By Alec Meer on June 7th, 2011 at 1:16 pm.
First there were tanks, and now there are warplanes. What next: World Of Armoured Personnel Carriers? World Of Anti-Tank Suicide Dogs?
The here and now, though, is World of Warplanes: the new game from Wargaming.Net, creators of the august WW2 MMO World of Tanks. RATATATATATATATATATATATATetc
It’s a free-to-play, team-based MMO spanning the 1930s to 1950s. There isn’t much more to go on than that, but I’m going to stick my head above the battlements and claim that it might just feature some warplanes. Possibly even a whole world of them.
Ready for a quote? Here you go:
“We are proud to be able to develop another high quality Free to Play game for the world’s gaming community,” said Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi. “World of Tanks has been extremely succesful and we look to bring the same high quality if not better to World of Warplanes.”
More soon, hopefully.
07/06/2011 at 13:23 CMaster says:
Is it going to be an MMO in the same sense as World of Tanks is? (IE not at all)
World of Tanks is great fun, but I never saw anything in it that made it more of an MMO than Bad Company 2 is.
07/06/2011 at 13:27 McDan says:
Probably only in that you have to grind to get gold which you then buy stuff with.
07/06/2011 at 15:33 Zyrxil says:
Yeah, if anything, it’s pretty much the same model as Legend of Legends. Discrete games, but with Account, not character progression.
07/06/2011 at 15:54 CMaster says:
Yeah, I’m just preplexed/intrigued by the need to call games “Massivley Multiplayer Online games” when welll, they are multiplayer, and normallly played online, but really are no more massive than a round of Quake (1)
07/06/2011 at 16:25 dustygator says:
Ding Ding Ding. They throw on the MMO tag because that let’s them charge a monthly fee. Developers/Publishers look at WoW and other successful MMOs and jump on the cash train.
07/06/2011 at 16:37 Ringwraith says:
But there isn’t a monthly fee.
That’s usually what free-to-play implies, unless someone changed the meaning when I wasn’t looking.
07/06/2011 at 17:01 Davee says:
I’m a fan of WoT, but I’m a bit annoyed that they used their dubious MMO tag to swipe the Guinness “concurrent user record” from EVE Online (that rightfully deserves it). The number of concurrent users in WoT only really affects how many people you chat with in the ‘General chat’ window. :/
If WoT can claim the record, so can any of the A-title games with a matchmaking system on a central server… But I guess it’s all marketing and publicity stunts. Heh.
World of Warplanes sounds like fun however. I’m hoping for more info!
07/06/2011 at 18:32 Sassenach says:
It’s just a useful but inaccurate handle. Like saying you’re paranoid when you’re a bit worried.
08/06/2011 at 09:30 Alexnader says:
I’ll play WoWarplanes as long as I did WoT (i.e. Not long) if they still make you pay to play with friends.
07/06/2011 at 13:26 Eightball says:
The beta will be fun, but once they stop giving out free gold it will be a chore.
07/06/2011 at 14:38 Mattressi says:
Yeah, looking forward to the beta, but if the full release is like WoT (overly grindy even with paid-for gold, especially so since all my beta stats got wiped) I won’t be playing it.
07/06/2011 at 13:31 Richie Shoemaker says:
But what should we call it. Not WoW, surely?
Wowplanes?
07/06/2011 at 13:32 PhiIl Cameron says:
Surely it should be WOWP!
07/06/2011 at 13:57 Grygus says:
I would think that “Warplanes” would be sufficiently short and unique.
07/06/2011 at 16:43 Torgen says:
World of Planes abbreviated would get them in trouble with the Italians.
09/06/2011 at 14:48 Ezhar says:
WooWarp
07/06/2011 at 13:33 SprintJack says:
In the mean time you can enjoy flying tanks ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzyJEusS9RE&feature=player_embedded#at=74
Also tanks pushing other tanks of the cliff (4:05) and MORE!
The physics is almost done. Now they are working on implementing damage system for this. Should come out in around 2 months.
07/06/2011 at 13:34 Antsy says:
Bah, just give me back Air Attack!
08/06/2011 at 00:58 Arathain says:
Yes please. I miss my Hurricane.
07/06/2011 at 13:34 AbyssUK says:
Am waiting out for World of Submarine Hunting Dolphins myself
07/06/2011 at 13:39 Vexing Vision says:
FOUR MINUTES. Foul!
07/06/2011 at 13:41 destroy.all.monsters says:
I would play this game.
Also: Get Bea! Stop Bea!
07/06/2011 at 13:35 Dozer says:
The Anti-Tank Suicide Dogs article contains, right at the very end, a reference to the Iraqi Anti-Invader Suicide Donkey, which seems much more tragic and hilarious.
