Wot wiki is official. The creator of World of Tanks, Viktor Kisly, has suffered from the crisis and is looking for sources of income. – Fall in both audience and revenue

DAVA Fromework - client component

BigWorld - server component

Players can use a single Wargaming.net account to play World of Tanks Blitz, but cannot use content achieved in World of Tanks on .

Cards

The maps in the game are square, measuring 500x500 m. Some of them are simplified or converted locations from the computer version of the game. Each map consists of two starting points for teams to appear, which are located in different parts of the location. The battlefield itself has many objects and shelters: buildings, bridges, walls, trees, uneven terrain. Some of them can be destroyed. Important points on the map are a neutral base, the capture of which will bring victory to the team that captured it, and points in the “Superiority” mode, the capture of which leads the team to victory.

There are a total of 27 maps in the game along with the tutorial: Port, Winter Robin, Burning Sands, Middleburg, Quarries, Channel, Lost Temple, Fort, Castile, Golden Valley, Mines, Echelon, Canal, Baltic Shield, Tank Range, Himmelsdorf, Mirage, Ancients Pyramids, Eastern Harbor, Vineyards, Canyon, El Alamein, Sea Front, Pearl City, Alpenstadt, Faust and Normandy. They all differ in climate, terrain, buildings, weather conditions; some of them are references to actual battles of World War II.

In-game universe

At the moment, World of Tanks Blitz features 374 tanks, divided into 4 classes: Light tanks, Medium tanks, Heavy tanks and tank destroyers (there are no regular self-propelled guns and there won’t be due to the fact that the maps are too small for them, and their an increase will result in a longer battle duration).

The models of all tanks were taken from the PC version, but they were simplified. The game does not have radio station upgrades or a simplified module upgrade tree. The server part of the game runs on the game engine BigWorld*, the client part runs on Wargaming.net’s own engine, Dava Framework. All in-game information is available both on the game portal and in the client.

Unlike the PC version of the project, in the mobile version the experience indicator (×2, ×3 and ×5) is updated 2 times a day (8:00 and 20:00 Moscow time)

In various updates, some tanks may be subject to changes. This is due to the fact that a certain tank may have different characteristics, be better or worse than other tanks of its level. So, for example, in update 5.9, a light tank of tier 4 A-20 on one of the guns was penetrated by high-explosive shells higher than by armor-piercing shells, and in update 6.0 penetration by high-explosive shells has already become worse.

Update 5.5 seriously affected the mechanics of the game on low-level vehicles, subjecting levels I-IV to rebalancing, as well as the removal of “unnecessary” vehicles and modules. According to the developers, this was necessary primarily for newcomers to the game, because the first level tanks were too weak in characteristics and very difficult to understand the game mechanics. In this regard, it was decided to remove Tier 1 tanks from the game (MS-1, T1 Cunnigcham, Leichttraktor, Vickers Medium Mk. l, Renault FT, Renault Otsu, and Renault NC-31), and their descendants replaced them (previously Tier II tanks). The long-awaited branch of German heavy tanks, led by the VK.72.01 K, was also introduced.

Update 5.9 brought new combat missions to the game, divided by levels. There are 4 of them in total. A new level can be obtained by researching a certain level of a tank in one of the development branches. The tasks can be very different, from killing a certain type of equipment to winning one of the types of battles. Keys are awarded for completed tasks. These keys can be exchanged for chests with various game values. Also, for completing all tasks during the week, the player is given a special container.

Premium elements

The game currency in World of Tanks Blitz is divided into “credits”, “gold” and “experience”. “Credits” and “experience” are awarded for the battles carried out by the player, and both the victory of the team as a whole and the individual achievements of the players are rewarded. “Experience” is used to research new equipment and install more advanced modules on it, “credits” are used to purchase equipment, improve the crew, purchase ammunition, equipment, ammunition, camouflage, slots for equipment (if the required level of Personal supply coincides with the required level of Clan supplies). “Gold” can be purchased for real money, and can also be obtained through various promotions. It is used to purchase premium equipment, premium account days, other resources and currencies.

