The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan that encompasses twenty-five distinct regions in twenty countries primarily in North America, including the Caribbean. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate in the NANP.
The NANP was originally devised in the 1940s by AT&T for the Bell System and independent telephone operators in North America to unify the diverse local numbering plans that had been established in the preceding decades. AT&T continued to administer the numbering plan until the breakup of the Bell System, when administration was delegated to the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), a service that has been procured from the private sector by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States. Each participating country forms a regulatory authority that has plenary control over local numbering resources.[1] The FCC also serves as the U.S. regulator. Canadian numbering decisions are made by the Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium.[2]
The NANP divides the territories of its members into numbering plan areas (NPAs) which are encoded numerically with a three-digit telephone number prefix, commonly called the area code.[3] Each telephone is assigned a seven-digit telephone number unique only within its respective plan area. The telephone number consists of a three-digit central office code and a four-digit station number. The combination of an area code and the telephone number serves as a destination routing address in the public switched telephone network (PSTN). For international call routing, the NANP has been assigned the international calling code 1 by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The North American Numbering Plan conforms with ITU Recommendation E.164, which establishes an international numbering framework.[4]
History
From its beginnings in 1876 and throughout the first part of the 20th century, the Bell System grew from essentially local or regional telephone systems. These systems expanded by growing their subscriber bases, as well as increasing their service areas by implementing additional local exchanges that were interconnected with tie trunks. It was the responsibility of each local administration to design telephone numbering plans that accommodated the local requirements and growth.[5] As a result, the Bell System as a whole developed into an unorganized system of many differing local numbering systems. The diversity impeded the efficient operation and interconnection of exchanges into a nationwide system for long-distance telephone communication. By the 1940s, the Bell System set out to unify the various numbering plans in existence and developed the North American Numbering Plan as a unified, systematic approach to efficient long-distance service that eventually did not require the involvement of switchboard operators.
The new numbering plan was officially accepted in October 1947, dividing most of North America into eighty-six numbering plan areas (NPAs). Each NPA was assigned a numbering plan area code, often abbreviated as area code. These codes were first used by long-distance operators to establish long-distance calls between toll offices. The first customer-dialed direct call using area codes was made on November 10, 1951, from Englewood, New Jersey, to Alameda, California.[6] Direct distance dialing (DDD) was subsequently introduced across the country. By the early 1960s, most areas of the Bell System had been converted and DDD had become commonplace in cities and most larger towns.
In the following decades, the system expanded to include all of the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda, and seventeen nations of the Caribbean.[7][8] By 1967, 129 area codes had been assigned.[9]
At the request of the British Colonial Office, the numbering plan was first expanded to Bermuda and the British West Indies because of their historic telecommunications administration through Canada as parts of the British Empire and their continued associations with Canada, especially during the years of the telegraph and the All Red Line system.
Not all North American countries participate in the NANP. Exceptions include Mexico, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the Central American countries and some Caribbean countries (Cuba, Haiti, and the French Caribbean). The only Spanish-speaking state in the system is the Dominican Republic. Mexican participation was planned,[10] but implementation stopped after three area codes (706, 903 and 905) had been assigned, and Mexico opted for an international numbering format, using country code 52. The area codes in use were subsequently withdrawn in 1991. Area code 905, formerly for Mexico City, was reassigned to a split of area code 416 in the Greater Toronto Area; area code 706, which had formerly served Mexico's Baja Peninsula, was reassigned to a portion of northern Georgia[11] surrounding the Atlanta region, which retained 404; and area code 903, which served a small portion of northern Mexico, was reassigned to northeastern Texas when it split from area code 214.
Dutch-speaking Sint Maarten joined the NANP in September 2011, receiving area code 721.[12]
Administration
The NANP is administered by the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA).[13] Today, this function is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, which assumed the responsibility upon the breakup of the Bell System. The FCC solicits private sector contracts for the role of the administrator. Initially, the service was provided by a division of Lockheed Martin. In 1997, the contract was awarded to Neustar Inc., a company spun off from Lockheed for this purpose. In 2012, the contract was renewed until 2017.[14] In 2015, the contract beginning 2017 was granted to Ericsson.[15]
Numbering plan
The vision and goal of the architects of the North American Numbering Plan was a system by which telephone subscribers in the United States and Canada could themselves dial and establish a telephone call to any other subscriber without the assistance of switchboard operators. While this required an expansion of most existing local numbering plans, many of which required only four or five digits to be dialed, or even fewer in small communities, the plan was designed to enable local telephone companies to make as few changes as possible in their systems. The intent was that most subscribers should not have to dial a long, full national telephone number to make a local telephone call.
Numbering plan areas and central offices
The new numbering plan divided the North American continent into regional service areas, each called a numbering plan area (NPA), primarily following the jurisdictional boundaries of U.S. states and Canadian provinces.[16] States or provinces could be divided into multiple areas. NPAs were created in accordance with principles deemed to maximize customer understanding and minimize dialing effort while reducing plant cost.[17] Each NPA was identified by a unique three-digit code number, that was prefixed to the local telephone number.
Existing telephone exchanges and central offices became local exchange points in the nationwide system, each of which was assigned a three-digit number unique within its NPA. The combination of NPA and central office code served as a destination routing code for use by operators and subscribers to reach any central office through the switching network.[16] Each NPA was technically limited to 540 unique central office codes.[17]
Due to this limitation, the most populous states required division into multiple NPAs. New York state was initially divided into five areas, the most of any state. Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas were assigned four NPAs each, and California, Iowa, and Michigan received three. Eight states and provinces were split into two NPAs. These divisions attempted to avoid cutting across heavy toll traffic routes, so that most toll traffic remained within an area, and outgoing traffic in one area would not be tributary to toll offices in an adjacent area.[18][16]
Traditionally, subscribers were assigned four-digit numbers, meaning that each central office could serve up to ten thousand subscriber numbers. Thus the new numbering plan identified each telephone in the system with the combination of area code, central office code, and line number, resulting in a closed telephone numbering plan with a ten-digit national telephone number for each telephone.[19] The leading part of this address was the area code (three digits), followed by the seven-digit subscriber number consisting of three digits for the central office and four digits for the station. The intent was for subscribers not to have to dial an area code when making a local call or a call within their plan area, resulting in seven-digit dialing. Area codes were only required in ten-digit dialing when placing foreign area calls to subscribers in another state or numbering plan area.
Initial numbering system
The new network design, completed in 1947, provided for one hundred fifty-two area codes, each with a capacity to serve five hundred forty central offices.[17] Originally only eighty-six area codes were assigned. New Jersey received the first area code in the new system, area code 201.[20] The second area code, 202 was assigned to the District of Columbia. The allocation of area codes was readjusted as early as 1948 to account for inadequacies in some metropolitan areas. For example, Indiana area code 317 was split to provide a larger number pool in the Indiana suburbs of Chicago (area code 219).
Initially, states divided into multiple area codes were assigned area codes with a 1 in the second position, while areas that covered entire states or provinces received codes with 0 as the middle digit; however, this rule was abandoned by the early 1950s.[16] In order to distinguish seven-digit dialing from ten-digit dialing, central office codes were restricted to not having a 0 or 1 in the middle position. This was already common practice, because the system of using the initial letters of central office names did not assign letters to digits 1 and 0. Furthermore, area codes and central office codes could not start with 0 or 1, because 0 was used for operator assistance and a leading single pulse (i.e., the digit 1) was automatically ignored by most switching equipment of the time.[16] In addition, the eight codes of the form N11 (N = 2–9) were reserved as service codes.[9] The easily recognizable codes of the form N00 were available in the numbering plan, but were not initially included in assignments.
Additional area code patterns were
later assigned for other services; for example, the area codes N10 were implemented for the Teletypewriter Exchange Service (TWX).
The central office code was chosen such that it could be represented by the first two letters of the central office name according to a digit-to-letter mapping that was printed on the face of a rotary dial, by grouping a set of letters with the digits 2 through 9. Such letter translations, designed by W.G. Blauvelt in 1917, had been used in the Bell System in large metropolitan areas since the late 1910s.[21] The network reorganization eventually resulted in a two-letter, five-digit (2L-5N) representation of telephone numbers for every exchange in North America.
Plan of 1960

