Type 59 Being Pulled from the World of Tanks Store

Wargaming.net has announced that they are removing the very popular but controversial Chinese Type 59 tank from the World of Tanks store.

Type 59 on vacation at the Great Wall

The official word from Wargaming.net is:

We will soon be updating the World of Tanks in-game store. As of January 16, 2012, the Type 59 premium tank will be removed from the in-game store after the server restart, which will take place at 6:00-6:30AM EST (11:00-11:30 UTC). While the tank will not be available for purchase, all existing Type 59 owners will keep their tank intact.

This decision has been made to ensure a healthy gameplay balance at higher tiers, and also to encourage a wider variety of tier 8 medium tank usage. If the Type 59 becomes available for purchase again during special events in the future, we will be sure to provide ample notice.

Again, the Type 59 will be removed from the in-game store on January 16, 2012 after the server downtime scheduled for 6:00-6:30AM EST (11:00-11:30 UTC). If you are considering purchasing the tank, we encourage you to do so before this point, as it will not be available for purchase as of January 16, 2012.

So the official line is game balance at higher tiers.  And certainly one of the complaints about the tank is that a lot of them show up in those battles, relative to other models.

However, a suspicious mind might see something different at work here.  After all, the Type 59 has been in the game for a while now, and it was controversial from day one.  Why change now?  Maybe sales of the tank have finally slowed?  If everybody who really wanted one already has one, what better way to prod those on the fence about the tank than announce that it is going away?

I have one in my garage.

Ready for Battle

And it quickly became my favorite tank.

As an extremely casual player… I play 3 or 4 rounds every couple of nights… it has allowed me to play in the higher tiers, where the skilled players seem to be and where the battles are thus more exciting.  And the fact that it is a money making machine has allowed me to pursue SP gun ambitions. (There are no gold SP guns.)

I expect that there will be a flurry of Type 59 purchases this weekend, and that we will see it dangled as a special limited time store item in the future.

18 thoughts on “Type 59 Being Pulled from the World of Tanks Store”

  1. Helistar

    The comment on game balance if 100% crap.
    It’s to spur a wave of buying before adding another gold tank, which will end up being as bad (good?) as the Type59.

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  2. potshot

    WoT has generally done a pretty good job IMHO on keeping things in the realm of balance, with a few exceptions here and there. But the first thing I thought of when I read the announcement was that it was the ultimate sales pitch– Buy OP Tank now before its gone and you can be OP forever!

    Proof will be if they start introducing other “collectible” limited time OP models in the future…

    The gamer in me cries a little, but the business guy in me says its a freaking goldmine. And hey, each limited time offer can always be reprised in the future with a “back by popular demand for a limited time” offer.

    No need to reinvent the marketing wheel here…

    /slinks off to buy Type 59

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  3. Vatec

    I’m surprised they didn’t repeat their Lowe strategy: Buy OP tank before we raise the price! Hurry, get your OP tank here before we have to start using the new, more expensive electrons!

    Don’t get me wrong, they’re not bad for an F2P company. At least they don’t follow Turbine’s model of removing functionality and then reintroducing it as a “convenience” feature in the store….

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  4. Adam D

    I personally refuse to buy one, because I’m so damn tired of seeing them every game…. I don’t intend to be the blight that keeps causing issues on the WoT servers by getting one.

    Now, I have had a KV-5 for a long time in order to grind credits for the T10 tanks I own, so I’m not innocent by any means. But at least the KV-5 is comparable to its tier, even if it does get hosed in MM a bit too often for my taste.

    Their MM is just broken, plain and simple. It always has the same tank in stacks…. 3 E75 on one side vs 3 T34 on the other side, and none of the top 3 tanks on either side are platooned, so it’s not even that argument.

    It may work better in EU/RU server, where there’s eleventy hojillion players playing… but here in US primetime, I see less than 20k… which is good, but when it’s trying to match people up with that small a pool, you’re going to get not so good results… and given WG’s almost obsessive attitude on getting people back into battles as fast as humanly possible, I don’t think that’s likely to change.

