The Trilogy is Complete – World of Warships Goes Live

Wargaming.net’s Land/Sea/Air trio of online action games is now complete.  Today World of Warships takes its place beside World of Warplanes and World of Tanks as a live game, finished in the way that any such game is finished… meaning a team will probably keep working on it for years to come.

It has been a while since we first heard about the game.  I first posted about World of Warships back in August of 2011 when there were trailers for the two “new” games, that and World of Warplanes.

State of affairs back in 2011

Of course, back then it had a different name and seemed to emphasize only the big guns of the battleships that were then part of the title.

Heavy broadsides

I was interested in it back then, when World of Tanks was still new and fresh, though I was wondering how they were going to pull off 20th naval combat.  Combat between battleships of that era, as I mused, was generally an at or over the horizon affair.  The range of the big guns made the idea of laying along side, as in the age of sail, a silly idea.  How was Wargaming.net going to accommodate that without either making a map so huge that nobody see the other side or nerfing the guns to unrealistic short range.

As it happened, Wargaming.net revised the whole idea and the game was rechristened World of Warships and became a naval combined arms with destroyers, cruisers, and carriers joining the fray.

It has been in open-ish beta for a while now, with keys being handed out pretty freely.  I think I secured a code for the game back in the spring without much effort, and I have played a bit over the last few months.

It is a pretty good game, very much in the mold of World of Tanks; easy to get into and easy to play in short bursts when you don’t have hours of free time.  It might even be a little easier to start playing than its land based sibling, and it is certainly much, much easier to start off in than World of Warplanes.  A decent “other” game for somebody playing EVE Online. (There does seem to be some overlap on that front.)

And I expect it will follow the same trajectory as World of Tanks, with new ships being introduced over time and ships being rebalanced as players discover which ship is the best in each class and which are dogs.  And so it ever goes in such games.

With land, sea, and air covered, will Wargaming.net go into space next?

World of Tanks Sees 230,000 Years of Play Time in 2012

And the year isn’t even done yet.

Wargaming.net sent out a press release about 2012 that included an info graphic with some statistics about World of Tanks.  And, since I like that sort of thing, I thought I would pass it along.

You really need to click on this to see it full size

Those are some nice round numbers, which means they are probably reasonable estimates, at least if you subscribe to the theory that the more precise a huge number is, the more likely it is to be bullshit.  That particular theory arose from a study of United Nations statistics, where there appeared to a correlation between precision and simply making things up.

Interesting to see that the Soviet KV series of tanks is so popular in its various forms.  And then there is the Type 59 in China, which is still for sale on their server still and is, of course, a Chinese tank.  It is no longer an option in NA/EU.

Type 59 still available behind the Great Wall

As for next year, Wargaming.net has this to say:

Our key objectives for the year 2013 are many – deliver two new online free-to-play worlds, continued the expansion of World of Tanks with creative and passionate new content, and further reinforce our ties with our community,” said Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi. “We will also continue to explore new possibilities offered by the free-to-play MMO space to provide players with unique gaming experiences and unite as many people as possible in our free-to-play universe.

So World of Warplanes and World of Warships in 2013?

I suppose we shall see.

World of Warplanes Reveals Some American Planes

Wargaming.net’s press release this morning, and they have a press release every week at a minimum, was all about World of Warplanes.

World of Warplanes Unveils USA Aircraft

Initial American Tech Tree Revealed

London, UK, Paris, FR and San Francisco, CA (20th December, 2011) — Wargaming.net, the award-winning videogame publisher and developer, is proud to introduce the initial tech tree of the American warbirds for its anticipated aerial action MMO World of Warplanes. The line of aircraft will be available with the game’s release and will feature two warplane branches to explore.

Along with the American line, World of Warplanes, now in its Closed Alpha stage, will feature the German and Soviet tiers upon its release scheduled for 2012. The first iteration of the American tech tree will feature a line of light fighters together with the unique branch of carrier fighters not available for other nations. Among others, players will be able to test the famous models including the F4U Corsair, the F4F Wildcat, the P-51 Mustang, and the F-86A Sabre.

“We are proud to reveal the initial American tech tree,” said Victor Kislyi, Wargaming.net CEO. “Throughout the course of WWII, the US planes proved to be extremely powerful and efficient machines, and we could not but include them into the primary stack of World of Warplanes nations.”

Find more about World of Warplanes at:

http://www.worldofwarplanes.com/

About World of Warplanes

World of Warplanes is the flight combat MMO action game set in the Golden Age of military aviation. The game continues the armored warfare theme marked in the highly-acclaimed World of Tanks and will throw players into a never-ending tussle for air dominance.

World of Warplanes will allow players to build full-scale careers as virtual pilots offering machines from several key eras, from1930’s biplanes to the Korean War jet fighters that led the way to modern air forces.

World of Warplanes will feature a wide range of warbirds, each of them unique in their effectiveness and behavior. Virtual pilots will choose from three main warplane classes – single-engine light fighters capable of engaging enemies in close dogfights, heavy fighters with their deadly straight attacks, and strafing aircrafts, the fearsome threat to ground targets.