07/06/2011 at 13:36 destroy.all.monsters says:
I’m wondering how this is gonna work. Only fighters? If there are bombers what will they bomb? Will there be some kind of overlay (optional) with WoT so that you can bomb and strafe tanks?
Makes me wonder if they’re building a WW II MMO one piece at a time. Strange and interesting if true.
07/06/2011 at 13:38 Vexing Vision says:
I’m calling it now: World of Subs. Not sure if it’ll be underwater or sandwiches doing the fighting, but I’m pretty sure that’s the name.
07/06/2011 at 14:01 Gap Gen says:
Would that be free-to-play, or would you have to pay a… sub?
YEEEEAAAH.
07/06/2011 at 13:44 GoodGameHunter says:
Sounds great, I really hope it’s true, I play a ton of World of Tanks and I love it.
07/06/2011 at 13:47 Dana says:
Nope, sorry. I refuse to call it an MMO.
07/06/2011 at 13:57 Jezebeau says:
I can just see the matchmaking, now. Log in, get handed a Sopwith Pup, get shot down by an Me 262 in fifteen seconds or less.
07/06/2011 at 14:15 Torgen says:
“The developers believe that the matchmaking system is working correctly.” (aka, a three (or even four) tier spread, where your tank couldn’t take out the opponent if he parked and let you fire point-blank your entire ammo load)
07/06/2011 at 14:13 Teddy Leach says:
World of AA Turrets. You play as a static AA turret shooting down all the people who play World of Warplanes.
Next will be World of Artillery, where you are an artillery piece shooting the AA turrets.
07/06/2011 at 14:16 Torgen says:
“We’ve already got one!”
07/06/2011 at 14:37 Temple says:
Wife of World of Artillery Piece Loader has been announced as the follow up to the critically acclaimed World of Artillery Piece Loader- the record breaking MMO simulating the loading of artillery shells into an artillery piece.
07/06/2011 at 14:53 westyfield says:
Warplanes; like furious pterosaurs.
07/06/2011 at 15:52 Rush Ton says:
Wait I have a brilliant Idea. World of Infantry. in which men shoot other men, with guns, over the internet. Bah who am I kidding no one will ever be able to make that work.
07/06/2011 at 16:37 Zarunil says:
Is this going to be like City of Heroes and City of Villains? Eventually they will merge and Tanks will meet Warplanes to fight it out?
I hope there will be capes.
07/06/2011 at 16:49 Farewell says:
I was genuinely hoping their next game would feature battleships instead..
07/06/2011 at 17:02 Notelpats says:
I’m excited. Also it would be great to merge both games.
To people complaining that WoT is grindy, if you find that playing the game is a grind, stop playing. You’re welcome.
07/06/2011 at 18:39 Sassenach says:
It is the problem with all progression systems that if the game you’re not progressing in isn’t enjoyable then you’re just chasing progress bars in the hope of having fun in the future. Fortuanately I find that WoT is plenty of fun as long as one does not get overly carried away with the progression system, which I respect as a necessity for revenue generation
I think the difference in scale puts a spoke to any merged air/tank combat. I doubt you’d be able to turn within the confines of the smaller maps if they simulate aircraft.
08/06/2011 at 01:42 Eightball says:
Thanks, I did!
07/06/2011 at 17:10 Cirno says:
lol, I wish they finished WoT before doing any more non-mmos they call mmos. World of warplanes sounds like an aprils fools day joke. Rly, why not to add gamemods, teamplay and other stuff to WoT (on their lol “big world” engine) rather than to create another blank, boring and grindy game…
07/06/2011 at 18:47 nootron says:
World of REMFS. Sleep in! Organize your sock drawer! Go out for some icecream in heated 5 man ice cream missions! Play poker with up to 16 other REMFs at the same time! Team up with 20 other players and Raid the Mess Hall. Will you have Salsbury steak? Or will you have a sandwich? Log in and find out!!!
08/06/2011 at 04:47 schurem says:
Afaik its being developed by the team who did ‘wings of Prey’, the il2 port to the xbox that got ported back to PC. They say its going to be pretty hardcore. So if i read my sources correctly it’s going to be a freemium version of il2 sturmovik with nice graphics.
http://www.gaijin.ru/en/games/worldofplanes/
08/06/2011 at 12:22 tigershuffle says:
talking of Wings of Prey…..the pc game……… you have under 6 hours (6pm GMT) to buy it on Steam -75% off……. = £5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/45300/
well worth a punt as the arcade mode is fun and its prettier than its brainier swot cousin IL2