Belarusian and resident of Cyprus Viktor Kisly has been running the Wargaming company for 17 years, which managed to create one of the most popular multiplayer games in Russia and the former USSR - World of Tanks. Vedomosti recently spoke with him.
WoT is always rapidly gaining users, and they actively pay for items within the game. In 2012, World of Tanks brought Wargaming $218 million, and last year its revenue more than doubled: according to Superdata, the company earned more than $500 million from “tanks.” The crisis tempered the excitement of players - they began to spend less time playing computer games and began to pay less. Wargaming plans to compensate for the drop in revenue with growth in international markets, new projects and promotion of the game in eSports competitions (computer game competitions), which, according to Kisly, could develop into new media reality.

– Before the crisis, your main market was Russia and the CIS countries, but now?

– The structure of our players has not changed much. We all understand that a tank is “hardwired” into the DNA of a Russian person (laughs) and nothing can be done about it. Residents of the former Soviet Union play tanks a lot and have not stopped doing so. Americans are more spoiled, they need everything to be beautiful, they need to be shown everything. They play more on consoles, and we only launched World of Tanks on consoles a year ago, and even then an old version. Now we are making a new version for Xbox One, and then there will probably be some growth in the number of users in the US.

For example, in Japan there are few computers; the Japanese play mainly on the Play Station. But if a Japanese person falls in love with a game, he will never get out of it. And this is the most paying audience. But in terms of quantity, they are few when compared with other countries.

It is clear that we started with a proportion of 0:100. That is, Mother Russia, the CIS. True, in the very first week of closed testing, Poles and Czechs began to actively join - they also really love tanks. For some reason, Icelanders play a lot, Scandinavians in general.

We have been making efforts to spread our game to the world. To do this, we localized World of Tanks and provided support in different languages.

Now our audience for the game is distributed approximately 50:50. Half are Russia and the countries of the former USSR, the other half are the rest of the world. That is, the dynamics are still moving towards an increase in the international audience, which is logical - after all, the population of the whole world is larger than the former USSR. Although the density of “tankers” is less, the population and territory are larger (laughs).

We are systematically working to improve our understanding of America, Europe, and Korea. There are several open spots, for example Brazil, we started working there quite recently. We do not cover Middle Eastern countries yet. There is a peculiarity: Arabic script is written from right to left, which means that we actually need to “mirror” the entire game.

– With such a significant share of Russian World of Tanks players, did the crisis in Russia greatly affect Wargaming’s business? Are people paying less for artifacts in the game? During the crisis of 2008–2009. many gaming companies saw an influx of players: people stopped going to the cinema, flying on vacation, but did not play less.

– Of course, Russia is a large country that has experienced a crisis of geopolitical proportions. It is clear that these movements in the ruble and euro were not in our favor and led to a decrease in the dollar equivalent of revenue.

Our audience is very heterogeneous. In addition, the game does not force players to pay money. In the game you can spend money comparable to several movie tickets, and a student can generally play for free.

We have 25% of paying users, and this is a very good indicator compared to other games. In the gaming industry, there is a concept called a "whale" - a senior manager who drives a black Mercedes and whose salary is measured in numbers with a lot of zeros. He doesn't care how much to pay. But World of Tanks is built in such a way that you can’t spend $1000 a month there. I could spend that amount, but I don’t know what (laughs). The game is made in such a way that there is no product for that amount per month. $10 costs a premium account, plus a couple of tens, well, a hundred dollars for collectible tanks ($5–40) or internal currency.

So these “whales” don’t feel the difference between spending a few tens of dollars in a game or a couple of hundred. Therefore, we did not notice any changes in payments among this audience. Schoolchildren and students, of course, began to pay less - it is clear that purchasing power has fallen.

