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Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 2 August 1998 in Minsk, Belarus |
Founder | Victor Kislyi |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Victor Kislyi (CEO) |
Products | World of series ( World of Tanks World of Warplanes World of Warships ) |
Owner |
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Number of employees | ![]() |
Website | wargaming.com |
Wargaming Group Limited or Wargaming.Net and Wargaming.LTD (release date; 2 August 1998 Belarus, Minsk) is a global video game company. The headquarters are in Nicosia, Cyprus. As of 2022, the company operates more than 15 offices and development studios worldwide. [3]
Originally focused on turn-based strategy and real-time strategy games, Wargaming transitioned in 2009 to developing free-to-play online action games. The company is best known for its military-themed team-based titles, including World of Tanks , World of Tanks Blitz , World of Tanks Modern Armor , World of Warplanes , World of Warships , World of Warships: Legends , and World of Warships Blitz .
Wargaming was founded by Victor Kislyi in Minsk on 2 August 1998, [4] intending the company to be a developer of strategy video games. [5] The company's first project was DBA Online—the digital version of a miniature tabletop rule set De Bellis Antiquitatis—launched in 2000. Wargaming started working on its first full-scale commercial project—the sci-fi turn-based strategy game Massive Assault, in March 2002. [6] Over the course of five years, the company shipped five projects within the Massive Assault franchise. [7]
On 16 November 2007, Wargaming acquired the Minsk-based developer Arise. [8] In December 2008, the company released its first real-time strategy Operation Bagration. [9] On 16 April 2009, Wargaming started working on real-time strategy game Order of War . It was published by Square Enix on 18 September 2009. [10] On 12 August 2010, the company released its first online title, World of Tanks . On 12 April 2011, World of Tanks was released in North America and Europe. [11]
In 2011, Wargaming relocated its headquarters from Minsk to Nicosia, Cyprus. [12] Since 17 August 2015, the headquarters has been located in the Wargaming HQ tower, one of the tallest buildings in Cyprus located near the Presidential Palace in Nicosia. [13] European operations headquarters, known as Wargaming Europe, were established in Paris, France, in July 2011. [14] On 3 August 2011, the company created a direct presence in North America by opening an office in San Francisco. At E3 2011, Wargaming announced the follow-up to World of Tanks, the flight combat online action game World of Warplanes . [15] At Gamescom 2011, the company unveiled the third part of its military saga—the naval action online game World of Warships . [16] In October 2011, Wargaming announced the online collectible card MMO game World of Tanks: Generals. Throughout 2011, Wargaming joined strategic partnerships with Persha Studia, Lesta Studio and DAVA Consulting, [17] with each operating separate projects under Wargaming.
On 21 February 2012, the Android version of World of Tanks Assistant, the mobile application for World of Tanks, went live in Europe and North America. [18] In May 2012, Wargaming entered the Korean games market by opening a subsidiary office in Seoul. [19] Wargaming embarked on a rebranding initiative and announced the Wargaming.net service, [20] which would unite its games and services into a single battle universe in June 2012. [21] On 7 August 2012, Wargaming acquired the Australian company BigWorld Technology [22] [23] which brought development of the middleware for its MMO projects in-house. In an annual report for the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) in 2012, Wargaming's revenue was declared to be 217.9 million Euro, with a net profit of 6.1 million Euro. [24] Wargaming's shares were delisted from the CSE in 2015, and it remains a privately held company to this date.
