Wargaming is celebrating ten years of World of Tanks Modern Armor, its free-to-play flagship leading the charge for its roster of World War 2 combat games.
Since its launch back in 2014, so much has happened for the World of Tanks team. From crossovers with Megadeth and other musical acts, to raising money for charitable causes through the sales of new tanks, skins and more, World of Tanks has had an interesting decade. We had the chance to chat with the Wargaming team about the last ten years of World of Tanks, especially as one of the first to make the leap to Console.
MMORPG.com: What has changed the most supporting Word of Tanks Modern Armor since it first launched?
Andy Dorizas, Art Director: The size of the game. When we started development there were around 600 tanks. Times that by two when we launched on the XBOX one because we had to support two versions of the tanks, one that would run on the 360 and one that would run on the Xbox One. I oversaw getting every tank rebuilt to the latest graphical standards for the Xbox One. Even after the 360 was shut down, we are easily over 1,000 unique tanks, and we have over 40 maps, and almost 100 3D commanders/characters. Most people don’t realize this is one of the biggest content games ever!!!!
MMORPG.com: What was it like back in those early days, launching as one of the first free-to-play games on the Xbox platform? Were there any hurdles you had to overcome in those early stages?
Valerie MacCracken, Director of LiveOps: I remember working with the team on putting together our very first Founder’s Packs bundles. At the time, we didn’t really have competitors on Console to study content strategies for a F2P game on Console. It felt a bit like uncharted territory, but also we had a great opportunity to pave the way for Games as a Service.
MMORPG.com: Over the years we’ve seen more and more MMOs and multiplayer free-to-play titles come to console. As one of the first, what has been like to essentially pave the way and prove that this model could work beyond PC?
Val: We knew at the time that we had a solid game to offer. We knew that we had plenty of content to bring to our new player base, but what was less certain was the “if we build it, will they come?” part, on this new platform where F2P games were almost non-existent. A lot of care went into designing our models. The rest is history: 10 years later, we are still growing, which is noteworthy for any title on any platform, but beyond that, we have been through this journey with a significant portion of our initial player base supporting us. Our amazing fans are the topmost reason for any victories we can claim.
MMORPG.com: WOTMA hasn’t simply been sitting in idle throughout the years, with a ton of updates and collaborations throughout the years. What was your favorite to work on?
JJ Baken, Senior Producer: My personal favorite update to work on over the years was War Stories. It was exciting to meet some new writers and artists, especially because Modern Armor did not previously have a narrative component. Being part of our first steps in that direction was awesome.
MMORPG.com: Did you ever think you’d work on collabs with Warhammer, Hot Wheels and even rock legends like Megadeth, Iron Maiden and Sabaton? How did those collabs come together?
JJ: We wanted to do a music fest themed event and landed on Metal Fest, which ran last year. We reached out to several legendary bands and got great responses from Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and Sabaton, whom we’ve worked with before. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth was personally very excited to collaborate on our tank designs. It was an amazing experience being able to complete that collab together with all three bands.
MMORPG.com: How do you ensure you can put together these incredible collabs without diluting the WW2 armor experience?
JJ: Our goal is to have the collabs be additive. In the case of Metal Fest, not only did the new vehicles have metal band visual themes, we also added a new game mechanic: Flamethrowers. We’re always looking for ways to add to the battle experience and up the ante with cool new features.
MMORPG.com: How has your experience with WOTMA helped with World of Warships, and even the mobile releases?
JJ: We’re always collaborating with our colleagues on Warships, but most closely with the Warships Legends team as we share a home on the console platforms. We share some technology directly like systems related to publishing the games on the consoles. What’s most exciting is to share ideas together about how to reach players and really provide a better experience in the game with every update.
MMORPG.com: So where do we go from here? What do the next ten years look like for WOTMA fans and are you approaching its second decade any differently than the first?
JJ: So few studios get to grow and learn while making the same game. It was an exciting privilege to develop Modern Armor for these last ten years. We (hope) we’re always learning and innovating in order to deliver the most fun Tanking experience we can. That was the plan for the last ten years and creating this great experience is the plan for the next ten too!
