Viktor Kislyi, a Belarusian and a resident of Cyprus, has been running Wargaming for 17 years, which has managed to create one of the most popular multiplayer games in Russia and the former USSR - World of Tanks. Recently Vedomosti is with him.
WoT is always rapidly gaining users, and they are actively paying for items within the game. In 2012, World of Tanks brought Wargaming $ 218 million, and last year its revenue more than doubled: according to Superdata, the company earned more than $ 500 million on "tanks". pay less. Wargaming plans to compensate for the drop in revenues with growth in international markets, new projects and promotion of the game in e-sports competitions (computer games competitions), which, according to Kisly, may develop into new media reality.
- Before the crisis, the main market for you was Russia and the CIS countries, but now?
- The structure of our players has not changed much. We all understand that a tank is “sewn up” in the DNA of a Russian person (laughs) and nothing can be done about it. Inhabitants of the former Soviet Union They play a lot of tanks and did not do it less. Americans are more spoiled, they need everything to be beautiful, they need to be shown everything. They play more on consoles, and only a year ago we launched World of Tanks on consoles, and even then old version... We are doing now new version for Xbox one, and then, probably, there will be some growth in the number of users in the United States.
For example, in Japan there are few computers, the Japanese play mainly on the Play Station. But if the Japanese fell in love with some kind of game, then he will not get out of it. And this is the most paying audience. But in terms of their number, they are few when compared with other countries.
It is clear that we started with a ratio of 0: 100. That is, Mother Russia, the CIS. True, in the very first week of closed testing, Poles and Czechs began to actively join - they also love tanks very much. For some reason Icelanders play a lot, Scandinavians in general.
We have made efforts to spread our game around the world. To do this, we localized World of Tanks, launched support in different languages.
Now our audience for the game is distributed approximately 50:50. Half is Russia and countries the former USSR the other half is the rest of the world. That is, the dynamics are still going towards an increase in the international audience, which is logical - after all, the population of the whole world is larger than the former USSR. Although the density of "tankers" is less, the population and territory are larger (laughs).
We are systematically working to improve our understanding of the same America, Europe, Korea. There are several uncovered spots, for example Brazil, we started working there quite recently. We do not cover the countries of the Middle East yet. There is a peculiarity: the Arabic script is written from right to left, which means that we actually need to "mirror" the entire game.
- With such a noticeable share of Russian players in World of Tanks, has the crisis in Russia strongly affected Wargaming's business? Are people paying less for artifacts in the game? During the crisis of 2008-2009. Many gaming companies saw an influx of players: people stopped going to the movies, flying on vacation, but they didn’t play less.
- Of course, Russia is a large country in which there has been a crisis of a geopolitical scale. It is clear that these movements of the ruble and euro were not in our favor and led to a decrease in the dollar equivalent of revenue.
Our audience is very heterogeneous. Moreover, the game does not force the players to pay money. In the game, you can spend money comparable to several movie tickets, and a student can generally play for free.
We have 25% paying users, which is a very good figure compared to other games. In the games industry, there is the concept of a "whale" - this is a top-level manager who drives a black Mercedes and whose salary is measured in numbers with big amount zeros. He doesn't care how much to pay. But World of Tanks is built in such a way that you can't spend $ 1000 a month there. I could spend that amount, but I don't know what for (laughs). The game is made in such a way that there is no product for that amount per month. $ 10 is a premium account plus a couple of dozen, well, a hundred dollars for collectible tanks ($ 5–40) or local currency.
So these "whales" do not feel the difference - to spend several tens of dollars in the game or a couple of hundred. Therefore, among this audience, we did not notice any changes in payments. Schoolchildren and students, of course, began to pay less - it is clear that the purchasing power has fallen.
Games love silence
- Superdata analysts estimated Wargaming's 2014 revenue at $ 505 million. How true is this estimate?
- Companies, especially large ones, are not very fond of giving direct assessments of their business. Therefore, I would not like to comment on this assessment.
This is primarily due to competitive struggle... We are not alone in this clearing, there are other similar games, there are full copies. This is a very competitive industry. And if you know how much money your competitors have, you can roughly predict their maneuvers. Therefore, it is good if competitors have no idea how flexible you yourself are in your maneuvers.
I can only say that Wargaming's revenue is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. It is clear that due to the fall of the Russian ruble, our dollar earnings, to put it mildly, did not grow. How much she has not grown is not very important. We still expect the situation to improve, peace will come, and everything will return to its former course.
