The new game was part of the Generals franchise and was cancelled on Octoby EA after negative feedback during the closed alpha test. A sequel, Command & Conquer: Generals 2, was in development, until it was repurposed to a free-to-play game known as Command & Conquer. Both Generals and Zero Hour were met with highly positive reviews.

An expansion pack, entitled Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, was additionally released for PC in 2003, and for Mac OS in 2005. Generals utilizes SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine), an extended version of the Command & Conquer: Renegade 's 3D engine. In the game, the player can choose from three different factions: the United States, China and the Global Liberation Army (GLA). The Mac OS X version was re-released by Aspyr for the Mac App Store on March 12, 2005.

The Windows version of Generals was developed by EA Pacific and published by EA Games, the Mac OS X version was developed and published by Aspyr Media. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 20. Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy video game and the seventh installment in the Command & Conquer series.