The original plan of 1947 had been projected to be usable beyond the year 2000. However, by the late 1950s it became apparent that it would be outgrown by about 1975.
Modern plan
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the NANPA implemented calling procedures that required all long-distance calls within an area code to be prefixed with the area code, in an effort to make it possible to assign central-office prefixes with 0 or 1 in the middle position (except for N11), which would otherwise be wrongly taken by the local telephone switch to be the area code. As it had nearly run out of area codes using the existing assignment methods, this expanded the number pool for each area code by nearly twenty-five percent and also allowed for the later addition of area codes with middle digits other than 0 or 1.
Requiring a 1 to be dialed before the full number in some areas also provided for area codes of the form N10, such as 210 in the San Antonio, Texas, area and 410 in eastern Maryland. Therefore, someone calling from San Jose, California, to Los Angeles before the change would have dialed 213-555-0123 and after the change 1-213-555-0123, which permitted the use of 213 as an exchange prefix in the San Jose area. The preceding 1 also ideally indicates a toll call; however, this is inconsistent across the NANP because the FCC has left it to the U.S. state public utilities commissions to regulate for traditional landlines, and it has since become moot for mobile phones and digital VoIP services that now offer nationwide calling without the extra digit.
The NANP number format may be summarized in the notation NPA-NXX-xxxx:

For example, 234-235-5678 is a valid telephone number with area code 234, central office prefix (exchange) 235, and line number 5678. The number 234-911-5678 is invalid, because the central office code must not be in the form N11. 314-159-2653 is invalid, because the office code must not begin with 1. 123-234-5678 is invalid, because the NPA must not begin with 0 or 1.
The country calling code for all countries participating in the NANP is 1. In international format, an NANP number should be listed as +19995550100, where 999 stands in for the area code.
Each three-digit area code has a capacity of 7,919,900 telephone numbers:
NXX may begin only with the digits [2–9], providing a base of eight million numbers: (8 × 100 × 10000) .
However, to avoid confusion with the N11 codes, the last two digits of NXX cannot both be 1.
Despite the widespread usage of NXX 555 for fictional telephone numbers, the only such numbers now specifically reserved for fictional use are 555-0100 through 555-0199, with the remaining 555 numbers released for actual assignment as information numbers.
In individual geographic area codes, several other NXX prefixes are generally not assigned: the home area code(s), adjacent domestic area codes and overlays, area codes reserved for future relief nearby, industry testing codes (generally NXX 958 and 959) and special service codes (such as NXX 950 and 976).
Various office codes in certain plan areas are deliberately not issued; for example, numbers 212718-xxxx, where 212 and 718 are both New York City area codes, are typically avoided to prevent confusion between an area code and a similarly numbered local exchange in the same region. 958-xxxx and 959-xxxx are usually test numbers. Using 0 or 1 as the first digit of an area code or seven-digit local number is invalid, as is a 9 as the middle digit of an area code; these are trunk prefixes or reserved for North American Numbering Plan expansion. Lists of exchanges in an individual area code (posted by CNAC in Canada, NANP in the United States) all list various prefixes as deliberately not issued.
International dialing
While the national numbering plan of the NANP was designed as a 10-digit closed plan, international direct distance dialing (IDDD) was accomplished by extensive modifications in switching systems to accommodate an open international numbering plan for telephone numbers from seven to twelve digits.[23]
Expansion