But other factors, not necessarily macroeconomic, can also affect revenue. For example, some changes in the game itself. Example: last year we released a new World version of Tanks, in which we made several technical mistakes: the storyboard in the game became slower due to the fact that something was poorly rendered there. The speed dropped by an average of 10%. And we released vague historical battles: what we did did not fully meet the expectations of users. And these two factors immediately affected our results, as the number of concurrent users dropped by 20% in two months. Well, then we entered the fall - and oil prices fell, the ruble fell. Again there was a fall.
- A drop in both audience and revenue?
- And so and so. They play, but do not pay, pay, but do not play. It got worse, we felt it. It is clear that we took some measures. For example, in the case of the ruble, we offered users purchases at a lower rate: people liked it. Therefore, such jumps for Last year happened to us twice: an unsuccessful technical patch and the economic situation at the end of the year.
- Do you disclose how much one World of Tanks user pays for you on average, something like ARPU? How much is it in Russia and in the world?
- To be honest, I exact figure Do not know. It seems to me that it makes no sense to talk about ARPU, since this is the average temperature in the hospital. When the game reaches such a size that it already captures countries and continents, it makes no sense to talk about ARPU. In addition, there are very different age groups of the population - from seven years old and above. I believe that we need to introduce segmentation: we need to look separately at the ARPU of the "whale" and the "schoolboy", the ARPU of the Russian and the Japanese.
Although our game is built in such a way that there cannot be a large ARPU. I can name approximate figure- $ 25 per paying person per month, although I could be wrong. But that doesn't mean anything. We have built our game in such a way that a person voluntarily pays as much as he can afford. And this is very important. There are games where you won't go further without paying. These games force people to make impulse purchases, especially through mobile devices. In our country, even to pay, you have to go to some terminal, fill out some form. Trouble in general.
- So you make it difficult for yourself to do business?
- No, well, it's on computers - there is just such an infrastructure. It's easier on smartphones.
ARPU of $ 25 comes from the premium account and a little from the rest. And often this is not because a person cannot afford to pay, he simply no longer consumes.
Therefore, in such cheap entertainment as World of Tanks, the percentage of "whales" is very small. Moreover, it is interesting that in Japan there are only "whales". They also exist in Russia, but in comparison with the population, their percentage is very small.
Of course, we could immediately make some kind of diamond tank for $ 10,000. But here such a factor is already included - the people will not understand (laughs). We could only afford this in China. Our Chinese partner just pushed it through: they say, give me a gold tank for gifts, etc. We did it, it costs $ 400.
- Gold iPhones, they say, are very popular in China ...
- Yes. But we must understand that our game is international. As soon as you enter something in one country, it starts to be intensively discussed all over the world - on forums, on social networks. And for this golden tank, which we made at the request of the Chinese workers, our workers told us: "It's not good." And such conversations spoil our reputation, and this is very important. So we won't do that anymore.
Attack lines
- In addition to the most popular World of Tanks, you now have other games - World of Warplanes, World of Warships. How popular are they?
- With World of Warplanes we were probably in a hurry, we made mistakes in some places. Now we are studying this, trying to fix something. So far, everything seems to be very good with World of Warships. Now we are in a closed testing phase: we are using behavioral mechanisms to understand whether people like the game and what and where needs to be changed. So far, all the statistical parameters on the closed beta are excellent, and in all regions.
- Last year Wargaming entered the American market. How successful was this exit? How is Wargaming developing on international markets in general?
- To say that "We took the States", of course, is impossible. This market is very competitive, and not only in games - in all areas. But we got some kind of audience there. These are older men who take children to tank museums, watch the Discovery Channel. The next challenge was to reach younger audiences. But this is much more difficult: they already need shooters, they like to play on consoles.
In Europe and the United States, we still have a lot to grow. But in Russia there was a saturation of the market. Finding a man in Russia who has not heard of World of Tanks is probably already impossible, except in the taiga.
- Do you have any ideas that could help you conquer new markets? Do you plan to make your own shooter, for example?
- On this occasion, I have nothing to say yet. Of course, we in the company are discussing different variants, various new games. But we have no position on shooters yet. And the shooter itself is not. And since there is no shooter, then there is no position (laughs).
As I said, we are not looking at this average user ARPU. You can make $ 27.7, but you can ruin your reputation for it. You can make a lot of money for a short time, but then there will be scorched earth. We have seen such an effect - when you tighten the nuts tightly, then there is a decline. It is beneficial for us that the revenue is stable or grows slightly. Over the course of several years, we have determined this socially acceptable figure that a person can get out of his pocket. And we do not want to change it significantly. A business like ours must be done calmly.
