with every unit having special abilitys that required micro managing and it just stopped being fun and turned into a grind. I was relieved when I finished RA3 I didn't feel like playing it again until a few months ago out of boredom.

I loved tank rushing an enemy base and missed it when they removed it. I never played C&C 4 but heard it was the worst game in the series.

[Wrangler]

Like everyone else is going to say, when EA gets their hands on it, a series or studio will never again be the same, and in most cases that's for the worst

[t1s2e3t]

I remember trying to pick up some of the anthology sets in college to play with roommates, and had so many compatability issues with windows/multiplayer. Miss those games.