Canada and the United States have experienced rapid growth in the number of area codes, particularly between 1990 and 2005. The widespread adoption of fax, modem, and mobile phone communication, as well as the deregulation of local telecommunication services in the United States in the mid-1990s, increased the demand for telephone numbers.
The Federal Communications Commission allowed telecommunication companies to compete with the incumbent local exchange carriers for services, usually by forcing the existing sole service provider to lease infrastructure to other local providers. Because of the original design of the numbering plan and the telephone switching network that assumed only a single provider, number allocations had to be made in 10,000-number blocks even when much fewer numbers were required for each new vendor. Due to the proliferation of service providers in some numbering plan areas, many area codes fell into jeopardy, facing exhaustion of numbering resources. The number blocks of failed service providers often remained unused, as no regulatory mechanism existed to reclaim and reassign these numbers.
Area codes are added by two principal methods, number plan area splits and overlay plans. Splits were implemented by dividing an area into two or more regions, one of which retained the existing area code and the other areas receiving a new code. In an overlay, multiple codes are assigned to the same geographical area, obviating the need for renumbering of existing services. Subtle variations of these techniques have been used as well, such as dedicated overlays, in which the new code is reserved for a particular type of service, such as cellular phones and pagers, and concentrated overlays, in which a part of the area retained a single code while the rest of the region received an overlay code. The only service-specific overlay in the NANP was area code 917 (New York City) when it was first installed; such service-specific area code assignments were later prohibited by the Federal Communications Commission.
Most area codes of the form N10, originally reserved for AT&T's Teletypewriter eXchange (TWX) service, were transferred to Western Union in 1969 and were freed up for other use in 1981 after conversion to Telex II service was complete. The last of these, 610, was assigned to Canada, but reassigned in 1992. These new area codes, as well as a few other codes used for routing calls to Mexico, were used for telephone area code splits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as all other area codes under the original plan had been consumed.
After the remaining valid area codes were used up by expansion, in 1995 the rapid increase in the need for more area codes forced the NANPA to allow the digits 2 through 8 to be used as a middle digit in new area code assignments, with 9 being reserved as a last resort for potential future expansion. At the same time, local exchanges were allowed to use 1 or 0 as a middle digit. The first area codes without a 1 or 0 as the middle digit were area code 334 in Alabama and area code 360 in Washington, which both began service on January 15, 1995. This was quickly followed by area code 520 serving Arizona on March 19, 1995.
Codes ending in double digits are reserved as easily recognizable codes (ERCs), to be used for special purposes such as toll-free numbers, personal 500 numbers, Canadian non-geographic area code 600, carrier-specific 700 numbers, and high-toll 900 numbers, rather than for geographic areas. Nevada was denied 777 ("lucky 7s", a reference to the state's legalized gambling) for this reason;[24] it received 775 instead when most of Nevada split from 702, which continues to serve the Las Vegas metropolitan area.
By 1995, many cities in the United States and Canada had more than one area code, either through splitting the city into different areas (splits) or having more than one code for the same area (overlays). For example, in Manhattan, subscribers' numbers had the NPA code 212, but two additional codes—first 917 (which initially was exclusively for cellular phones and pagers until that idea was struck down in a Federal court), then 646—were also introduced. This means that the area code must be dialed, even for local calls. In other areas, 10-digit or 11-digit dialing is now required for all local calls. The transition to 10-digit dialing typically starts with a permissive dialing phase in which 10-digit dialing is optional. During this period, the transition is heavily publicized. After a period of several months, the mandatory dialing phase is introduced, in which 7-digit dialing no longer works. Atlanta was the first U.S. city to require mandatory 10-digit dialing throughout the metropolitan area, roughly coinciding with the 1996 Summer Olympics held there. Atlanta was used as the test case not only because of its size, but also because it enjoyed the world's largest fiber optic network at the time (five times that of New York then), and it was home to BellSouth (now part of AT&T), then the Southeastern Regional Bell Operating Company.
7-digit dialing: NXX xxxx (NPA code not required)
10-digit dialing: NPA NXX xxxx
11-digit dialing: 1 NPA NXX xxxx  (1 is the NANP trunk prefix for long distance circuits).
Expansion issues
Depending on the techniques used for area code expansion, the effect on telephone users varies. In areas in which overlays were used, this generally avoids the need for converting telephone numbers, so existing directories, business records, letterheads, business cards, advertising, and "speed-dialing" settings can retain the same phone numbers, while the overlay is used for new number allocations. The primary impact on telephone users is the necessity of remembering and dialing 10- or 11-digit numbers when only 7-digit dialing was previously permissible.
Splitting instead of overlaying generally avoids the requirement for mandatory area-code dialing, but at the expense of having to convert a region to the new code. In addition to the requirements of updating records and directories to accommodate the new numbers, for efficient conversion this requires a period of "permissive dialing" in which the new and old codes are both allowed to work. Also, many splittings involved significant technical issues, especially when the area splittings occurred over boundaries other than phone network divisions.
In 1998 area code 612, which had covered the Minneapolis – Saint Paul Twin Cities, was split to create area code 651 for St. Paul and the eastern metropolitan area. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission mandated that the new boundary exactly follow municipal boundaries, which were distinctly different from telephone exchange boundaries, and that all subscribers keep their 7-digit numbers. These two goals were directly at odds with the reason for the split, namely to provide additional phone numbers. More than 40 exchanges had territory that straddled the new boundary. As a result, prefixes were duplicated in both area codes, which counteracted much of the benefit of the splitting, with only 200 of 700 prefixes in area 612 moving entirely to area 651. In less than two years area code 612 again exhausted its supply of phone numbers, and required a three-way split in 2000, creating the new area codes 763 and 952. Again, the split followed political boundaries rather than rate center boundaries, resulting in additional split prefixes; a few numbers moved from 612 to 651 and then to 763 in less than two years.
Decrease in expansion rate
Recognizing that the proliferation of area codes was largely due to the telecom regulation act and the assignment of numbers in blocks of 10,000, the FCC instructed NANPA, by then administered by Neustar, to alleviate the numbering shortage. As a result, number pooling was piloted in 2001 as a system for allocating local numbers to carriers in blocks of 1,000 rather than 10,000. Because of the then design of the switched telephone network, this was a considerable technical obstacle. Number pooling was implemented with another technical obstacle, local number portability.
The program has been implemented in much of the United States by state regulators. A limited number of cities have also implemented rate center consolidation; fewer rate centers resulted in more efficient use of numbers, as carriers would reserve blocks of 1,000 or 10,000 numbers in each of multiple rate centers in the same area even if they had relatively few clients in the area.[25] (A rate center is a geographical area used by a Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) to determine the boundaries for local calling, billing and assigning phone numbers. Typically a call within a rate center is local, while a call from one rate center to another is a long-distance call.) Together with aggressive reclamation of unused number blocks from telecom providers, number pooling has reduced the need for additional area codes, so that many previously designated area splits and overlays have been postponed indefinitely.
There is no number pooling in Canada. Number allocation remains highly inefficient as even the tiniest village is a rate center and every CLEC is assigned blocks of ten thousand numbers in every place it offers new local service. As a result, dialing seven digits even in remote locations like James Bay is more likely to produce an intercept message ("dial the area code") than an actual voice connection.
New area codes outside the United States and Canada
Before 1995, all NANP countries and territories outside the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Canada shared the area code 809. This included Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each has since been assigned one or more distinct numbering plan areas; area code 809 now exclusively serves the Dominican Republic (along with area codes 829 and 849). The United States Pacific territories of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam joined the NANP in 1997, and American Samoa became an NANP member in October 2004. The Dutch possession of Sint Maarten was originally scheduled to join the NANP on May 31, 2010, but the changeover was postponed to September 30, 2011.[12]

Number size expansion

The NANP exhaust analysis estimates that the existing numbering system is sufficient until 2044, based on the assumption that a maximum of 667 NPAs continue to be available and that on the average 4400 central office codes are needed per year.[26]
Various plans are discussed for expanding the numbering plan to provide relief after exhaustion. One plan being considered adds the digit 1 or 0 either to the beginning or to the end of the area code or the beginning of the seven-digit subscriber number. This would require 11-digit dialing even for local calls between any two NANP numbers. In another proposal, existing codes would be changed to x9xx, e.g. San Francisco's 415 would become 4915. Other proposals include reallocating blocks of numbers assigned to smaller long distance carriers or unused reserved services.
Countries and territories
Of all states or territories, the U.S. state of California has the largest number of area codes assigned, followed by Texas, Florida and New York, while most countries of the Caribbean only use one.[27] Many Caribbean codes were assigned based on alphabetic abbreviations of the territory name, as indicated in the third column of the following table (Letter code). This follows the traditional letter assignments on telephone dials.  In a number of Pacific islands, the NANPA area code is the same as the International Dialing Code, which was then discontinued.

