Those of you hoping for a big budget free-to-play real-time strategy game that could rival the big RTS games out on the market will have to wait a little longer. EA announced this week that they were cancelling the in-development F2P RTS Command & Conquer and closing its developers Victory Games.

In a statement by Victory Games, development was cancelled because feedback from gamers playing the alpha were less than satisfactory. The release read in part: “We are not making the game you want to play. That is why, after much difficult deliberation, we have decided to cease production of this version of the game. Although we deeply respect the great work done by our talented team, ultimately it’s about getting you the game you expect and deserve.”

In addition to cancelling the game, EA also announced that they would be disbanding Victory Games and moving team members to new studios where possible.

Victory Games was originally launched to replace EA Los Angeles which had shifted focus from the C&C series to development of Medal of Honor. Command & Conquer: Generals 2 was originally supposed to be their first game before development work on that was rolled into an ordered switch to making a free-to-play C&C.

Let’s face it. C&C probably wasn’t cancelled because a game wasn’t getting good feedback in alpha testing. Alpha tests are in place so that developers can get feedback on the game from people outside their usual group of testers.

Sources: Command & Conquer, Game Informer