Supreme Commander

Developer/s	Gas Powered Games
Publisher/s	Microsoft Windows THQ Xbox 360 NA: Aspyr PAL: 505 Games
Producer/s	Kent McNall Gary Wagner
Designer/s	Chris Taylor Bradley Rebh John Comes
Programmer/s	Jonathan Mavor
Artist/s	Kevin Pun Steven Thompson
Writer/s	Jason Janicki Evan Pongress Bradley Rebh
Composer/s	Jeremy Soule
Platform/s	Microsoft Windows Xbox 360
Release date	Microsoft Windows EU: February 16, 2007 NA: February 20, 2007 AU: February 23, 2007 Xbox 360 NA: June 23, 2008 EU: September 12, 2008 AU: September 18, 2008
Genre/s	Real Time Strategy
Mode/s	Single player, multiplayer
Next game	Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

Supreme Commander is a RTS game designed by Chris Taylor, set in a far future world. Although it was designed by Chris Taylor, it is not a sequel to his previous RTS, Total Annihilation, but rather a "spiritual successor", which implements the same gameplay mechanics and physics logic which was pioneered in Total Annihilation.

Since the release of Forged Alliance, it has been referred to as Vanilla SupCom, the Old SupCom or Classic SupCom.

Trailer

Opening cinematic

System requirements

Supreme Commander has somewhat steep system requirements. The official minimum and recommended system requirements, as well as the community suggested requirements are:

Type	Minimum Requirements	Recommended Requirements	Community Recommended
Operating System	Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista	Microsoft Windows Vista	Microsoft Windows 7
Memory	512MB of RAM	1 GB of RAM	4 GB of RAM
CPU	1.8 Ghz Processor	3 Ghz Intel or equivalent	2.8+ Ghz Intel Core i3/5/7 or eq.
Video Memory	128 MB video RAM	256 MB video RAM	512 MB of video RAM
Video Requirements	DirectX 8 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6x00 or better)	DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6800 or better)	Nvidia 9800 or better
Networking	DSL/Cable	Broadband connection	ADSL2+ 256 kbit/s upload
Hard Disk	8 GB	10 GB	12 GB

Note: Official recommended settings are not guaranteed to let the player run the game at full hardware settings with no lag. Community settings will allow the game to run at full settings on most maps. Optimal setting will provide maximum detail gameplay in most situations. Extra large maps, during heavily congested gameplay, or after modding and in multiplayer the system requirements may increase.

Steam release

Following the closure of GPGNet, both Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance were released for free on Steam to anybody holding a CD key.

Following its closure, the Steam version has included new matchmaking support, and all other Digitally Distributed versions have been patched to the steam version.

Below is the note from GPG at that time:

“On March 1st, 2012 GPG was notified that support for GPGNet's backend services had been terminated. We apologize to our fans and players that we were unable to provide any advanced warning of this termination. After several weeks of inquiries, we have determined that resurrecting GPGNet will not be possible under current circumstances.

GPG was able to receive authorization from our publishing partners to grandfather ALL existing CD keys for both SC and FA into updated SC:Gold Editions on Steam. This means that even if you purchased only SC or FA in a boxed version, you can now redeem that key for BOTH games automatically updated to version 3603 utilizing Steam, and also take advantage of Steam's integrated matchmaking and chat services for free.

We understand that not all of the functionality you were accustomed to in GPGNet is present on Steam, naturally we were huge proponents of the innovations we created, but we encourage you to give Steam a try and get involved in the SC/FA community there.

As an alternative to Steam, there are significant community-driven initiatives for matchmaking services already operating. Among them at present, is FA:Forever (http://www.faforever.com/), which has built a strong following of fans and modders looking to extend features and matchmaking of the game.

These forums themselves are wholly owned and operated by GPG, and we hope players and fans will continue to use them to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate for many years to come.

GPG would deeply like to thank all the volunteers, admins, moderators, and tournament directors who have kept GPGNet running smoothly for so many years, and the fans who have been patient and understanding in the times when it wasn't.

Although this chapter is now closed, there is always the possibility that future discussions with publishers could open the door to resurrecting the platform in an updated fashion, and we will be keen on promoting the innovations that worked well for us.”
—The GPG Team. 02 Mar, 2012.

Updates and patches

Patches can be downloaded from various third party websites, or through different digital distribution platforms, as all past keys issued with physical copies of the game have since been made redeemable on Steam.

Until the closure of the GPGNet service, the primary way to obtain official patches was by running the GPGNet software, either from the start menu or from within the game. This would automatically update the game and the GPGNet software to the latest versions of each.

Reception

Supreme Commander received "generally favorable" and "mixed or average" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 86/100 on PC and 56/100 on Xbox 360. On whatoplay.com, it receives an aggregate score (playscore) of 8.47/10 on PC and 6.91/10 on Xbox 360.

See also

• Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
• Supreme Commander on Wikipedia