- What other ideas for products or ways to promote?
- In general, we operate with dynamic analysis: there is some opportunity to promote something, we are trying. For example, there is an idea for e-sports, we are holding competitions. If successful, then we increase. So it is with advertising. It works differently in different countries. For example, TV ads for games are believed to be ineffective. But this is not always the case - in some places it is very effective. For example, the very same Clash of Clans advertised during the break between Super Bowl football matches, during the most expensive advertising time. Everyone was very surprised. But they thought it was beneficial, and we thought not. In general, all this is painstaking work. 
As I said, we are not looking at this average user ARPU. You can make $ 27.7, but you can ruin your reputation for it. You can make a lot of money for a short time, but then there will be scorched earth. We have seen such an effect - when you tighten the nuts tightly, then there is a decline. It is beneficial for us that the revenue is stable or grows slightly. Over the course of several years, we have determined this socially acceptable figure that a person can get out of his pocket. And we do not want to change it significantly. A business like ours must be done calmly.
"Buildings" and "rides"
- In April you held a World of Tanks competition in Poland. Similar events are held by other game developers. How do you overall assess the prospects for esports? Is it a tool for promoting the game or in the future it can become a new big media competing, for example, with television broadcasts of regular sports?
- It is impossible to predict the future 5-6 years ahead. But so far, esports is developing very well. In general, esports originated in South Korea from the TV broadcast of Starcraft, and it seemed to everyone that it was such a purely Korean feature and it would not go anywhere further. When we held the finals last year, there were half the number of people than this year.
It has now become clear that esports is growing so rapidly that one can already assume that it will soon become very large - both in terms of the audience and, possibly, in terms of money. But the whole question is about the content. It seems to me that it is quite possible to compare it with ordinary sports, which people watch with great pleasure on TV.
- That is, in 20 years we will be watching the Cyber Olympics?
- Quite possible. E-sports is actually being born before our eyes, its rules have not yet been established. This is a completely new phenomenon at the intersection of media, streaming, advertising.
Cybersport is, first of all, a show. Last year, the competition was attended by 300,000 players, and watched even more - tens of millions. In order for the show to be fun for them, a beautiful and dynamic picture is needed. That is, this the new kind visual art - cinema, only interactive. There are already elements of a beautiful show business in e-sports: fights are commented on, there are prizes, "dance", all this goes to live in many languages. There should always be some kind of intrigue in show business, and in e-sports we fully observe it. It is as difficult to predict who will win here as in ordinary sports: for example, in this league [in Poland] the Chinese beat the Russians. Previously, this seemed inconceivable. So e-sports is the same sport, only a little more youthful.
- Can esports be considered a business already?
- Let's just say that businesses are already being made on this wave. Take the same Twitch - an application that "streams" games. It's incredible: someone is playing games, while others are watching, and there is already a huge audience. Amazon recently bought Twitch for $ 1 billion, and until recently, no one heard of this startup. This demonstrates how quickly everything in this area can grow. So in esports, the same is likely to happen as in other media. Content appears, views grow - and after a while ads appear.
- Are advertisers already interested in esports?
- Are big advertisers interested in this phenomenon? For example, companies in the consumer sector?
- Not yet, but they may come, because here advertisers can be offered a very attractive type of advertising. On the regular Internet, they deal with traditional advertising, in which the audience is determined by age, place of residence, etc. But there is also behavioral advertising, which is based on how a person behaves. In games, people are engaged in just behavior - well, yes, in difficult conditions when enemies are from all sides (laughs), but they somehow behave there: they buy something, consider something. And all this information is accumulated by the gaming companies, and on large numbers it can work very well. Using this data, you can target your ads much more accurately.
- Can the advertising model become a source of income for Wargaming in the future along with in-game payments and subscriptions?
- It is difficult to say so far, but we are carefully studying this topic. The same e-sports for us is still a marketing tool that helps to attract an audience. But everything is moving towards the fact that all this - games, competitions - will become a new media reality. She's funny, cool: it's funny pokatushki, shooting games. People are looking at Minecraft for some reason - there are funny "buildings" (laughs).
All of this, of course, already has a Hollywood element. Normal new media reality. It is still taking its first steps, but it is developing very quickly along with the development of new technologies, mobile devices... Because people mostly watch this kind of thing on smartphones and tablets. They go in a taxi - they can watch a couple of fights.