Wargaming moved into the console market by acquiring Day 1 Studios on 29 January 2013. [25] [26] Renamed Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore, the studios are currently developing World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition (February 2014), Xbox One (July 2015), and PlayStation 4 (January 2016). [27] On 12 February 2013, Wargaming announced its own esports league, [28] the Wargaming.net League. The company acquired Gas Powered Games on 14 February 2013. On 26 March 2013, Wargaming announced World of Tanks Blitz, [29] a mobile MMO game centered around tank combat available for smartphones and tablets. The game was released on iOS [30] in June 2014. As of 2016, World of Tanks Blitz is available on iOS, Android, [31] Windows 10, [32] and Mac OS X. [33] Wargaming branched into the Japanese games market by opening an office in Tokyo on 29 May 2013. [34] On 22 July 2013, the company bought the Total Annihilation and Master of Orion intellectual properties from the Atari bankruptcy proceedings. [35]
In July 2015, Wargaming launched WG Labs as a division that would act as a third-party publisher for outside developers. [36] The creation of the division was primarily driven by Wargaming's partnership with the independent studio NGD Studios and their game, Master of Orion. [37] In October, the company also rebranded DropForge, a Bellevue, Washington-based mobile game studio founded in 2013 by David Bluhm, as WG Cells. [38] WG Cells was shut down in August 2016. [39]
Wargaming's WG Labs division released a reimagining of Master of Orion in August 2016. The game was developed by the Argentine NGD Studios. In November 2016, Wargaming, SEGA and Creative Assembly announced a new strategic partnership that will see Total War: ARENA published worldwide. [40] As of 2016, Wargaming owns a significant share of the Hellenic Bank (Daniel S. Loeb's Third Point Group is the other major shareholder of the Cyprus-based Bank) and has shown an interest in purchasing land property assets in Cyprus for its use and investment purposes.
In 2017, Wargaming started a mobile games division called Wargaming Mobile. [41] The unit was eventually closed in 2019. [42]
In February 2018, Wargaming America closed its Emeryville offices, cutting 100 jobs. [43] In May 2018, Wargaming's CEO showed up personally to close their Seattle studio and lay off over 150 developers. [44]
In 2019, Wargaming Labs together with Mad Head Games launched the hack-and-slash action RPG Pagan Online. In 2020, the development and publishing of the game was transferred to Mad Head Games and the game became a solo affair. [45] Soon after, the Wargaming Labs initiative was sunset.
In 2020, the Israel-based gaming company Moon Active acquired the mobile game company Melsoft, previously belonging to Wargaming. [46] That year, the World of Tanks Blitz was released on Nintendo Switch. [47] In March 2020, the company released a PvP multiplayer online game Bowling Crew. The game has different modes and events, including multiplayer and single-player modes, tournaments, challenges and other seasonal activities. [48]
On April 9, 2021 Wargaming announced the opening of a new studio in Vilnius, Lithuania. [49] World of Tanks Modern Armor was launched on April 27, 2021, and presented vehicles from the Cold War era. [50]
In February 2022, amidst the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Creative Director of Wargaming Sergey Burkatovskiy was fired following comments in support of Russia that he posted to his Facebook page. [51] [52] [53] Following his termination, Wargaming made the statement that saying "all our staff are now focused on helping out our over 550 colleagues from Kyiv and their families... Sergei's opinion is in complete contradiction with the company's position. He is no longer an employee of Wargaming." [54] [55] Wargaming then left Russia and Belarus in April, losing $250 million in the process. [56] Wargaming supported the Ukrainian people and its Kyiv studio with the start of the full-scale war in 2022 and donated 1 million USD to Ukrainian Red Cross. [57] The company left Russia and Belarus, and shut down offices in Minsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg. [58] Wargaming suffered over 250 million USD losses and 30% of the market. [59]
In 2022, Wargaming opened two new offices in Belgrade, Serbia, and Warsaw, Poland. Wargaming Belgrade focuses on both development and publishing across the World of Tanks and World of Warships franchises. Wargaming Warsaw meanwhile focuses on publishing with a potential for growth. [60] [61] On October 17, 2022, Riot Games completed its acquisition of Wargaming Sydney studio. [62] The studio was renamed Riot Sydney and its entire development staff joined Riot Sydney, while the existing publishing team remained a part of Wargaming. [63]
In 2023, Wargaming celebrated 25 years and offered a huge number of promotions. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary, Wargaming donated $250,000 through United24, the official fundraising platform of Ukraine. The money was used to purchase medical equipment. [64]