Games love silence

– Superdata analysts estimated Wargaming’s revenue in 2014 at $505 million. How correct is this estimate?

– Companies, especially large ones, do not really like to give direct assessments of their business. Therefore, I would not like to comment on this assessment.

This is primarily due to competition. We are not alone in this clearing, there are other similar games, there are complete copies. It's a very competitive industry. And if you know how much money your competitors have, you can roughly predict their maneuvers. Therefore, it’s good if your competitors have no idea how flexible you are in your maneuvers.

I can only say that Wargaming’s revenue is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. It is clear that due to the fall of the Russian ruble, our dollar revenue, to put it mildly, has not increased. How much she has not grown is not very important. We still expect that the situation will improve, peace will come and everything will return to normal.

But other factors, not necessarily macroeconomic ones, can also affect revenue. For example, some changes in the game itself. Example: last year we released a new version of World of Tanks, in which we made several technical errors: the storyboard in the game became slower due to the fact that something there was poorly drawn. The speed dropped by an average of 10%. And we released vague historical battles: what we did did not fully meet user expectations. And these two factors immediately affected our results, as the number of concurrent users fell by 20% in two months. Well, then we entered autumn - and oil prices fell, the ruble fell. There was a fall again.

– A drop in both audience and revenue?

- And so and so. They play but don't pay, pay but don't play. It got worse, we felt it. It is clear that we took some measures. For example, in the case of the ruble, we offered users purchases at a lower rate: people liked it. Therefore, such jumps have happened to us twice over the past year: an unsuccessful technical patch and the economic situation at the end of the year.

– Do you disclose how much one World of Tanks user pays on average, something like ARPU? How much is it in Russia and in the world?

– To be honest, I don’t know the exact number. It seems to me that it makes no sense to talk about ARPU, since this is the average temperature in the hospital. When a game reaches such a size that it already covers countries and continents, it makes no sense to talk about ARPU. In addition, the groups of people playing are very different in age - from seven years old and above. I believe that it is necessary to introduce segmentation: we need to look separately at the ARPU of the “whale” and the “schoolchild”, the ARPU of the Russian and the Japanese.

Although our game is built in such a way that there cannot be a large ARPU. I can give an approximate figure - $25 per paying person per month, although I could be wrong. But that doesn't mean anything. We have built our game in such a way that a person voluntarily pays as much as he can afford. And this is very important. There are games where you can’t progress further without paying. Such games make people make impulse purchases, especially conveniently through mobile devices. In our country, even in order to pay, you have to go to some terminal and fill out some form. A hassle in general.

– So you are making it difficult for yourself to do business?

– No, well, it’s on computers – there’s just such an infrastructure. It's easier on smartphones.

The ARPU of $25 is made up of the premium account and a little bit of the rest. And often it's not because the person can't afford to pay, they just don't consume anymore.

Therefore, in such cheap entertainment as World of Tanks, the percentage of “whales” is very small. Moreover, it is interesting that in Japan there are only “whales”. They also exist in Russia, but in comparison with the population their percentage is very small.

Of course, we could immediately make some kind of diamond tank for $10,000. But here a factor comes into play - people won’t understand (laughs). We could only afford this in China. Our Chinese partner simply pushed it: they say, give me a gold tank - it’s needed for gifts, etc. They did it, it costs $400.

– Gold iPhones are said to be very popular in China...

- Yes. But we must understand that our game is international. As soon as you introduce something in one country, it begins to be intensively discussed all over the world - on forums, on social networks. And for this golden tank, which we made at the request of the Chinese workers, our workers told us: “not good.” And such conversations spoil our reputation, and this is very important. So we won't do this again.

Attack lines

– In addition to the most popular World of Tanks, you now have other games – World of Warplanes, World of Warships. How popular are they?

– We were probably in a hurry with World of Warplanes, we made mistakes in some places. Now we are studying this, trying to fix something. Everything seems to be going very well with World of Warships so far. Now we are in the closed testing phase: we are using behavioral mechanisms with all our might to understand whether people like the game and what needs to be changed and where. So far, all statistical parameters in the closed beta are excellent, and in all regions.