Dialing procedures
The structure of the North American Numbering Plan permits implementation of local dial plans in each plan area, depending on requirements. When multiple NPA codes serve an area in an overlay arrangement, ten-digit (10D) dialing is required. Seven-digit (7D) dialing may be permissible in areas with single area codes.[29] Depending on the requirement of toll alerting, it may be necessary to prefix a telephone number with 1. The NANPA publishes dial plan information for individual area codes.[30]
The standard dial plans in most cases are as follows:

The number of digits dialed is unrelated to being a local call or a toll call when there is no toll alerting. Allowing 7D local dial across an area code boundary, which is uncommon today, requires central office code protection, locally if using toll alerting, across the entire area code otherwise, to avoid assignment of the same seven-digit number on both sides.
Most areas permit local calls as 1+10D except for Texas, Georgia, and some jurisdictions in Canada which require that landline callers know which numbers are local and which are toll, dialing 10D for local calls and 1+10D for all toll calls.
In almost all cases, domestic operator-assisted calls are dialed 0+10D.
Special numbers and codes
Some common special numbers in the North American system:
0 – Operator assistance
00 – Long-distance operator assistance (formerly 2-1-1)
011 – International access code using direct dial (for all destinations outside the NANP).
01 – International access code using operator assistance (for all destinations outside the NANP).
101-xxxx – Used to select use of an alternative long-distance carrier
211 – Local community information or social services (in some cities)
311 – City government or non-emergency police matters
411 – Local telephone directory service (Some telephone companies provide national directory assistance)
511 – Traffic, road, and tourist information
611 – Telephone line repair service (formerly 4104), wireless operator customer service (formerly 811).
711 – Relay service for customers with hearing or speech disabilities.
811 – Dig safe pipe/cable location in the United States, non-urgent telehealth/teletriage services in Canada (formerly telephone company business office)
911 – Emergency telephone number – fire department, medical emergency, police.
950-xxxx – Feature group code for access to a carrier from a non-subscriber location. The feature requires the customer dial a 950-xxxx number and enter a calling card number and destination telephone number. It was originally used for locations where 101-xxxx dialing was not possible.
958-xxxx (local); 959-xxxx (long distance) – Plant test numbers, such as automatic number announcement circuits. It was once common to reserve entire unused exchange prefixes or N11 numbers (4101 was ringback on many step-by-step switches), but these have largely moved to individual unpublished numbers within the standard 958-xxxx (local) or 959-xxxx (long-distance) plant test exchanges as numbers become scarce.
1-NPA-555-1212 – Non-local directory information (Canada and United States)
There are also special codes, such as:
*51 and 1151: A history of unanswered calls on a telephone number, useful for those who are not Caller ID subscribers.
*57 and 1157:  Used to trace harassing, threatening, abusive, obscene, etc. phone calls, and keep results of trace at phone company.
*66 and 1166: To keep retrying a busy-line (see also Called-party camp-on)
*67 and 1167: Caller ID Block
*69 and 1169: Call Return caller may press '1' to return call after hearing number
*70 and 1170: Cancel call waiting on a call-by-call basis
*71 and 1171: Three-way calling, which lets a person talk to people in two different locations at the same time.
*74 and 1174: Speed dial, which allows someone to quickly dial any of eight frequently called numbers using a one-digit code, from any phone on their line.
*75 allows a total of 30 speed-call numbers with two digits.
*77 activates Anonymous Call Rejection Service
*82 and 1182: Releases Caller ID block on a call-by-call basis
*87 deactivates Anonymous Call Rejection Service
Note: The four-digit numbers are not implemented in some areas. The codes prefixed with an asterisk (*) symbol are intended for use on Touch-Tone telephones, whereas the four-digit numbers prefixed 11xx are intended for use on rotary dial telephones, where the Touch-Tone * symbol is not available.
Not all NANP countries use the same codes. For example, the emergency telephone number is not always 911: Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica use 999, as in the United Kingdom. The country of Barbados uses 211 for police force, 311 for fire, and 511 for ambulance, while Jamaica uses 114 for directory assistance, 119 for police force, and 110 for fire and ambulance services.
Despite its early importance as a share of the worldwide telephone system, few of the NANP's codes, such as 911, have been adopted outside the system. Determining that 911 requires unnecessary rotation time on rotary dial telephones, the European Union has adopted its own standardized number of 112, while countries in Asia and the rest of the world use a variety of other two- or three-digit emergency telephone number combinations. The 112 code is gaining prevalence because of its preprogrammed presence in mobile telephones that conform to the European GSM standard. The European Union and many other countries have chosen the International Telecommunication Union's 00 as their international access number instead of 011. The toll-free prefix 800 has been widely adopted elsewhere, including as the international toll-free country code. It is often preceded by a 0 rather than a 1 in many countries where 0 is the trunk prefix.
Alphabetic mnemonic system

