Now expanding territory onto console, this summer World of Tanks is headed to Xbox Live as a free-to-play title. The release marks Wargaming's continued efforts to pursue new platforms for their wildly successful franchise, starting first with the mobile version of World of Tanks for iPad and now continuing with this new version, built from the ground up just for Xbox 360.
Says Wargaming general manager Jeremy Monroe of the decision to pursue Xbox as the first platform outside of PC:
"When we knew we wanted to go off to the PC platform and pursue other partners, the more we engaged with Microsoft the more we discovered how our mutual beliefs are. Both World of Tanks and Xbox have a massive following, and the Xbox 360 community, with its number of competitive gamers and seamless delivery experience, was primed for World of Tanks. It's just a good fit."
"At Wargaming", he continues, we "have a real passion for introducing people to the 'world of tanks' and the fascination and reverence other cultures share for this amazing piece of machinery".
"This is about bringing that experience to an entirely new audience."
The game will feature 60 tanks at launch, only some of which are from the PC version. Like its PC counterpart, it will be updated with new content and tanks added in frequent expansions. The controls of course have been adapted specifically for use with a controller instead of a keyboard and mouse, but the pacing of the game has been adjusted as well; for instance, tech trees have been condensed in the interest of speed. It's also been designed to give the player background and tactical information as they go along, so as to compensate for the player's lack of PC (and thus, ability to look up information tanks and strategy while in-game).
As for the upcoming World of Planes, currently they have "hundreds of thousands" of participants in the closed beta, with the open beta phase beginning July 2, at which point new features, updated consumables, new maps, and improved graphics will be added with an update.
Additionally on the horizon is the Wargaming unified premium account, a system that will allow users to connect their "World of" games together on one profile, from World of Tanks to World of Warships (and whatever else is on the horizon). Users will be able to purchase them with in-game gold and additionally earn a boost in experience points. This feature will be available when World of Warplanes goes into open beta this upcoming July.
For more on this family of games, particularly the research process involved in the development phase, check out our article from this year's GDC.
