Westwood Studios

USA · Founded 1985 · Developer

Westwood Studios created Dune II (1992), the template for every real-time strategy game that followed, then built the Command & Conquer series into one of the defining PC franchises of the 1990s.

Brett Sperry and Louis Castle founded Westwood Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1985, initially producing role-playing games and ports for Virgin Games. Eye of the Beholder (1991), an Dungeons & Dragons dungeon crawler developed for SSI, demonstrated Westwood's ability to handle complex licensed properties with technical and narrative ambition. Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992), based on Virgin's license for David Lynch's Dune film and Frank Herbert's novels, synthesised elements from earlier strategy games into a coherent template that every subsequent RTS would follow: resource harvesting, base construction, unit production, technology trees, and real-time tactical combat on a scrollable map. The formula was refined and weaponised in Command & Conquer (1995) and its alternate-history spinoff Red Alert (1996), which together sold millions of copies and established the two-faction skirmish model as the genre standard. Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993) continued Westwood's RPG heritage with voiced dialogue and a fully painted art style. Electronic Arts acquired Westwood in 1998 and closed the studio in 2003, folding its staff into EA Los Angeles.