In the crisis zone
- Why did Wargaming decide to leave the Cyprus Stock Exchange in 2014?
- In 2012, we decided to go to the Cyprus Stock Exchange, since we began to build the company's headquarters in Cyprus and manage it entirely from there. The shares were not traded on the stock exchange. According to the rules of this exchange, this is possible. It was a placement that imposed all the same restrictions and requirements as in the classic IPO. We have plunged ourselves into the abyss of this responsibility so that we have no chance of violating it. We have been doing this for several years. We got what we needed from this: we got a name, grew up a little and felt more confident in this raging sea of financial instruments (laughs). We don't need this anymore.
- Do you plan to go public in the future?
“Well… never say never. Now business from the point of view of this bureaucracy is in good condition: in the same as it was when we were on the stock exchange. Since we have learned over the years to live by the rules of a public company.
- Last year you said that Wargaming suffered from the Cyprus crisis, as a result of which the company became a shareholder in Hellenic Bank and acquired a building in Limassol. How much did the company end up losing?
- Wargaming is the largest technology company in Cyprus, we are actively involved in the economic and social life of the country, and therefore the past crisis was not just an unpleasant moment for our corporate interests, but a problem for all company employees living here. We regularly pay all taxes, actively promote the reputation of Cyprus, contribute to the development of this country, so it is not entirely correct to talk about some losses. Of course, we went through certain difficulties, but, as in the case of the purchase of Hellenic bank shares, the crisis opened up new opportunities for us.
Our company is one of the current shareholders in Hellenic, there are people who represent our interests there, while our participation in its work is limited. Wargaming is primarily a developer and publisher of games known all over the world, so being active in other areas is not so important for us.
The economy of Cyprus in the first quarter of 2015 grew by 1.6%, the country is gradually recovering its financial and investment attractiveness. Local authorities very accurately and consistently carried out the reform program, which was recommended by the eurozone countries and the IMF, and in the long term we look at the economic situation in the country with great optimism.
- What do you think, will the countries of the former USSR in some foreseeable future also become convenient for doing international business, what needs to be done there for this?
- In post-Soviet countries, progress in creating a favorable business environment is enormous. Wargaming brings together under one roof studios from Kiev, St. Petersburg, Minsk, as well as offices in Europe, Asia and the USA, and we can compare the conditions that are provided to us different countries... In the countries of the former USSR, we feel support and interest in the company, in our initiatives to restore military equipment popularizing history. Of course, to attract international companies there are still many steps to be taken to improve the business climate and introduce predictable and effective law enforcement, but in the long term, any country can become a place where business will be convenient and comfortable.
- How does Belarus feel about the fact that such a large company has moved to another country and pays taxes there?
- Minsk was and remains the heart of Wargaming, so it is not entirely correct to talk about relocation. The largest office of the company is located in Minsk, where the world hit World of Tanks is completely created: from writing code to organizing e-sports competitions and promoting the project. The Minsk office is also developing a mobile version of the game World of Tanks Blitz, it also houses the global UX, BI, finance and legal departments. In general, the office occupies a 16-storey building and employs about 2,000 people.
- After the outbreak of the crisis in Russia, many technology companies have moved to other countries, to the Baltic states, for example. Do you see this migration process from the outside, do our programmers come to you?
- As far as I know, we began to receive a little more responses to vacancies from programmers from Russia, but it is worth considering the fact that Minsk, like Kiev and St. Petersburg, has a decent reputation as a center of expertise in game development. Wargaming has become a brand in the field of HR, so our vacancies are actively interested in Russia, Europe and the USA.
Our Minsk development team is engaged in World of Tanks for PC and mobile versions games, Kiev is working on World of Warplanes, a studio in St. Petersburg is preparing the release of World of Warships, a team in Chicago is working on updates for World of Tanks Xbox 360 and is developing a version of the game for Xbox One, and Seattle is creating a new, as yet unannounced project ...
Globally, the competition between companies for talent is only gaining momentum. Talents are worth their weight in gold everywhere, they dictate the conditions, and the business has to adjust. Geography is not the most important factor, professionals can make their way in all regions of the world.
Chasing new emotions
- What new technologies await us, what do you think about the general "mobilization" - the transition to smartphones and tablets?
- The main trends for the next five years are obvious: the introduction of cloud technologies, active promotion of streaming, universal flattening and miniaturization, virtual reality. Market mobile games will continue to grow at a tremendous pace, while mobile devices will become smaller and more powerful, and their value will fall.