Every plane will feature multiple variations of ammo types, engines, and other crucial modules, and their various combinations will allow players to pick the optimal configuration for the most effective behavior in combat.

The initial American tree looks a bit sparse.

Initial American Tree

Granted, the World of Tanks trees looked pretty sparse when they were initially announced as well.  Now however, after a year of work, there are an amazing number of tanks in game.  So I expect this will fill out as well.

I do have to wonder what a jet-powered P-51 will look like, and why they chose that.

Oddly, they included a set of pictures of the American P-39, which is not on the tree at the moment.

P-39 - Maybe on the Russian Tree

They did include some nice pictures of the Boeing P-12 as well, though I have never seen a picture of one painted as such. (I did see one at the USAF Museum once.)  And this plane is on the tree and belongs there.

Boeing P-12

Given how much fun World of Tanks has ended up being, I am interested to see how World of Warplanes develops.  I do wonder how they will deal with controls and if flight sticks and the like will become a serious differentiator among players.

World of Battleships Web Site Now Live!

Wargaming.net, makers of World of Tanks and World of Warplanes, now has an official web site up for the third title in their “world” trilogy, World of Battleships.

Battleships!

As with the World of Warplanes site, there isn’t much there yet.  There is some artwork.

Fire!

I am not sure how representative of the actual game the art is.

Airplanes... hrmm...

And there is a brief overview of the game.

The players have three main classes of ships at their disposal:

• Aircraft carriers that provide both naval and air support
• Battleships and heavy cruisers able to scarify the enemy with their looks alone
• Light destroyers with speed and agility as their strongest points

All the machines have their unique combination of firepower, speed, armor, and endurance. A pack of nimble destroyers will tire out their opponents, huge battleships can batter down any target with a couple of main caliber salvos, aircraft carriers are capable of covering the allies from air or routing an aircraft cell towards the enemy.

I guess that covers some of the questions I asked.  Or maybe not.  Carriers just add to the range question.  And I wonder how carrier aircraft will be handled?

And then there are the trailers they posted earlier in the year, during Gamescom.

So a little bit of information, but a lot of questions are still unanswered.

Question of the Day

Wargaming.net did an interview with MMO Crunch about World of Warplanes the other day.  There isn’t really much information in the interview.  Wargaming.net didn’t seem ready to talk about much of substance about the game at this point.

So, perhaps sensing that nothing substantial was going to get passed along, the interviewer decided to go for the “wouldn’t this be totally cool” level of questions.  And so this was asked:

This one’s a long shot, but I need to ask it. When a plane is shot down, will the wreckage crash onto the battlefields in World of Tanks?

Now wouldn’t that be cool?  At least the first time it happened?

Wargaming.net agreed that it would be cool but, no, that won’t be happening.

Wargaming.net’s Gamescom Trailers

Wargaming.net had trailers for both World of Warplanes and World of Battleships at Gamescom.

Both are kind of pretty.  Neither tell you much about the games in question.

I guess we will have to wait for a while longer to get an idea as to what Wargaming.net has in mind for these two projects.

With that sort of trailer I would guess we’re at least a year away from seeing either title.

As Requested, World of Battleships

When Wargaming.net announced World of Warplanes to add to their World of Tanks offering, I wondered what else we would need.

A number of people said “Naval Warfare!”

And so you shall…

Wargaming.net Declares Naval Warfare

World of Battleships Weighs Anchor

London, UK, Paris, FR and San Francisco, CA (16^th August, 2011) — Wargaming.net, the award-winning videogame publisher and developer, announces World of Battleships, a free-to-play naval action MMO based on epic sea battles of the 20^th century that will complete the “World of” war trilogy.

Keeping with the best traditions of the series, World of Battleships will offer a straightforward interface, easy-to-use controls, and a common economic system that will allow players to distribute resources between the three games for the ultimate progress in each of them.

The large assortment of available warships will give various tactical opportunities, as all the machines have a unique combination of firepower, speed, armor, and endurance. Various naval maps with changing weather conditions will enrich the gameplay, and the realistic graphics will transport players into the epic battles that changed the course of human history.

Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi states: “Humans always needed to conquer the elements — earth, water and air. With World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and World of Battleships we will offer players to conquer all, simultaneously.”

About Wargaming.net®

Wargaming.net® is an award-winning online game developer and publisher, incorporated in the UK. Its 270-strong development team is located in Minsk, Belarus. Since 1998, the company has shipped 13 titles, including acclaimed Massive Assault series, Order of War RTS published by Square Enix, and three add-ons for Blitzkrieg II. At the Russian Game Developers Conference (KRI) in 2009 and 2010, Wargaming.net® was named The Best Developer Company from ex-USSR. At KRI 2011 the company was awarded Industry Prize and World of Tanks® won the Best Game Award. The company’s headliner project, World of Tanks®, gained the Guinness World Record for the Most Players on One Server Simultaneously. Currently, Wargaming.net® is developing the next action MMO, World of Warplanes and a new unannounced project.

Official web site: www.wargaming.net

Is there anything left for them?

World of Napoleonic battles?