World of Warplanes

History

Wargaming's plan to develop a flight combat MMO action game was first conceived during the early stages of World of Tanks’ development. World of Warplanes was announced at E3 in 2011, less than two months after the World of Tanks release in Europe and North America. Development was assigned to Persha Studia, the Kiev-based development center of Wargaming.

The game went from concept to a playable prototype in only two months. Early alpha testing began August 2011.

Wargaming showcased the first public World of Warplanes trailer at Gamescom in August 2011. Wargaming first showed a closed demonstration of the alpha version to journalists at the Igromir Expo in October 2011.

American aircraft were the first planes to be added to the World of Warplanes tech tree.

World of Warplanes alpha test started recruiting test players on February 23, 2012. World of Warplanes closed beta test began May 30, 2012. The game received over two million applications within the first three months of testing.

World of Warplanes was selected as Europe’s "Most Wanted Online Game" at the European Games Awards in 2012.

On April 4, 2013, the non-disclosure agreement was lifted for the beta test players, allowing beta testers to share their thoughts, screenshots, and in-game videos. At that time, the game offered six battle arenas and over 80 aircraft models from USSR, USA, Germany, and Japan. World of Warplanes’ open beta testing started on July 2, 2013.

Overview

World of Warplanes features over 100 vehicles from Germany, the Soviet Union, USA, Japan, Great Britain, France and China; allowing players to choose from four main warplane classes: fighters, multirole fighters, heavy fighters and ground attack planes.

Each national tech tree introduces squadrons of planes ranging from Tier I entry-level machines all the way up to Tier X advanced jet-powered aircraft. All warplanes can be unlocked and upgraded through a continued gameplay progression.

Aircraft of each class in the same tier vary in flight characteristics and firepower across nations. For example, a Soviet or a Japanese fighter of the same tier will be more horizontally maneuverable than its German and American counterpart but has limited vertical maneuverability.

Tech trees will expand as the game evolves. New nations and additional aircraft for each nation’s tech tree have been gradually introduced post-launch.

Game modes

The basic game features mixed PvP/PvE combat sessions in two basic scenarios: Training Room and Standard Battles. A separate tutorial intro mode includes covers game fundamentals over a series of lessons.

Training Mode is a sandbox environment for new players and teams, helping them test tactics, new planes, and practice shooting at static and flying targets. No experience or credits are earned in training mode.

In Standard Battles, the only mode in which players can earn credits and experience points necessary to unlock more game content, players must destroy all enemy aircraft or achieve superiority by destroying more enemy ground objects and airplanes. In October 2015 with patch 1.9.0 bots were introduced into Standard battles in an attempt to provide more balanced battles in an environment with a chronically struggling population. In essence this means that unlike most Wargaming.net titles there is effectively no real player-versus-player mode as players must fight against and alongside bots even in standard mode.

Economic system

The economic system in World of Warplanes is similar to World of Tanks, but finely tuned to fit specific needs and characteristics of flight combat.

The game features four primary types of in-game currency: credits, experience, tokens (since version 1.9.4) and gold (other kind of tokens were a temporary in-game currency used instead of gold during Open Beta testing stage).

Unified Premium Account

All Wargaming.net games use a "Unified Account System". Players who have World of Tanks or World of Warplanes account can share certain in game currencies, including Premium Time, Free Experience, and Gold (in-game real money value currency). Unified accounts share the same log in information (email and password) that can be used in World of Tanks and World of Warplanes. A premium account provides 50% extra experience and credits for each battle creating a quicker way to boost crew training and upgrade through the tech tree.

Reception

World of Warplanes earned received mixed reviews and currently holds a Metacritic score of 69 out of 100.

In March 2016, Wargaming.net CEO Viktor Kislyi acknowledged again in an interview that World of Warplanes had failed to meet expectations saying, "...we can't call that a success." Chief developer Sergei "SerB" Burkatovsky admitted during an interview in October 2016, "WoWp simply flopped."