Well into the second decade of the gaming sphere’s premier military simulator, it’s clear that the War Thunder team over at Gaijin Entertainment still has a lot of gas left in the tank.
From its humble beginnings as an aerial combat sim to a robust simulation engine encompassing tanks and battleships, the team doesn’t shy away from a challenge. Looking back at the arrival of UFOs, cartoon ponies, and anime girls, it knows not to take itself too seriously, too – even when various military bodies have been known to depend on its accuracy.
So, what goes into making a game that refuses to slow down? And how does a game that’s far outgrown its original premise continue to innovate? War Thunder is one of gaming’s clearest examples of why a “full release” is often far from the end of the road.
To celebrate almost 15 years of big victories and bigger battleships, we spoke to Gaijin Entertainment to find out how they continue to grow a game that reached its 1.0 release a decade ago — including how it’s leveraging additional talent to bring a genuinely competitive boots-on-the-ground infantry shooter to what should, by now, be a dusty old vehicular warfare simulator.
The Line of Contact update feels like a massive change to the core focus of the game. What was behind the decision to work on the mode after more than a decade of purely vehicle-based War Thunder gameplay?
War Thunder is the most comprehensive military action game already, and it always seemed logical to add infantry to it one day similar to other military assets that do exist in the real world but are not a part of War Thunder yet
It’s also important that a significant portion of existing War Thunder vehicles (i.e. armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles) are in fact designed to fight alongside infantry.
Players have been constantly asking us to add infantry. It was not easy, though, as infantry basically requires us to build a separate game within a game to make the gameplay right. It took time. We’re in the early testing stages of the mode right now, as we’re committed to do everything right and are not rushing anything.
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