Games on mobile platforms other. The player's quantum of attention is very small, the game session can end at any time. It is important for developers to consider these conditions and adapt to them. At the same time, the industry is moving away from developing games exclusively for the platform. We focus on creating an engaging gaming experience regardless of device. Good story, communication, the game universe, in which the player is pleased to be, develop and receive new emotions, are becoming more important than the platform.
Very soon we will come to the fact that good games will be available anywhere at any time. In such a situation, the winner is the one who gives the players an enjoyable and engaging experience, an interactive world with great possibilities.
- What do you think, will technologies become virtual reality the next big thing? Is Wargaming planning to do anything in this area?
- Virtual reality technologies have made a real breakthrough in the last three years. The prospects for using the Oculus Rift in games are impressive, and this device has the potential to revolutionize the gaming industry. I was amazed by the first test version of the helmet, which I tested more than a year ago: picture, sound, emotions - you are immersed in another dimension, and therefore I am looking forward to the release of the commercial version of the product. Our team is actively experimenting with the device, and we have already developed and released a special game mode for Oculus. It allows the player to take a different look at game process, enjoy the effect of presence and get new sensations from tank battles. By the way, the introduction of the technology turned out to be a very laborious process. We needed to rebuild the in-game menu, radically alter the gameplay UI and create a specific control system.
We are not tied to one platform and are constantly developing games for new devices. If the technology becomes massive, global, accessible, our games will definitely appear on it.
Thanks for the interview and good luck in the battles!
To akimi only epithets are not awarded to the people World Of Tanks game: she is both the “enemy of families”, and the “Belarusian miracle”, and the “breakthrough of the decade”. Its creators managed to do what dozens of companies had tried so vainly to do before them, namely, to massively involve men aged 30 to 45 who had already taken place in their lives in the gameplay. People are not poor and rather conservative.
And it is largely thanks to the support of this age group that the game's revenues in 2013 amounted to no less than half a billion euros. The amount that a few years ago seemed to the creators a dream, completely divorced from reality. And yet the success took place: today we can already talk about more than 60 million players and up to a million playing at the same time. The only fact somewhat blurring the rosy picture is that the path to triumph took 12 long years. But who said that everything comes at once ?!
Background
Well, there was a not very well-known, but quite skillful studio Wargaming.net in the vastness of Belarus. Founded back in 1998, for the time being it was known solely for the fact that guys who are able to fulfill their obligations for reasonable money work there. There were releases of several games, improvements for third-party clients and other similar orders on the studio's account.
As it happens, the joker came almost by accident: studio development - engine AdRevolver, responsible for displaying the banner, interested a large Internet advertising company BlueLithium... In exchange for some share of BlueLithium's profits, Belarusians provided support staff and a technology platform.
And again luck: after a while the notorious buys BlueLithium for $ 300 million. They come to Wargaming.net, albeit a small, but quite sufficient part of the profit, amounting to several million dollars. It so happens that having received a lot of money, people are not ready for it. Fortunately, the opposite was true for Wargaming.net. They have been waiting for this chance for a long time and took full advantage of it.
Creation of World Of Tanks
The ugly conversation about the fate of World Of Tanks (WoT) took place on December 12, 2008 and lasted for several hours. The developers faced a dilemma that was difficult to resolve. So there is some serious money that Yahoo paid. There is a desire to do something epoch-making and. And, most importantly, a multiplayer one is already in development.
As you already understood, in the end the phrase was uttered, which dotted all the "i". I can’t vouch for the literality of what was said, but the main message was as follows: to hell with the elves and orcs, let's make tanks! From that moment on, work began on " Tankodrome". Yes, yes, the working title of the game was exactly that.
Oh, how many rejections the studio had to hear when it tried to get a share of serious investors with whom it could share the financial burden of working on World Of Tanks. Orcs and elves were understood and approved by many, but no one wanted to invest in the tanks they needed. Today these people probably bite their elbows, but at that time they laughed at the Wargaming.net studio, considering them to be dreamers, concerned about a failed and unpromising "project".
And yet, despite the silly hooting, Wargaming.net continued to work on World Of Tanks. In April 2009, the official announcement of the game was released, and in September of the same year, alpha testing began, for which there were only five tank models and one incomplete map. Yes, not a lot, but the trouble has begun!
- ~ winter 2010- first closed beta testing;
- ~ spring 2010- Introduced pumping of equipment for experience;
- ~ summer 2010- open beta testing;
- ~ August 13, 2010- the official release of the game.