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  5. SynCaine

    One of the bigger problems in P2W games; you never know the real intentions of the devs. Maybe they are doing this for the health of the game, maybe they are doing it as a money grab.

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  6. SynCaine

    Lack of edit FTL.

    This was one of the biggest complaints in Atlantica. Every patch would bring good stuff, and along with it, 1-2 items that pushed the P2W bar a little higher. They also ran ‘specials’ that played games with balance, such as making previously lottery-only power items direct purchases. For a limited time only, of course.

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  7. Warsyde

    This sort of thing is kind of souring me on Wargaming.net. Did they make a good game? Yes, but they’re starting to piss me off with the gold tank shenanigans.

    The Type 59 is generally considered OP for its tier, that’s why there are so damn many of them. Rather than nerf the thing, or buff the other tier 8 mediums, they’re just going to stop selling them which does very little to fix the problem.

    What they did with the Lowe vs KV-5 was just as annoying. The Lowe turned out to be a much better tank than the KV-5 even though they were the same price. Rather than make the KV-5 better, they just made the Lowe more expensive. Which changed nothing as far as game balance goes, just got Wargaming.net more money. (And yes, I’m one of the poor fools who bought a KV-5 assuming the tanks would be roughly equivalent since they were the same price).

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  8. Pendan

    I really believe the removal is for the long term health of the game. I don’t think sales have been slowing. The Type 59 had the second most played number of games during the month from the end of 6.7 to the start of 7.1 on the EU server. http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/65256-unofficial-eu-server-statistics-ii/ Additionally, in post 238, the thread author says during the month the number of Type 59s owned had increased by over 38%. He also stated the “unhealthy situation” was “more pronounced” on the Russian server.

    I played about 10 games last night on the US server. One of the matches had seven 59s on one side.

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  11. Anonymous

    well i think what WoT did has destroyed the fun of the game, i understand they want to make money, fair enough, but now u continuesly come up against 3-4-5 type 59 in a match. and they are just to op in my opinion. atleast give the rest of us a chance to get the tank or remove it. what they did is giving people like myself who battled my way up to tier 8 med. a to big disadvantage against em. atleast against the other premium tank’s u have a fair fight. i mean i drive a panther II the type 59 is faster has better armor, is alot smaller and packs 1 hell of a punch.

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  12. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    @Anon – I played a dozen matches in my Type 59 over the last week and only once saw another one. I think the whole panic about the Type 59 was completely over blown.

    Destroyed the fun of the game? Really? Exaggerate much?

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    1. Vatec

      Anon might be overstating the impact of the Type 59 alone, but I think he has a point regarding the tier VIII premiums in general. They skew the population heavily toward high-tier games, which means that tier V tanks (the most common tanks according to the unofficial summary of server statistics on the North American server forum) end up in a disproportionate number of tier VIII+ matches. Tanks that used to be an incredible amount of fun, like the T-34 and Panzer IV are relegated to near-irrelevance due to the inflated number of tier VIII tanks in the game.

      I would be -very- curious to know how many players stop actively playing the game at tier V or VI. Sure, some break down and buy a tier VIII premium, but I suspect a lot simply stop playing entirely (and stop spending money on gold, as well).

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  13. crusader1732

    I bought a type 59 and love it.However it is not as unfair as they say it is.It is a great medium tank and may be a 1960s tank but that doesnt keep it from being destroyed easily like any other tier VIII medium.Being able to defeat a tier VIII heavy (givin you know where to shoot at) is no excuse to hate it.

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  14. asquarebox

    @crusader1732,Honestly it can only kill a wounded tier VIII heavy if you both know how to use the vehicle properly. But i still agree with you because it is very easy to defeat and has a weak gun compared to the top gun of other tier VIII mediums.

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