Recently, Wargaming showcased its latest beta of World of Warplanes alongside its flagship World of Tanks for the Xbox 360 at a Promenade event in San Francisco.
World of Tanks enjoys a commanding position in the MMO space with over 70 million registered users, so launching on the Xbox 360 with an exclusive relationship with Microsoft means it won’t be showing up on platforms from its chief rival, Sony. Wargaming senior producer Gareth Luke says that the studio’s challenge is in ensuring that players are given an opportunity to immerse themselves in Wargaming’s titles without needing to subscribe or be forced to pay for basic enjoyment of the gaming experience.
The free-to-play-with-premium-paid-content business model will require careful fiscal choreography by Microsoft and Wargaming to keep the Xbox edition in line with the PC version. This is arguably Microsoft’s first foray into this style of console monetization and might just set the stage for other similar game offerings, so it could have a much broader impact on MMO players who prefer star ships and elves.
Unfortunately, there is no cross-platform opportunity for combat between the Xbox 360 and PC systems. There are some notable differences between gameplay on each; the most obvious is the speed at which a player returns to battle after death on the Xbox. Wargaming explained that this change is aimed at the typical console player expectation of immediate action. Targeting on the controller is another key difference, since consoles lack the precision of a mouse.
A release date for World of Tanks on the Xbox 360 has not yet been announced.