And so, the start was given. With the buildup, sometimes overloading, the game went on, recruiting loyal followers, not indifferent to the roar of engines and desperate tank battles.
Further development
Lukhi about new game, which is a fusion of realistic shooter, RPG and real-time strategy, scattered around at cosmic speed. In January 2011, the goal was set at a million users and 75,000 online players. Then it was considered something incredible, but it turned out that this is just a glimpse of future success.
All 2011 was a time of expansion of the game to the West and East. World Of Tanks was launched in China, America and the UK for a short time. In the same year, the game collected a whole bunch of prizes and awards. So, an unthinkable thing, the project, which was only a year old, received the prestigious "Runet Prize". An unprecedented event for our latitudes.
In parallel with the marketing advances, game mechanisms were also rapidly developed: new technique, powers, cards. Thanks to the support of loyal fans, World Of Tanks is constantly improving. We must pay tribute to the developers: they do not rest on their laurels and do not cut big coupons. More than a decent part of the profit (and in 2013 the profit, by the way, amounted to more than 200 million euros), the owners are again investing in the game.
And this brings results: to date, about 80 million people are registered in the game World Of Tanks, and on December 19, 2014, another record was set - 1,114,000 online players. Serious numbers.
Why do people love World Of Tanks so much?
Today, many analysts are trying to explain the success of World Of Tanks for a variety of reasons. I even met absolutely incredible ones, something like "These are the Slavs - they need to constantly fight with someone" or "All because of loud advertising campaigns, popularity will decline over time. " No, it doesn't. It is growing. And it is growing, by the way, for a long time and steadily.
As it seems to me, there are three main "whales" on which the success of the World Of Tanks game "stands":
- ~ whale first - short-term play action... In most multiplayer games, the gameplay takes a lot of time. In World Of Tanks, battles are fleeting. Just perfect for serious men burdened by work and family responsibilities;
- ~ whale two - realism... The game is great. The hum of engines, shooting, perfectly traced landscapes - all this is mesmerizing. If in fantasy worlds about 90% of game actions are completely invented, then in World Of Tanks everything is real;
- ~ whale third - business model... In WoT, you don't have to constantly "pour money" to be on top. Yes, there are some benefits of premium accounts, but they are not as striking as in most other multiplayer games. In 2013, Wargaming.net introduced the “free to win” principle, which means that paying players cannot feel like “titans” when playing with regular users. Skill and military cunning come first. And the game without a subscription is also a rather serious trump card, thanks to which World Of Tanks is constantly replenished with new adherents.
U is sure that if this approach to the convenience and quality of the World Of Tanks game remains with the creators in the future, then we will still have a lot of loud news about the next broken popularity records.
Hello, Oleg Dmitrievich.
The game "World of Tanks" (the name of the game is translated as "World of Tanks") refers to the multiplayer client-side massive computer online games that take place in real time. This game is an arcade tank simulator, made in the historical setting of the Second World War. The concept of the game "World of Tanks" is based on team tank battles in PvP mode.
All online games are divided into online games on social networks, browser games, where the game takes place in the Internet browser window, and client games, when the game is played through a special client program installed on a personal computer. This game belongs to the post-denomination type.
In 1998, a company was opened that was engaged in the development of Internet sites, Internet shops and various programs... Since the entrepreneur Viktor Kislyi himself was a fan computer games, then later the company made a special emphasis on the development of computer games, but the first games from this developer were not successful. After lengthy discussions, it was decided to make an analogue of the Korean game, where it was necessary to conduct battles at sea, gradually pumping your ships in sea battles, while “ acting characters"The game was decided to make tanks.
Two Moscow game designers Sergei Burkatovsky and Vyacheslav Makarov were invited to develop the design of the game. After the launch of the game, the character of the company increased, as the volume of work on servicing servers, sites, a forum, and the creation of a technical support service increased.
The World of Tanks game was developed by the Belarusian studio Wargaming.net. The idea of this game arose at the end of December 2008, and officially this game was announced in April 2009, already in September 2009 the game was launched in alpha testing mode, at that time there were 5 tank models and 1 unfinished map in the game. By the time the Closed Beta began, which began in January 2010 and lasted for four months, the game was already a large number of armored vehicles and 3 cards. The open beta testing of the game started in June 2010, while the game already had seven maps and Soviet and German schools, the online release of this game was announced on August 12, 2010, but for technical reasons the game only started working on August 13.
