Warfare Sims have been showing off Command Multiplayer By Joe Robinson

WarfareSim’s Command is a fascinating project. On the one hand, it’s a hard-as-nails modern military simulation game but on the other, it’s a legitimate tool used by military organizations to train and devise strategies for dealing with different real-life scenarios.

Command is one of those wargames where the term ‘game’ is perhaps included as a technicality - something this serious and in-depth doesn’t quite fit the definition of ‘game’ anymore. The developers have for the past five years or so been doing more and more development geared at 'professional' clients within the defence industry, while also still serving their original user-base who just want to pretend they’re in charge of modern battlegroups. It's probably not an easy state of affairs, as the two groups will have vastly different expectations and requirements.

Professional or Gamer however, one feature I’m sure both could agree would be neat is multiplayer. I imagine it's something more for the 'gamer' crowd, many of whom would love to fire up a scenario with a friend and duke it out together. For professional clients, most wargaming exercises that I'm aware of don’t necessarily need to have multiple actors with direct control. It’s more about the decision making and application of available assets. Having someone able to play as 'Red Team' and respond to actions within the game would be interesting, however.

Regardless, it’s and exciting prospect and something the development team are working on. The professional world got the first glimpse of it last week:

Multiplayer is in development, and a snapshot of the current state was demonstrated on Day #4. — WarfareSims (@warfaresims) February 8, 2020

The “Day #4” being referenced here is the fourth day of the week-long conference they held at the BAE Systems headquarters in Farnborough. Over 100 delegates from across national defence agencies and military contractors attended to learn and discuss the future of professional wargaming, as well as how something like Command PE could be used.

The multiplayer functionality for Command is initially being developed for (and thus, funded by) professional clients first before rolling out to the consumer release:

It is initially developed for (and funded by) military customers. Once deployed, we can then further develop for commercial version (many changes due to different priorities). This BTW is a good example of the symbiotic relationship between civ & pro. — WarfareSims (@warfaresims) February 10, 2020

Do you want to play Command in Multiplayer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!