Many dials on modern telephones in use in the NANP service areas maintain the tradition of alphabetic dialing. Usually each pushbutton from digit 2 to 9 also displays three letters, which is standardized in ISO 9995-8 and, in Europe, E.161. Historically, the letters Q and Z were omitted, although some modern telephones contain them. SMS-capable devices have all 26 letters. The alphabet is apportioned to the buttons as follows:
No letters are typically mapped to keys 1 and 0, although some corporate voicemail systems use 1 for Q and Z, and some old telephones assigned the Z to the digit 0.
Originally, this scheme was used as a mnemonic device for telephone number prefixes. When telephone numbers in the United States were standardized in the mid-20th century to seven digits, the first two digits of the exchange prefix were expressed as letters rather than numbers, using the telephone exchange name. Before World War II, the largest cities used three letters and four or five numbers, while in most cities with customer dialing, phone numbers had only six digits (2L-4N). The prefix was a name, and the first two or three letters, usually shown in capital letters, were dialed. Later, the third letter, where implemented, was replaced by a digit, or an extra digit was added. This generally happened after World War II, although New York City converted in 1930. The adoption of seven-digit local numbers (2L-5N) was chosen as the requirement for direct distance dialing and progressively deployed starting the late 1940s.
The famous Glenn Miller tune PEnnsylvania 6-5000 refers to telephone number PE6-5000, a number still in service at the Hotel Pennsylvania (212 736-5000) in New York. Similarly, the classic film BUtterfield 8 is set in the East Side of Manhattan between roughly 64th and 86th Streets, where the telephone prefixes include 288. In some works of fiction, phone numbers will begin with "KLondike 5" or KLamath 5, which translates to 555, an exchange that is reserved for information numbers in North America.
The letter system was phased out, beginning before 1965, although it persisted ten years later in some places. It was included in Bell of Pennsylvania directories until 1983. Even today, some businesses still display a 2L-5N number in advertisements, e.g., the Belvedere Construction Company in Detroit, Michigan not only still uses the 2L-5N format for its number (TYler 8-7100), it uses the format for the toll-free number (1-800-TY8-7100).
Despite the phasing out of the letter system otherwise, alphabetic phonewords remain as a commercial mnemonic gimmick, particularly for toll-free numbers. For example, one can dial 1-800-FLOWERS to order flowers, or 1-800-DENTIST to find a local dentist.
In addition to commercial uses, alphabetic dialing has occasionally influenced the choice of regional area codes in the United States. For example, when area 423 (East Tennessee) was split in 1999, the region surrounding Knoxville was assigned area code 865, chosen to represent the word VOL (Volunteers), the nickname of Tennessee (The Volunteer State), as well as athletic teams at the University of Tennessee.[31][32] Another example of this is area code 859 in Kentucky, which was chosen to represent 'UKY' as a nod to the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY, the code's principal city.
Several Caribbean area codes were chosen as an alphabetic abbreviation of the country name, which are indicated in the table of NANP regions.
Cellular services
The North American Numbering Plan does not set aside special non-geographic area codes exclusively for cellular phones. Only one regional exception exists in area code 600 in Canada.
In many other national numbering plans outside the NANP, mobile services are assigned separate prefixes. Cell phone numbers in the NANP are allocated within each area code from special central office prefixes and calls to them are billed at the same rate as any other call. Consequently, the caller pays pricing model adopted in other countries, in which calls to cellular phones are charged at a higher nationwide rate, but incoming mobile calls are not charged to the mobile user, could not be implemented. Instead, North American cellular telephone subscribers are also generally charged for receiving calls (subscriber pays). This has discouraged mobile users from publishing their telephone number. However, price competition among carriers has reduced the average price per call minute for contract customers for both inbound and outbound calls, which compare favorably to those in caller-pays countries. Most users select bundle pricing plans that include an allotment of minutes expected to be used in the billing period. Of the four major national carriers in the United States, all four (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon) offer free calling between mobile phones on the carrier's network, and Sprint also offers its customers free calling to mobile phones on other networks.
Industry observers have attributed the relatively low mobile phone penetration rate in the United States, compared to that of Europe, to the subscriber-pays model. In this model the convenience of the mobility is charged to the subscriber. Callers from outside the local-calling region of the assigned number, however, pay for a long-distance call, although domestic long-distance rates are generally lower than the rates in caller-pays systems. Conversely, an advantage of caller-pays is the relative absence of telemarketing and nuisance calls to mobile numbers. The integrated numbering plan also enables local number portability between fixed and wireless services within a region, allowing users to switch to mobile service while keeping their telephone number.
The initial plan for area code overlays did allow for providing separate area codes for use by mobile devices, although these were still assigned to a specific geographical area, and were charged at the same rate as other area codes. Initially, the area code 917 for New York City was specifically assigned for this purpose within the boroughs; however, a Federal court overturned the practice and the use of an area code for a specific telephony purpose. Since mobile telephony has been expanding faster than landline use, new area codes typically have a disproportionately large fraction of mobile and nomadic numbers, although landline and other services rapidly follow and local network portability can blur these distinctions.
The experience of Hurricane Katrina and similar events revealed a possible disadvantage of the methods employed in the geographic assignment of cellular numbers. Many mobile phone users could not be reached, even when they were far from the stricken areas, because the routing of calls to their phones depended on equipment in the affected area. They could make calls but not receive them.[33]
The use of geographic numbers may also lead to tromboning; one can take a handset with a Vancouver number into St. John's and outbound calls to St. John's numbers while in that city will be local, but incoming calls must make the cross-country trip to Vancouver and back. This adds costs for subscribers, as an 8,000km cross-country call (as a worst case) incurs long-distance tolls in both directions. AMPS subscribers used to be provided with a local number (such as 1-NPA-NXX-ROAM) in each city, allowing them to be reached by dialing that number plus the ten-digit mobile telephone number; this is no longer supported.
Toll charges
Calls between different countries and territories of the NANP are not typically charged at domestic rates. For example, most long-distance plans may charge a California subscriber a higher rate for a call to British Columbia than for a call to New York, even though both destinations are within the NANP. Similarly, calls from Bermuda to U.S. numbers (including 1-800 numbers, which are normally thought of as toll-free) incur international rates. This is because many of the island nations implemented a plan of subsidizing the cost of local phone services by directly charging higher pricing levies on international long-distance services.
Because of these higher fees, scams had taken advantage of customers' unfamiliarity with pricing structure to call the legacy regional area code 809. Some scams lured customers from the United States and Canada into placing expensive calls to the Caribbean, by representing area code 809 as a regular domestic, low-cost, or toll-free call. The split of 809 (which formerly covered all of the Caribbean NANP points) into multiple new area codes created many new, unfamiliar prefixes which could be mistaken for U.S. or Canada domestic area codes but carried high tariffs. In various island nations, premium exchanges such as +1-876-HOT-, +1-876-WET- or +1-876-SEX- (where 876 is Jamaica) became a means to circumvent consumer-protection laws governing area code 900 or similar U.S.-domestic premium numbers.
These scams are on the decline, with many of the Cable and Wireless service monopolies being opened up to competition, hence bringing rates down. Additionally, many Caribbean territories have implemented local government agencies to regulate telecommunications rates of providers.[34][35]
Number portability
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. (b)(2)) authorizes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to require all local exchange carriers (LECs) to offer local number portability.[36] The FCC regulations were enacted on June 27, 1996, with changes to take effect in the one hundred largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas by October 1, 1997 and elsewhere by December 31, 1998.[37]
The North American Numbering Council (NANC) was directed to select the local number portability administrators (LNPAs), also referred to as number portability administrators,[38] akin to the North American Numbering Plan administrator (NANPA).[39]
The toll-free telephone numbers with NPAs 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, and 844 have been portable through the RespOrg system since 1993.[40]
Fictional telephone numbers
American television programs and films  often use the central office code 555, or KL<i data-parsoid='{"dsr":[59421,59430,2,2]}'>amath 5 and KL<i data-parsoid='{"dsr":[59439,59449,2,2]}'>ondike 5 in older movies and shows, for fictitious telephone numbers, to prevent disturbing actual telephone subscribers if anyone is tempted to dial a telephone number seen on screen.
Occasionally, valid telephone numbers are used in contexts such as songs with varying intents and consequences. An example is the 1981 song "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone, which is the cause of a large number of calls.[41]
Not all numbers beginning with 555 are fictional. For example, 555-1212 is the standard number for directory assistance. Only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are reserved for fictional use. Where used, these are often routed to information services; Canadian telephone companies briefly promoted 555-1313 as a pay-per-use "name that number" reverse lookup in the mid-1990s.[42]
See also
Area codes in the Caribbean
List of North American Numbering Plan area codes
List of area code overlays
List of country calling codes
North American Numbering Plan expansion
Numbering Resource Utilization/Forecast Report