In July of the same year, the closed beta test of the English version began, which lasted until January 2011, after which it switched to the open beta test mode, and its release fell on April 12, 2011
According to statistics, the game "World of Tanks" is currently considered one of the most popular online games, which is currently played by more than 1.5 million users.
Additionally
The word "slot" in World of Tanks means a free space in the hangar for a new tank. If you buy a premium tank, a free "slot" is already included with the tank.
Light tanks of level 10 were upgraded. Changes were made to 5 LTL units of level 10 in World of Tanks at once.
The minimum tier for premium tanks is tier 2. We will talk about this vehicle below. A total of 9 tanks of this category are presented in World of Tanks. In the context of nations, premium tanks of the second tier are represented by five states, among them the USSR, Germany, USA, Great Britain and Japan. The other four nations do not have Tier 2 premiums in WOT yet. The main characteristics are presented in the table (below).
World of Tanks is a multiplayer computer online game... From the very name of the game, we can conclude that this project is dedicated to tanks.
The point is that when playing the art in World of Tanks and being already destroyed in battle, the damage inflicted on allies is incorrectly taken into account.
In the WoT 9.20 update, the General Battle mode will become available, which will add to the variety of battle types in the Random Battle mode.
As you know, light tanks of level 10 appeared in the world of tanks. And what exactly will the new "fireflies" be? What characteristics will LT 10 have? Which tank will be the most powerful and which will be the fastest? Which combat vehicle is the most armored and which is the strongest? We will try to answer all these questions right now. We present to your attention the final tactical and technical characteristics of all Tier 10 tanks featured in World of Tanks.
We have collected statistics from World of Tanks for all combat vehicles in the game.
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Implementing two branches of Swedish tanks in WOT 9.18 is difficult for developers. It's all to blame for the division of control into high-level tank destroyers. When using the firing mode on a level 9 vehicle Strv 103-0, the Swedes repeatedly (!) Noticed a model of a combat vehicle slipping through textures. Perhaps this is due to this combat unit. Already now the "texturists" are jubilant. As you know, the problem with tanks hitting textures in World of Tanks is not unique. There were even cases of a tank sinking and getting stuck in the terrain, in stones, buildings, and even just in the ground. When the tank is in textures, any hits on it do no damage.
Exclusive, detailed list changes in updating World of Tanks version 9.15... List of modified equipment, technical changes.
Most often, it is replenished with products created by developers from the United States of America, large countries in Europe or Japan. But it is worth noting that not even too much large states able to create games that "shoot" the whole world. In our article we will answer the question of which country the World of Tanks game was created in. This question is asked by many people, so today this game is known and popular. And also the article will provide information about interesting features of this online game.
A few words about the game
World of Tanks is an online game. Its genre is defined as in the historical setting. It was announced on August 12, 2010. The entire gameplay takes place in an imitation of the 1941-1945 time period.
Business model of this product represented by the free-to-play form. This means that anyone can register, download the client and play the game itself without any compulsory costs. This provoked some unfair situations between those who buy additional weapons or equipment and those who play without donation.
However, in 2013, those who created the game World of Tanks announced a system change. From now on, the model will adhere to the free-to-win type. This means that there is no difference in benefits between those who buy something and those who gamble without spending real currency. This change led to the fact that the number of victories and defeats depends only on the skill level of the player himself.
Gameplay
- immediately after launch, the player is "thrown" into the general battle, without training in single mode;
- at the disposal of the newcomer is one copy of the tank from each playable nation (USA, USSR, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and some other countries);
- taking part in the battle, the player earns in-game currency, trains the crews, accumulates experience points, which allow opening access to new equipment.
Creators
So who came up with World of Tanks? This product is authored by a private company called Wargaming.net. She is listed as a publisher and developer of games, is engaged in the development of near-game services on various platforms. Where did you create the World of Tanks game?
This development company was organized in Belarus (Minsk). The headquarters are located in the Republic of Cyprus.
The history of the creation of World of Tanks
Wargaming.net studio was founded back in 1998. At that time, she was not well-known, but very promising. Then she was engaged in the completion of third-party clients, game releases and other similar work.
However, luck came from where it was not expected. The engine of those who created the World of Tanks game, called AdRevolver, designed to demonstrate banner advertisements, turned out to be of interest to BlueLithium. She was engaged in advertising on the Internet.