– Last year Wargaming entered the American market. How successful was this outing? How is Wargaming developing in international markets in general?

– Of course, it’s impossible to say that “We took the States.” This market is very competitive, not only in games, but in all areas. But we got some kind of audience there. These are older men who take their children to tank museums and watch the Discovery Channel. The next challenge was to reach a younger audience. But this is much more complicated: they already need shooters, they like to play on consoles.

In Europe and the USA we still have room to grow. But in Russia the market has become saturated. It is probably already impossible to find a man in Russia who has not heard of World of Tanks, except perhaps in the taiga.

– Are there any ideas that could help conquer new markets? Are you planning to make, for example, your own shooter?

– I have nothing to say about this yet. Of course, we in the company are discussing different options, different new games. But we don’t have a position on shooters yet. And there is no shooter itself. And since there is no shooter, then there is no position (laughs).

Like I said, we don't look at that average user ARPU. You can make $27.7, but for this you can ruin your reputation. You can suddenly make a lot of money in the short term, but then you will be left with scorched earth. We have seen this effect - when you tighten the screws too much, then there is a decline. It is beneficial for us if revenue is stable or grows slightly. Over the course of several years, we have determined this socially acceptable figure that a person can get out of his pocket. And we don't want to change it significantly. A business like ours must be conducted calmly.

– Any other ideas for products or promotion methods?

– In general, we act by dynamic analysis: if there is some opportunity to advance something, we try. For example, there is an idea for e-sports, we hold competitions. If successful, then we increase it. It's the same with advertising. It works differently in different countries. For example, TV advertising for games is considered ineffective. But this is not always the case - in some places it is very effective. For example, the same Clash of Clans advertised during the break between Super Bowl football matches, during the most expensive advertising time. Everyone was very surprised. But they thought it was profitable, and we thought it wasn’t. In general, all this is painstaking work.


Like I said, we don't look at that average user ARPU. You can make $27.7, but for this you can ruin your reputation. You can suddenly make a lot of money in the short term, but then you will be left with scorched earth. We have seen this effect - when you tighten the screws too much, then there is a decline. It is beneficial for us if revenue is stable or grows slightly. Over the course of several years, we have determined this socially acceptable figure that a person can get out of his pocket. And we don't want to change it significantly. A business like ours must be conducted calmly.

“Buildings” and “rides”

– In April, you held World of Tanks competitions in Poland. Other game developers are holding similar events. How do you generally assess the prospects for esports? Is this a tool to promote the game or could it become a big new medium in the future, competing with, for example, television broadcasts of regular sports?

– It is impossible to predict the future 5–6 years in advance. But so far eSports is developing very well. In general, e-sports originated in South Korea with the television broadcast of Starcraft, and everyone thought that this was such a purely Korean thing and it would not go anywhere further. When we held the finals last year, there were half as many people as this year.

It has now become clear that eSports is growing so quickly that we can already assume that it will soon become very big - both in terms of audience and, possibly, in money. But the whole question is in the content. It seems to me that this can be compared with ordinary sports, which people watch with great pleasure on TV.

– So in 20 years we will be watching the Cyber ​​Olympics?

- Quite possible. E-sports is actually being born before our eyes; its rules have not yet been established. This is a completely new phenomenon at the intersection of media, streaming, and advertising.

Esports is, first and foremost, a show. Last year, 300,000 players took part in the competition, and even more - tens of millions - watched. In order for the show to be exciting for them, a beautiful and dynamic picture is needed. That is, this is a new type of visual art - cinema, only interactive. E-sports already has elements of beautiful show business: fights are commented on, there are prizes, “back-up dancers”, all this is broadcast live in many languages. In show business there should always be some kind of intrigue, and in e-sports we fully observe it. It’s just as difficult to predict who will win here as in regular sports: for example, in this league [in Poland], the Chinese beat the Russians. Previously, this seemed unthinkable. So eSports is the same sport, only a little more youthful.