Slogans of the United States Army changed rarely in the 20th century, relative to the 21st.
World War I
"I Want YOU for US Army" featured on a poster of Uncle Sam painted by James Montgomery Flagg.
1950s–1971
"Look Sharp, Be Sharp, Go Army!" was a recruiting slogan in the 1950s and 1960s. The Big Picture, public announcements on broadcast television, and highway roadway signs advertised the slogan during a time of a national draft of young men 18 to 34 years of age. The advantage of volunteering for service as opposed to being drafted was the option to choose which career field you wanted to serve in along with the first unit and/or location of assignment.
1971 to 1980
"Today's Army Wants to Join You" was a recruiting slogan from the 1971 Volunteer Army (Project VOLAR) campaign, which was introduced as the country prepared to transition to an all-volunteer military. When N. W. Ayer & Son, who were engaged by the US Army, believed they felt the army said "Today's Army is changing; we want to meet you half way", the firm came up with that slogan. General William Westmoreland asked "Do we have to ask it that way?" but agreed to the campaign. The slogan was replaced by "Join the People Who've Joined the Army" in 1973, which later evolved into "This is the Army."[3]
Slogan was written in 1971 by Ted Regan Jr., Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director of N.W. Ayer, the Army's ad agency.
Regan also wrote the follow up slogan, "Join the people who've joined the Army."
1980 to 2001
"Be All You Can Be" was the recruiting slogan of the United States Army for over twenty years.[4] Earl Carter (pen-name, E.N.J. Carter) working for the N.W. Ayer Advertising Agency as a Senior Copywriter created the “Be All You Can Be” theme line in 1980.[5] In January 2003, the U.S. Army awarded Carter its Outstanding Civilian Service Award.[6] Carter’s original concept sheet, with words “Be All You Can Be”, is now part of a permanent collection at the US Army Heritage Center Foundation.
2001 to 2006

"Army of One" was a relatively short-lived recruiting slogan. It replaced the popular "Be All You Can Be" and was replaced in 2006 by the new slogan "Army Strong".[7] The reason for the replacement, states Frank Luntz, is that the slogan "Army of One" is contrary to the idea of teamwork.[8]
2006 to present

"Army Strong" is the recruiting slogan that has been used for more than a decade by the United States Army. The composer of the music used in the Army Strong television commercials is Mark Isham.[9]
See also
United States Armed Forces


This is a list of best-selling Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) franchises. For inclusion on the list, a franchise must have sold at least 100,000 copies. For the purpose of this article, a JRPG is defined as a franchise which: (1) is considered a role-playing game by reliable sources and was made in Japan, or (2) made in another country, but otherwise the franchise would be difficult to differentiate from a JRPG due to having common traits found in JRPGs such as: anime/manga character designs, RPG elements, fantasy setting and widely considered as being inspired or influenced by a JRPG. Sales numbers are based on the most recent available sourced numbers and often may not include non-video game sales or more recent sales; actual total sales numbers may be higher.
List

See also
List of best-selling video game franchises
List of highest-grossing video game franchises
List of highest-grossing media franchises
Notes

List of best-selling Japanese role-playing game franchises


Main Page

Command & Conquer (C&C) is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game Dune II and introducing trademarks followed in the rest of the series. This includes full-motion video cutscenes with a notable ensemble cast to progress the story, as opposed to digitally in-game rendered cutscenes. Westwood Studios was taken over by Electronic Arts in 1998 and closed down in 2003. The studio and some of its members were absorbed into EA Los Angeles, which continued development on the series.
History
After Westwood Studios developed the critically acclaimed Dune II, Computer Gaming World reported in 1993 that the company would not use the Dune license for Westwood's next strategy game "mostly because the programmers are tired of sand". The magazine stated that it would have "new terrain and enemies", and that "the design team is serious about doing a multi-player version".[3]
Command & Conquer was released worldwide by Westwood in 1995. The plot is set sometime in the near future where the Earth becomes contaminated by a mysterious resource known as Tiberium. A global war ensues between the UN-formed Global Defense Initiative to contain it and the cult quasi-state revolutionary Brotherhood of Nod, led by the enigmatic Kane, which seeks to harness it. Highly successful, it was followed by Command & Conquer: Red Alert in 1996 which is set in an alternate universe where the Soviet Union wages war with the Allies. Developed as the prequel to the original, the Red Alert series was spun off into a separate, lighthearted and comic series, while the original game and its sequels became known as the "Tiberium" series, retaining its science fiction and serious tone. The first game is sometimes referred to as Tiberian Dawn as a result.
The original game was followed by Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun in 1999 and its expansion pack Tiberian Sun: Firestorm. In 2002, a first person-shooter set in the Tiberium universe, Command & Conquer: Renegade, was released and praised for its online features. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was released in 2007 and followed by the expansion pack Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, released in 2010 as the conclusion to the Tiberium saga, received noticeably more mixed reviews because of its deviation from traditional gameplay and story. The Red Alert series was continued by the 2000 title Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, its expansion, Yuri's Revenge and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 in 2008, which introduced a third "Empire of the Rising Sun" faction. A spin-off game in 2003, Command & Conquer: Generals, set in a more realistic near-future and featuring the United States, China and the Global Liberation Army was followed by an expansion pack, Zero Hour.
The series was originally marketed to an Anglophone audience, though many of the games have been translated into other languages including German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Korean, and Chinese. The series is primarily developed for personal computers running Microsoft Windows, although some titles have been ported to various video game consoles and the Apple Macintosh. Other games for platforms such as iOS and web-based have also been developed. As of July 2010, the Command & Conquer franchise consists of eleven games and eight expansion packs. The first three games of the series have been released as freeware to promote the successors.[4] A free-to-play game, entitled Command & Conquer, was in development with the studio Victory Games.  It was set to be the next game in the series and was expected to be released in 2013. However, after a short alpha period the game was cancelled, and Victory Games disbanded by EA.[5][6] The Command & Conquer series has been a commercial success with over 30 million Command & Conquer games sold as of 2009.
Gameplay
The Command & Conquer are real-time strategy games, with the exception of the first-person shooter Command & Conquer: Renegade. A staple of the series is the parallel campaigns of various different factions to one central storyline. Games in the series also offered multiplayer game options, via LAN and modem connection. All games in the series have also offered online play, as well as "skirmish" matches in which players can face AI enemies.
All Command & Conquer real-time strategy games except Command & Conquer: Generals and its expansions have featured the "side bar" for navigation and control as opposed to many other similar games where the control bar is located on the bottom of the screen.
Command & Conquer gameplay typically requires the player to construct a base and acquire resources, in order to fund the ongoing production of various types of forces with which to assault and conquer the opponent's base. All available structures of the faction chosen by the player are constructed on-site at so-called "construction yard" - which typically begin as large-sized vehicles capable of deploying themselves into the aforementioned construction yards, called MCVs or Mobile Construction Vehicle. When a construction yard has finished building a new structure, the player can select a spot near to a preexisting structure in order to place it, where the prefabricated building will then rapidly unfold in a distinctive manner.
In all games in the series except Command & Conquer: Generals and its expansion, Zero Hour, funds are acquired by specialized "harvester" units which bring their cargo (Tiberium for the Tiberian series of games or ore or the more valuable gems for the Red Alert series) to a "refinery" structure. This in turn will convert the raw material into usable resources, expressed as credits. The raw materials themselves, in games released before Red Alert 2 as well as Command & Conquer 3 require storage space in the form of refineries and, in the case of excess, "storage silo" structures.  In Generals and Zero Hour, funds are collected by two methods: collection of supplies by specialized units and converted to money in "supply centers" or directly produced by specialized units, buildings, or tech buildings at a set interval of time.
All factions have structures and units with similar functions at their disposal. However, they are adjusted to fit each faction's theme and have somewhat varying properties. Units can be classified into infantry, vehicles, and aircraft, each with their own subdivisions (note: in the Red Alert series there is also naval craft available). Unit effectiveness against opponents follows the rock-paper-scissors (intransitivity) principle found in most real-time strategy games.
Virtually every type of structure in the series acts as a tech tree node, and additional units, structures and faction-specific abilities will become available as new structures are built and placed. Access to advanced units and abilities may be temporarily blocked if the required structures are destroyed or if they are not being provided with adequate power by the supporting "power plant" structures.
Multiplayer
Each Command & Conquer game has included the ability to play multiplayer games against other players. Each box of Command & Conquer contained two CD copies of the game, immediately making multiplayer gaming possible with a single purchase of the game. Westwood Studios advertised this on the packaging with the slogan "A second copy, so you and your friend can destroy each other." This resulted in Command & Conquer becoming the first RTS game title to feature competitive online play,[7] and this is considered the most pertinent outside factor in the success of Command & Conquer.[8] All games in the series up to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 also featured two CDs that could be used for this reason. However, later games did not.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 was noted for being the first RTS game to enable the campaigns to be played cooperatively online; others had only supported single player campaigns. However, it was only possible to connect to other computers through EA's servers and not with LAN play.
Games produced by Westwood use the proprietary Westwood Online system to facilitate multiplayer games over the Internet; Renegade also supported GameSpy. Games under EA's development continued to use GameSpy, but dropped support for Westwood Online in favor of using EA's own servers. The GameSpy master servers have shut down in 2013.[9] The community filled the gap with their services.[10]
Since the shutdown of EA's servers and removed support for the games, the fan base for the series has created their own way to play online. The well maintained CNC online website allows for players to still face off many years after the official server shutdowns. CNC online only supports Command And conquer games made by EA Los Angeles (2003 and later)
Games
Tiberium series