It started on December 12, 2008. The developers faced a serious question: they had large sum money, the desire to create a worthwhile game product, and most importantly - the developments of an online fantasy game. As a result, after several hours of discussions, the developers made a decision: to leave the idea with fantasy and move on to work on the product, the working title of which was "Tankodrome".
It is worth noting that those who created the World of Tanks game fiddled long enough to attract any serious investor to work on the game. Interestingly, if the company had been working on the original "fantasy", the search would have been easier. This is due to the fact that many knew and trusted the elves.
Nevertheless, Wargaming.net continued to work on their idea. The results were visible within a few months. In April 2009, the official announcement of the product took place. September was the month for launching alpha testing. At that time, players were asked to try 5 different models tanks on the unfinished map.
Further updates followed in 2010. In winter, the first closed test of the game was released. In the spring of the same year, it became possible to pump vehicles for experience points in the game. And in the summer of the same year, open beta testing was announced.
And finally, on August 12, 2010, the release took place. It is worth noting that if at the very beginning of the development of those who created the game World of Tanks were ridiculed not only by players, but also by investors, now it is one of the most famous companies in the gaming world. It's worth noting that getting the project started was not as easy as it could have been. The unusual setting attracted more and more interested players each time. This, in turn, led to the fact that the servers with the game fell quite often, unable to withstand the influx of players.
Game Updates
In the first month of 2011, it “surpassed” the 1 million player mark overall, as well as the 75,000 online user mark, which was a huge number at the time. The game began to gain popularity in China, the USA and Great Britain, having won a sufficient number of awards in the same year, including the prestigious Runet Prize.
This dedication has paid off. In December 2014, the level of 1 million users who are simultaneously online was exceeded. And on this moment the game has over 80 million registered users.
Global update
On March 20, 2018, the developers presented the first large-scale update under the number 1.0. Generally speaking, it brought a new sound system and graphics. Speaking in more detail, the following elements are worth noting: graphics engine, performance, music, system requirements.
Changing the graphics engine
In this update, the creators moved from the old BigWorld engine, which limits the introduction of new technologies into the code, to an improved Core. Its development was sharpened specifically for World of Tanks. The engine has the ability to make new technological settings.
It also enables the use of modern effects and technologies that improve the graphics of the game, making it more realistic. Many different environmental details have been added to the maps to improve the level of immersion in the game.
Elements have been changed such as changing weather conditions depending on the time of year, when the player moves from the summer or autumn map to the winter. Improved quality and saturation of sunbeams. The visualization of destruction has also undergone changes.
Changing performance parameters
The following improvements have been made:
- the interface has been optimized;
- changes in track calculations;
- improvement of the vegetation model system;
- increased level of detail;
- optimization of the particle system.
Music
The compositions have been completely redesigned. Among those who came up with the game World of Tanks were composers. They have written and added over 60 new tracks. Each card is assigned its own unique soundtrack. Updated loading screen ringtones to match the map region. For each action, its own sounds and tracks were also written.
Minimum system requirements
Initially, the game was not too demanding due to the rather outdated engine. But at the moment, after the release of a new update and improving the quality of not only the picture, but also the mechanics itself, it has become more demanding. In order to run the program, you will need:
- have an operating room Microsoft system Windows XP SP3 / Vista / 7/8/10;
- processor with 2 or more cores with SSE2 technology;
- for stable operation of the game, you must have 1.5 GB of RAM when running on Windows XP SP3; for other versions, you must have 2 GB of RAM;
- video adapter must be at least HD X2400 XT 256 MB RAM;
- to install the game, you should have 36 GB of free space;
- the connection speed with the server should not be lower than 256 Kbps.
To run the game on such conditions, you must have:
- the processor must be at least Intel Core i5;
- for stable operation of the game, you must have 4 or more GB of RAM;
- video adapter must be at least GeForce GTX660 (2 GB) / Radeon HD 7850 (2 GB);
- the system must have DirectX 9.0 or higher;
- To make a hassle-free installation, you need 36 GB of free space;
Requirements for ultra settings
If you have a sufficiently powerful computer or gaming laptop, check out the following startup requirements:
- Microsoft Windows 7/8/10 64-bit OS;
- The processor must be at least Intel Core i5 - 7400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500 X;
- you must have 8 or more GB of OP;
- the video adapter must be at least GeForce GTX1050ti (4 GB) / Radeon RX 570 (24GB);
- 55 GB of free space is required to install the product;
- the speed of connection to the server should not be lower than 1024 Kbps or higher in order to ensure stable operation of the voice chat.