– Can eSports already be considered a business?

– Let’s just say that businesses are already being built on this wave. Take Twitch, an application that “streams” games. This is incredible: someone plays games, and others watch it, and there is already a huge audience there. Amazon recently bought Twitch for $1 billion, and until recently no one had heard of this startup. This demonstrates how quickly things in this area can grow. So the same thing will likely happen in eSports as in other media. Content appears, views grow, and after some time advertising appears.

– Are advertisers already interested in eSports?

– Are big advertisers interested in this phenomenon? For example, consumer sector companies?

– Not yet, but they may come, because here advertisers can be offered a very attractive type of advertising. On the regular Internet, they deal with traditional advertising, in which the audience is determined by age, place of residence, etc. But there is also behavioral advertising, which is based on how a person behaves. In games, people engage in behavior - well, yes, in difficult conditions, when there are enemies on all sides (laughs), but they behave there somehow: they buy something, look at something. And all this information is accumulated by gaming companies, and on large numbers it can work very well. Using such data, advertising can be targeted much more accurately.

– For Wargaming, could the advertising model become a source of income in the future, along with in-game payments and subscriptions?

– It’s difficult to say yet, but we are carefully studying this topic. For us, eSports is still a marketing tool that helps attract an audience. But everything is moving towards the fact that all this - games, competitions - will become a new media reality. She is cheerful, cool: these are fun rides, shooting games. People watch Minecraft for some reason - there are fun “builds” there (laughs).

In all this, of course, there is already an element of Hollywood. Normal new media reality. It is still taking its first steps, but it is developing very quickly along with the development of new technologies and mobile devices. Because people mostly watch these things on smartphones and tablets. They go in a taxi - they can watch a couple of fights.

In the crisis zone

– Why did Wargaming decide to leave the Cyprus Exchange in 2014?

– In 2012, we decided to go to the Cyprus Exchange, because we began to build the company’s headquarters in Cyprus and manage it completely from there. The shares were not traded on the stock exchange. According to the rules of this exchange, this is possible. It was an offering that imposed all the same restrictions and requirements as a classic IPO. We plunged ourselves into the abyss of this responsibility so that we had no chance of violating it. We did this for several years. We got what we needed from this: we got some name, grew up a little and felt more confident in this stormy sea of ​​financial instruments (laughs). We don't need this anymore.

– Do you plan to enter the stock exchange in the future?

- Well... never say never. Now business, from the point of view of this bureaucracy, is in good condition: the same as it was when we were on the stock exchange. Because we learned for several years to live by the rules of a public company.

– Last year you said that Wargaming suffered from the Cyprus crisis, as a result of which the company became a shareholder of Hellenic Bank and acquired a building in Limassol. How much did the company ultimately lose?

– Wargaming is the largest technology company in Cyprus, we take an active part in the economic and social life of the country, and therefore the past crisis was not just an unpleasant moment for our corporate interests, but a problem for all company employees living here. We regularly pay all taxes, actively promote the reputation of Cyprus, and contribute to the development of this country, so it is not entirely correct to talk about any losses. Of course, we went through certain difficulties, but, as in the case of the purchase of shares in Hellenic Bank, the crisis also opened up new opportunities for us.

Our company is one of the current shareholders in Hellenic, there are people who represent our interests there, but our participation in its work is limited. Wargaming is primarily a developer and publisher of games known all over the world, so activity in other areas is not so important for us.

The Cyprus economy grew by 1.6% in the first quarter of 2015, and the country is gradually restoring its financial and investment attractiveness. The local authorities have very accurately and consistently carried out the reform program that was recommended by the eurozone countries and the IMF, and in the long term we look at the economic situation in the country with great optimism.

– Do you think that the countries of the former USSR will also be able to become convenient for doing international business in the foreseeable future, what needs to be done there for this?

