It's official now: More than six years after the release of C&C Renegade in February 2002, EA plans to release a new tactical shooter in the C&C universe: Tiberium will be a first person shooter with a heavy tactical element. The Mediterranean has suffered vast destruction in the Third Tiberium War, as depicted in C&C 3. In the last tower of the Alien Scrin, plans are made for another invasion. Battle Commander Ricardo Vega (the player's Alter Ego) tries to stop the Alien plan.

Vega fights with guided missiles, Ion cannons and a "transforming weapon system" (whatever that means). Players will not only participate in the action themselves, but will command multiple troops consisting of infantry, tanks and air units. Especially the weapons and other technologies are supposed to be very innovative, supporting the tactical approach of the game. As with the spiritual (and, despite a good multiplayer quality, not very successful) predecessor C&C Renegade, multiplayer will be a major feature.

Tiberium ("C&C" doesn't seem to be part of the official title) is being developed by EA Los Angeles, the Executive Producer is Chris Plummer; of Golden Eye: Rogue Agent fame. Plummer said that "We're excited to announce the game and its story after two and a half years of development". The secret development is the reason Tiberium is planned for a release not later than Fall 2008, on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The official website www.tiberium.com is live now. It basically has the press release (see below in full text) and a sort of flash animation trailer (which doesn't live up to that name). You might rather want to have a look at the following good quality photos of the most recent issue of GameInformer, the links come from an official forum posting by "EA Apoc (C&C)". For your convenience, we're repeating the links here:

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You can even get the photos in their original size (which makes reading the text easier) as a RAR archive here. Although the photos were photographed without taking much time or care to straighten the pages, they are much better than the older screenshot scans here. Mind you, as always with print magazines, reading the actual magazine is the best way.

And here's the press release from Tiberium.com:

Tiberium is a mysterious extraterrestrial crystal that shatters the energy output of traditional fossil fuels. It has the power to save our civilization. It also has the power to destroy it. Over two-and-a-half years in development, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today revealed Tiberium™, a new intellectual property that brings a rich, original fiction to life through intense tactical action and visceral first-person shooting. Set in a stunning sci-fi world with spectacular visual effects and dramatic environments, Tiberium takes players on an adventure through an environmentally-devastated world and places them in the heart of an epic battle for control this powerful energy source.

For eleven years, an alien tower has stood dormant, looming like an unholy mountain over a wasteland once known as the Mediterranean Sea. The tower was thought to be a relic of the Third Tiberium War; a devastating war fought for control over Tiberium crystal. It is not a relic. It is not dormant. Deep within the tower, plans are in motion for an alien invasion. This is where the Tiberium adventure begins. Players step into the shoes of Forward Battle Commander Ricardo Vega and will assemble an assortment of elite squads to combat the global crisis. Armed with an intense arsenal of weapons including a transforming personal weapon system, multi-launch homing missiles, capital ship bombardments and tactical ion cannon strikes, Vega will lead the fight from the front lines.

Featuring a unique blend of first-person shooting and tactical squad combat, every moment in Tiberium is intense, every mission leaves players breathless. To take the first-person shooter experience deeper into strategic combat, players will control multiple infantry, armor, and air squads as the fight escalates. In Tiberium, Vega is the most powerful presence on the battlefield, and the squads are his most decisive weapon. Players can take multi-squad control combat into single-player or bring the action into online multiplayer battles.

“Tiberium is our ‘One Ring’, our ‘Force’. It is the connective tissue that defines this universe and tears it apart,” said Chris Plummer, Executive Producer at EA Los Angeles. “After two years of pre-production, it is exciting to finally reveal this game and its rich fiction to the world. We’ve put a lot of effort into evolving the tactical shooter experience by taking core gameplay compulsions like commanding, choice and dominating your enemies and delivering them in first-person. Some of the weapons and mechanics are truly innovative for a first-person game. We’re very proud to be part of a project that has the potential to really make a mark on the cannon of sci-fi fantasy fiction.”

Mike Verdu, VP and General Manager at EA Los Angeles added, “EALA has a long history of developing groundbreaking real-time strategy games with the Command & Conquer series. That series also originally introduced the Tiberium universe to gamers worldwide. Now, we are growing Tiberium from a simple backdrop to a fully realized universe with its own unique, hybrid squad-based shooter gameplay. This is the birth of a new franchise -- we couldn’t be more excited.”

Developed at EA Los Angeles, Tiberium will be available worldwide in Fall 2008 for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, and PC. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information on Tiberium, please visit: www.Tiberium.com.