Command & Conquer, released on September 26, 1995,[11] is the first game in the series and is considered as the title which originally defined and popularized the real-time strategy genre.[7][8][12][13][14][15] Command & Conquer introduced the warring factions of the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod. Command & Conquer was well received and was widely praised by critics: "Command & Conquer is one of the finest, most brilliantly-designed computer games I have ever seen" said GameSpot reviewer Chris Hudak.[16] Command & Conquer has attained 94% as an aggregate score from Metacritic[17] with the less well received Covert Operations expansion pack obtaining an aggregate score of 72% after its 1996 release.[18]
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, released on August 27, 1999, takes place approximately 30 years after the events in its predecessor. While the original Command & Conquer's plot was centered around an allegorical world politics setting, Tiberian Sun shifted this to a more science fiction-like setting against the apocalyptic background of Tiberium beginning to assimilate vast portions of the Earth's ecosystems. In 1998, Westwood Studios, the developers of Tiberian Sun, was acquired by Electronic Arts. However, EA had no direct part in the development of the title. Compared to its predecessor, Tiberian Sun relies heavily on science fiction technologies and introduces a new isometric game engine featuring varying level terrain to give the impression of a true 3D environment.
The full motion video is also scripted differently; while the cutscenes of Command & Conquer and Red Alert were filmed from a first-person perspective, Tiberian Sun used traditional cinematic shots for its FMVs featuring actors such as James Earl Jones and Michael Biehn.
Command & Conquer: Renegade, released February 26, 2002, takes place in the final days of the events of Command & Conquer and was the last Command & Conquer game to be created by Westwood Studios before their liquidation in 2003. Unlike any other games in the series, Renegade is a first-person shooter.[19] Although receiving average reviews, with an aggregate score of 75% on both GameRankings and Metacritic, Renegade was praised for its online features. GameSpy awarded Renegade its 2002 "Wish it had been better" award, condemning the single player but saying that "C&C: Renegade's multiplayer was innovative and fun".[20] Online play was praised for encouraging teamwork and coordinated assaults, unlike other contemporary first-person shooters.[21]
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, released March 29, 2007, was a return to the real-time strategy roots of the Command & Conquer series. As a direct sequel to Tiberian Sun, Tiberium Wars is set approximately 17 years after the events of Tiberian Sun and features the introduction of a third faction, the Scrin. The sequel attained an aggregate score of 85% from both GameRankings and Metacritic. PC Gamer U.S. gave the game its "Editor's Choice" rating at 90%, stating that "one of the greatest RTS franchises of all time returns to glory", while PC Gamer UK gave it a more reserved rating of 82%, stating that it was "a welcome, but limited, return".
Shortly after the release of Tiberium Wars, the expansion pack Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath was announced. Released on March 24, 2008, Kane's Wrath limited the player to only the Brotherhood of Nod in the campaign mode, though the original factions and six new sub-factions are available for the new strategic mode and skirmish mode. Reception was mainly positive with the expansion attaining an aggregate score of 77%.
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, released on March 16, 2010, saw a big change in gameplay from the previous Command & Conquer by removing the resource gathering and base building elements in previous games as well as the removal of the third faction, the Scrin. It is a direct sequel to Kane's Wrath (however not directly following on from its storyline), and is set 10 years after the game's final events, a time when Tiberium has advanced to its next evolutionary stage, and is rapidly spreading across Earth making it soon to be uninhabitable.
Renegade X, is a free, fan-made remake of Command & Conquer: Renegade. The developers received approval from EA to release their game,[22] and it entered open beta on February 26, 2014. Renegade X includes a short single-player campaign called Black Dawn.
Red Alert series