– In post-Soviet countries, progress in creating favorable conditions for business is enormous. Wargaming unites studios from Kyiv, St. Petersburg, Minsk, as well as offices in Europe, Asia and the USA under one roof, and we can compare the conditions that different countries provide us. In the countries of the former USSR, we feel support and interest in the company, in our initiatives to restore military equipment and popularize history. Of course, to attract international companies, many more steps need to be taken to improve the business climate and introduce predictable and effective law enforcement, but in the future, any country can become a place where business will be convenient and comfortable.

– How does Belarus feel about the fact that such a large company has moved to another country and pays taxes there?

– Minsk was and remains the heart of Wargaming, so talking about moving is not entirely correct. The company's largest office is located in Minsk, where the global hit World of Tanks is completely created: from writing code to organizing e-sports competitions and promoting the project. The Minsk office is also developing a mobile version of the World of Tanks Blitz game, and the global UX, BI, financial and legal departments are also located there. In general, the office occupies the entire 16-story building and employs about 2,000 people.

– After the crisis began in Russia, many technology companies moved to other countries, to the Baltic states for example. Do you see this migration process from the outside, are our programmers coming to you?

– As far as I know, we began to receive a little more responses to vacancies from programmers from Russia, but it is worth considering the fact that Minsk, as well as Kiev and St. Petersburg, has a decent reputation as a center of expertise in game development. Wargaming has become a brand in the HR field, so our vacancies are actively interested in Russia, Europe, and the USA.

Our Minsk development team is working on World of Tanks for PC and mobile versions of the game, Kiev is working on World of Warplanes, the studio in St. Petersburg is preparing the release of World of Warships, the team in Chicago is working on updates for World of Tanks Xbox 360 and developing a version of the game for Xbox One, and Seattle is creating a new, as yet unannounced project.

Globally, the competition between companies for talent is only gaining momentum. Talents are worth their weight in gold everywhere; they are the ones who dictate the terms, and businesses have to adapt. Geography is not the most important factor; professionals can make their way in all regions of the world.

Chasing new emotions

– What new things await us in technology, what do you think about the general “mobilization” - the transition to smartphones and tablets?

– The main trends for the next five years are obvious: the introduction of cloud technologies, active promotion of streaming, universal tabletization and miniaturization, virtual reality. The mobile gaming market will continue to grow at a tremendous pace, while mobile devices will become smaller and more powerful, and their costs will fall.

Games on mobile platforms are different. The player's attention span is very small; the gaming session can end at any moment. It is important for developers to take these conditions into account and adapt to them. At the same time, the industry is moving away from developing games exclusively for the platform. We focus on creating an engaging gaming experience regardless of device. A good story, communication, a gaming universe in which the player enjoys being, developing and receiving new emotions become more important than the platform.

Very soon we will come to the point where good games will be available anywhere at any time. In such a situation, the winner will be the one who gives the players an enjoyable and exciting experience, an interactive world with great opportunities.

– Do you think virtual reality technologies will become the next big thing? Does Wargaming plan to do something in this area?

– Virtual reality technologies have made a real breakthrough over the past three years. The prospects for using the Oculus Rift helmet in games are simply impressive; this device can radically change the gaming industry. I was amazed by the first test version of the helmet, which I tested more than a year ago: picture, sound, emotions - you are immersed in another dimension, and therefore I am looking forward to the release of the commercial version of the product. Our team is actively experimenting with the device, and we have already developed and released a special game mode for Oculus. It allows the player to take a different look at the gameplay, enjoy the effect of presence and get new sensations from tank battles. By the way, the implementation of technology turned out to be a very labor-intensive process. We needed to rebuild the in-game menu, radically redesign the gameplay UI and create a specific control system.

We are not tied to one platform and are constantly developing games for new devices. If technology becomes mass, global, accessible, our games will definitely appear on it.
Thanks for the interview and good luck in your battles!

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