The past years have been a thrilling time for Wargaming, and 2014 has shaped up to be no different. There have been a number of new and innovative developments that the Company has championed: announcing new titles, expanding into new markets, and continually improving upon the longstanding success of their current service offerings.
In 2014, Wargaming brought team-based PvP tank combat to consoles and mobile, tailoring its trademark tank warfare for new platforms and united over 110 million players worldwide within the World of Tanks community across PC, iOS, Android, and Xbox 360.
1. World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition Release
February saw the release of World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition, one of the first triple-A free-to-play console games. With over 5 million downloads to date, World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition has shown undeniable proof that free-to-play done the right way—strengthened by regular updates—can thrive on consoles.
2. Going mobile with World of Tanks Blitz
Continuing with the expansion into other gaming platforms, World of Tanks Blitz debuted on iOS in June, stamping Wargaming’s position as a multi-platform developer and publisher. When the Android version of World of Tanks Blitz went live on December 4th, it had already amassed over 16 million downloads and marked the shift of mobile games’ audiences from arcade to mid-core gameplay.
Through the release of these games on mobile platforms, Wargaming has built lasting business relationships with Apple and Android thanks to their unparalleled professionalism and their ability to assist in the development and betterment of World of Tanks Blitz.
3. Strongholds and fan modes for World of Tanks
In 2014, World of Tanks received many new content updates, along with the introduction of new HD tank models, a graphical overhaul, and three special fan modes. The April Fools’ Special 8-bit mode reduced World of Tanks to 8-bit models, reminiscent of Battle City and Minecraft, whereas The Football Battles saw 60 million game sessions where players attempted to blast a giant ball into the opponent’s net with their tanks. At the start of November, Tank Rally was introduced, allowing players to zip around an assault course and put their driving skills to the test. This proved a huge hit with players, and there were around 110 million game sessions played in less than two weeks.
Another larger and more longstanding addition to World of Tanks was Strongholds mode. This mode adds extra depth out of the World of Tanks metagame, opening it to a wider audience, by combining tactics, strategy and action elements.
4. Broadening the list of business partners
Throughout this year, Wargaming collaborated with a growing list of industry leaders spanning the realm of gadgets, clothing, gaming peripherals and other exclusive, co-branded merchandise. Partners, the likes of Razer, Steel Series, Musterbrand, and Alienware (plus many more), helped strengthen the brand and allow fans access to content and offers.
5. FURY
Recently, Wargaming partnered with Sony Pictures for the release of FURY, starring Brad Pitt. This partnership proved an excellent display of two companies collaborating over similar themes. As part of this partnership, Wargaming offered players a chance to get their hands on the M4A3E8 Sherman tank for a limited time, replete with a fully-trained crew from the movie, as well as two additional missions for the FURY event.
6. Wargaming.net League and eSports promotion
In April, the Wargaming.net League’s first season came to a close. Over 200,000 pro-gamers took part in over 1000 tournaments. Following Wargaming’s commitments to player involvement and feedback, significant improvements to tournament rules, tools and game mode were introduced (new tournament mode Attack/Defense allows quick-fire and engaging matches).
The Wargaming.net League and eSports in general are a source of entertainment and passion for all levels of gamer and spectator. To make the Wargaming.net League as accessible to everyone around the world, all league matches are broadcast live on Twitch, then uploaded to YouTube. These digital avenues garner hundreds-of-thousands of views, displaying just how popular the game is with the eSports audience.
7. New apps and mods for community
In July, Wargaming launched the “WG Stream” mod, which enabled players to broadcast their gameplay from World of Tanks and World of Warplanes clients directly to their channel on Twitch, allowing more players than ever to showcase their skills. These easy and accessible streaming features help the Wargaming team, Wargaming.net League pro gamers, and any member of the World of Tanks player community to create hundreds of VODs, guides and tutorials on tactics about new vehicles and maps.
Another new and exciting development is the launch of WGTV app, which debuted on iOS and Android across the CIS region in 2014 and is soon to be released globally. This application unites all of Wargaming’s YouTube channels, as well as fan video channels, giving players instant access to the wealth of video content related to Wargaming’s products.
8. World of Warships presentations and first testing event
World of Warships, Wargaming’s upcoming online naval action game, has taken important strides in 2014. Still in development, the game has garnered very positive feedback from the media and community during its debut at some of the world’s biggest game shows. People had the opportunity to try out the game at events such as gamescom, PAX Prime, the Tokyo Games Show, and PAX Australia.
From such encouraging feedback, Wargaming is continuing to improve the World of Warships experience and is planning to open the game up to a larger audience in 2015. During this process, World of Warships had its first global test event and there was a fantastic response from players.
In total, nearly 50,000 players were part of the Test Event, with just under 100,000 battles played. The highest number of simultaneous users peaked on the RU server, where around 5,000 Warships’ players. The most popular warship was the cruiser “Katoria”. Players destroyed 1 million ships, and players fired 100 billion shells and 5 million torpedoes, ending the year with a bang.
9. DevCon 2014 and sharing best practices internally
2014 was also a successful year for Wargaming at its industry events. DevCon’14 brought together over 1100 Wargaming professionals throughout the world to share best practices and industry experience to help Wargaming flourish as a company and as individuals.
10. WG Developers Contest and supporting third-party developers
Also this year was the WG Developers Contest, which was conceived to help further improve the collaboration of Wargaming and its third-party developers. Held in July—December in the CIS region, the WG Developers Contest saw over 800 mod makers and application developers compete for a grand-total prize pool of $80,000 that was split into several categories.
The WG Developers Contest showed Wargaming’s ongoing commitment to crowdsourcing, open-source development, and fostering great relationships with third-party developers. As part of this open-source plan, Wargaming released APIs in 2014: WG Public API, WoT API, WoWP API, WarGag API.
With an already vast community, Wargaming aims to continually grow with its developers by offering DevNights, Linux meet-ups, hackathons, and programming Olympiads.
Onward to 2015
2014 was a very exciting year at Wargaming, with a lot of diversity and important events through every department. The Company is committed to see that this growth continues into 2015 and beyond, presenting lots more events and challenges.
But while 2014 is here for a little while longer, and the holidays are fast approaching, Wargaming have added their own sprinkle of holiday cheer for all its fans: a short film that tells a story of friendship, holiday miracles, and what it means to work together as a team. You can find it here. And if you would like to read more about what’s been happening for all of Wargaming in 2014 check out our blog!
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