Command & Conquer: Red Alert, released on November 22, 1996,[23] is set in an alternate universe 1950s and was originally made to be the prequel to Command & Conquer[24] establishing Red Alert as the prologue of the entire Tiberium series of games. Louis Castle has said that connecting Red Alert with the Tiberium series was a "failed experiment". Red Alert introduces the Allies and the Soviets as rival factions roughly analogous to NATO and the Warsaw Pact of the Cold War. The game was received well by critics and has the highest average score of any Command & Conquer game with an average of over 90% from GameRankings and Metacritic, unlike the title's two expansion packs, Red Alert: Counterstrike and Red Alert: The Aftermath of which both received below average reviews for the series with 63% and 70% average scores respectively. Both expansions gave the game more missions and more units. For PlayStation only, there was also a separate release to the original called Red Alert: Retaliation which included all the maps, missions and units of Red Alert: Counterstrike and Red Alert: The Aftermath as well as some newly filmed cut-scenes only available with Red Alert: Retaliation. Before being re-released as freeware on 31 August 2008 by Electronic Arts Command & Conquer: Red Alert had sold over three million copies.[25]
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 was released on October 23, 2000. It featured a Soviet invasion of North America with tanks, conscripts, large airships, and psychically dominated anti-ship giant squid. Since that game lacked reference to the Tiberian series, the connection established in the first Red Alert game became unclear. However, it has been implied by the original creators of the series, now working at Petroglyph Games, that Red Alert 2 takes place in a parallel universe that came about as a result of time travel experiments taking place some time into the Tiberian series.[26] Red Alert 2 was received fairly positively with an aggregate score of 86% from GameRankings.
An expansion pack to Red Alert 2, Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge was released on October 10, 2001. In Yuri's Revenge, an ex-Soviet figure named Yuri, tries to conquer the world using psychic technology and his own private army. The expansion pack received mostly positive reviews. GameRankings reports an average score of 85% based on 31 reviews,[27] making Yuri's Revenge the best received expansion pack in the Command & Conquer series.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, released on October 28, 2008, followed up on the story of Red Alert 2 and continued the series' more "light-hearted" take on Command & Conquer. It introduced many new comical units and the Empire of the Rising Sun faction, an anime inspired version of the Empire of Japan. Executive producer Chris Corry stated in a pre-release interview that Red Alert 3 will further differentiate the playable factions from each other and "[play] up the silliness in their faction design whenever possible".[28] This approach was seen as popular with Red Alert 3 obtaining an aggregate score of 82% from Metacritic. A stand-alone expansion to Red Alert 3, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising was released on March 12, 2009 to fairly poor reviews for the series with an average score of 64% from Metacritic. Another downloadable standalone game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was released known as Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Commander's Challenge which contained the Commander's Challenge mode of Uprising for consoles.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert was released on October 16, 2009 for iOS which was a continuation of the story of Red Alert 2 and takes place before Red Alert 3. It contained two factions, the Allies and Soviet Union with a third faction, the Empire of the Rising Sun, to be added in its expansion pack. However this is version of the game is not available in some regions (e.g. Uk).
On April 23, 2018, the Chinese developer Tencent announced a new iOS version of Red Alert would be made available, with a highly mixed reception from fans online.[29]
Generals series
Command & Conquer: Generals, released on February 10, 2003, has a plotline which is unrelated to the other games of the Command & Conquer series. Generals is set in the near future and features the United States, China and the fictional terrorist organization, the Global Liberation Army. Generals uses an engine dubbed SAGE (or Strategy Action Game Engine) and is the first fully three-dimensional Command & Conquer real-time strategy game. After its release, Generals received mostly positive reviews. Based on 34 reviews, Metacritic gives it a score of 84/100[30] which includes a score of 9.3/10 from IGN.[31] Generals has also received the E3 2002 Game Critics Awards Best Strategy Game award.[32] One review noted that Generals was the first Command & Conquer real-time strategy game that did not include full-motion video cutscenes to tell the story and that it departed from the unique interface and base-building mechanics that had characterized all of the previous C&C RTS titles.[33]
An expansion for Generals, Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, was released on September 22, 2003 to further the Generals storyline.  Zero Hour added 9 new armies to the game, over a dozen new campaign missions, and a gameplay mode known as Generals Challenge.[34] Unlike Generals, Zero Hour featured the return of full motion videos to the series. Zero Hour obtained much the same reception as Generals with an aggregate score of 85% and 84% from GameRankings and Metacritic respectively.
After EA Los Angeles started up their new internal group Danger Close and switched its focus to the Medal of Honor series, EA launched a new studio named Victory Games to continue the Command & Conquer franchise.[35] On December 10, 2011, Electronic Arts posted that the next game in the series would be Command & Conquer: Generals 2.[36] On December 14, it was also announced that a new browser-based, free-to-play MMO Command & Conquer game is under development, under the name Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances.[37] On December 15, Tiberium Alliances began a closed beta.[38]
Future
On August 15, 2012, it was announced that Generals 2 would be repurposed to a free-to-play game known as simply Command & Conquer.[39] The new game would have been based around the Generals franchise. However, following feedback from players who were able to play the alpha trial, the game was cancelled in October 2013.[40] In 2013, EA has said that the franchise will continue, but has given no other information.[41] In 2014, EA was looking for a new developer for the reboot.[42]
On June 9, 2018, EA revealed Command & Conquer: Rivals, which is under development by the newly-formed EA Redwood Studios for Android and iOS mobile devices.[43]
EA announced in November 2018 its plans to remaster Command & Conquer, including expansions and Red Alert, for modern computer systems through Petroglyph Games. There is no current estimated release date.[44]
Chronology
Westwood Studios (1995–2002)
1995 – Command & Conquer
1996 – Command & Conquer – The Covert Operations
1996 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert
1997 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Counterstrike
1997 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert – The Aftermath
1998 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Retaliation
1997 – Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor
1999 – Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
2000 – Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm
2000 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
2001 – Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge
2002 – Command & Conquer: Renegade
EA Los Angeles (2003—2010)
2003 – Command & Conquer: Generals
2003 – Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour
2007 – Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
2008 – Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
2008 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
2009 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising
2009 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Commander's Challenge
2010 – Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
EA Phenomic (2011)
2012 – Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances
EA Redwood Studios (2018–)
2018 – Command & Conquer: Rivals
See also canceled Command & Conquer games.
Music

Much of the music for the series was composed and produced by Westwood Studios' former sound director and video game music composer Frank Klepacki for the early games, with composition duties being taken on by several others following the liquidation of Westwood Studios in 2003. Klepacki returned to the series in 2008 however to assist with the soundtrack for Red Alert 3.
The music has been received positively by critics, although praise was higher with earlier entries.
The original score for Command & Conquer: Red Alert was composed by Frank Klepacki and was voted the best video game soundtrack of 1996 by PC Gamer and Gameslice magazines.[45] Among his most famous songs from the series is the theme of Red Alert, titled "Hell March", which accents the style of the game with adrenalized riffs of electric guitar, the sounds of marching feet, and synthesizers to a dramatic chant. Originally intended to be the theme for the Brotherhood of Nod faction in the Covert Operations expansion to the original 1995 Command & Conquer game,[46] the track eventually ended up enlisting itself as a staple in the Red Alert series instead, and a second version of "Hell March" was specifically created for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.
After C&C came out we wasted no time kicking out Covert Ops. I wrote some more ambient style themes they asked me for, and then I began tinkering with this heavy metal song that I was trying to gear towards Nod for the next big C&C game. Brett Sperry came in my office and said "You got anything I can hear for the new C&C?" I played it for him. He said "What's the name of this one?" I said "Hell March." He said "That's the signature song for our next game."[47]—Frank Klepacki, Senior Composer

Reception
The Command & Conquer series have been a commercial success with over 30 million Command & Conquer games sold as of 2009.[48] Games in the series have nearly consistently scored highly on video game review aggregator websites GameRankings and Metacritic, which collect data from numerous review websites. As noted in the table below, the highest rated game is Command & Conquer with a score of 94% from Metacritic. The highest rated game averaged over both sites is Command & Conquer: Red Alert with an average of just over 90%. As a series, Command & Conquer games have averaged approximately 80% when including expansion packs and approximately 84% without.
Command & Conquer's long history resulted in Guinness World Records awarding the series six world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include "Biggest Selling RTS Series", "Most Number of Platforms for an RTS", and "Longest Running Actor in Video Game Role" for Joe Kucan, who has played the part of Kane, the villainous mastermind of the series, for 15 years.

Notes

 at Curlie
 at MobyGames

When was the video game Command & Conquer first introduced?