EA report that CandC 4 requires a constant internet connection

Following the recent official announcement of C&C4 that we reported on earlier in the week, Command & Conquer 4 Officially Announced!, more details have emerged and one that has caught the attention of many is that C&C 4 will require a constant internet connection to play.

“As of right now, you need to be online all the time to play C&C 4,” Kaufman told readers of a popular fan forum. “This is primarily due to our ‘player progression’ feature so everything can be tracked. C&C 4 is not an MMO in the sense of World of Warcraft, but conceptually it has similar principles for being online all the time. While some may be taken aback by this, we’ve been testing this feature internally with all of our world-wide markets.”

While we are sure that this statement has some truth to it and part of the reason is to do with uploading statistics, forming part of the new and much touted player progression in every game mode, we are also certain that this function also has to do with anti-pirating. Although this may be a harder obstacle for pirates to overcome, if previous games are anything to go by I’m sure that this will be bypassed in time. It’s also worth pointing out that because the game will require a constant internet connection, it confirms the earlier news that this is a PC only game, with no console versions planned for C&C4.

With Command and Conquer 4 due out at some point in 2010 it is still unclear if this release will be a purely digital title like the Red Alert 3 expansion pack Uprising or a more traditional retail release, the very fact you need an internet connection to play leads up to believe that it will either be both or just digital. In the age of cheap broadband and online gaming we don’t see this being the huge issue that many people are making it out to be, and this certainly won’t be putting us off purchasing this final instalment of arguably, the greatest RTS series of all time.