Command & Conquer 4 revealed?

For a while, it was unclear if Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007) would get a proper sequel. The Xbox 360 and PC real-time strategy game was a critical smash, earning a 9.0 from GameSpot (on the PC) and selling a respectable 701,000 units in the US, according to the NPD Group. However, the expansions Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath and spin-off Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (both 2008) didn't fare quite as well with reviewers and sold only around a third as many units domestically.

Luckily, fans of the series can now relax, as plans for Command & Conquer 4 have been revealed...sort of. Instead of the usual public announcement, the game has apparently been confirmed by a survey from British market research firm 2CV, which lists C&C publisher Electronic Arts among its clients.

The survey, which has a picture of C&C series villain Kane on the front underneath the EA logo, not only acknowledges the existence of C&C4, but also apparently reveals some new features of the game. After a series of questions that eliminate non-PC and non-RTS gamers, the survey promptly announces C&C thusly:

Now we would like to tell you about a new Command & Conquer game. Please read the following description.

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to the 15-year Tiberium saga with innovative RPG-like player progression, persistent in both single-player and multiplayer modes, co-op play, and new stylized, live-action cinematics.

Play with all new, bigger and badder, units from GDI and Nod, including the Crawler, the first ever mobile base in RTS games.

After several more questions, the survey goes on to ask players which features they would like to see in "future" C&C games. It then lists the following six features:

--Play in epic 5 vs. 5 online multiplayer with all new objective-based game modes.

--Play the campaign on your own or tackle it with a friend, as co-operative campaigns return.

--Introducing the first mobile base in RTS games: The Crawler. Focus on the action as the Crawler becomes your all-in-one base, which can be deployed and redeployed anywhere on the battlefield for even more strategic options.

--Play in the first ever class-based C&C game--a new challenge for C&C and RTS players to master.

--Dive into an all-new story written by a new scriptwriting team and told through trademark C&C cinematics taken to the next level with grittier, stylized FMVs in the vein of Minority Report.

--Play in the first RTS game with MMORPG-like player progression in which you are rewarded every time you play. Every unit you kill in single player, multiplayer, or skirmish gives you experience points that allows you to level up your abilities and unlock new units, powers, and upgrades to your arsenal.

Though all of the six features are hinted at in the C&C4 description, Electronic Arts declined to comment on them--or on the survey in general. "We have no information regarding the C&C franchise at this point," was all a rep would say.