In March 2024, World of Warships: Legends launched globally on iOS and Android. [65]
On June 3, 2025, Moscow court convicted Wargaming and its founder Victor Kislyi as an "extremist organization" over Wargaming's 2023 collaboration with United24. They also ordered the seizure and nationalization of Russia-based ex-Wargaming independent company Lesta Games, despite Lesta no longer having any ties with Wargaming during the event, and despite Lesta's own history of support for the Russian government and the Russian Armed Forces in the war against Ukraine. [66] [67] [68]
Year | Title | Publisher(s) | Genre |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | DBA Online | Wargaming | Turn-based strategy |
2003 | Massive Assault | Turn-based strategy | |
2004 | Massive Assault Network | Turn-based strategy | |
2005 | Massive Assault: Domination | Turn-based strategy | |
2006 | Massive Assault Network 2 | Turn-based strategy | |
2007 | Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power | Turn-based strategy | |
2009 | Order of War | Square Enix | Real-time strategy |
2010 | Order of War: Challenge | Wargaming | Real-time strategy |
2010 | World of Tanks | Wargaming | Massively multiplayer online game |
2013 | World of Warplanes | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2014 [86] | World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2014 | World of Tanks: Blitz | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2015 | World of Warships | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2015 | World of Tanks: Xbox One Edition | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2015 | World of Tanks: Generals | Wargaming | Turn-based collectible card game |
2016 | Smash Squad | WG Cells [87] | |
2016 | Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars | WG Labs | Turn-based strategy |
2016 | Hybrid Wars | WG Labs | Top-down shooter |
2018 | World of Warships: Blitz | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2019 | Pagan Online | Wargaming | Hack'n'Slash ARPG |
2019 | World of Warships: Legends | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2020 | Bowling Crew [88] | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
2024 | World of Warships: Legends (mobile) | Wargaming | Free-to-play naval action mobile game |
2024 | Steel Hunters | Wargaming | Multiplayer online action game |
Wargaming is involved in a number of projects to preserve military cultural heritage, including: [89]
As part of its simulation initiatives, Wargaming is exploring virtual and augmented reality technologies. In early 2015, the company worked with Google to record and portray a 1941 battle in 360° [111] for the Google Cardboard mobile HMD. [112] This was followed by a series of panoramic tours of WWII tanks, Virtually Inside the Tanks Retrieved, [113] filmed in co-operation with Google and The Tank Museum in Bovington. Available via the Littlstar VR cinema network, the series currently[ when? ] includes the T-34-76, [114] the M4 Sherman "Fury" [115] from the film of the same name, the Type 59, [116] Leopard 1, [117] and the Chieftain. [118] Each video also offers a tour with Wargaming military specialists Richard Cutland and Nicholas Moran. [119]
To honour Victory Day, Wargaming released the War Knows No Nation video. [120] The video rekindles the memories of three veteran World War II tankers, blending live action panorama footage with CG scenes for the very first time. In spring 2016, Wargaming worked with the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and honoured the anniversary of the Battle of Jutland with an augmented reality app: HMS Caroline AR Experience. [121] [122] As part of the 100 Years of Tanks celebration, Wargaming presented the Virtually inside the First Tanks 360° video that featured a walkthrough of Bovington's collection of early tanks, enhanced by World of Tanks in-game scenes and the free Tank 100 mobile app. Another in its range of 360° videos, Virtual Inside the Warships, features HMS Cavalier amongst others. [123]
Wargaming has achieved valued awards in the EU and US.
In May 2017, Wargaming initially threatened to file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim against YouTube gaming content creator SirFoch over his scathing review of a World of Tanks premium tank, but later apologized and said a DMCA claim was not appropriate. [131]
In August 2021, Wargaming found itself amidst controversy once again when a large part of the "Community Contributors" (a form of associate program) walked out in protest over the over-proliferation of loot boxes and gambling mechanics in World of Warships , paired with the treatment of them and the players by the developers at Lesta Studio in the last few years. [132] In the wake of the walk out of the CC, an employee nicknamed "Gneisenau013" of the Texas office was terminated. In protest of this behavior, a senior manager for World of Tanks resigned, stating that the displayed behavior of the senior World of Warships management is "cowardly, contemptible, and shitbird-like". [133]