World of Warships Launch Event: What's Next for Wargaming?

But it's all work and no play for Piociennik, who has returned to work on the Russian destroyer tech tree, due for release today: "It's an MMO, so there's always a pipeline of content. we've technically launched, but our work hasn't changed.”

Wargaming has managed to make their previous games fairly profitable, with their "free to win" payment model and the game's Clan Wars proving to be popular on the esports scene. This free to win ethos is still in effect here, with players able to pay for upgrades instead of grinding for them, but never for something that you can't eventually get for free.

In regards to the game's Clan Wars, European general manager Markus Shill points to the games ranked battles as a tester to see if Clan Wars will make a return to World of Warships: "we need to see where the community leads us, so we can follow".

He seems enthusiastic about the idea, pointing out that Wargaming views their games as a service rather than just something that is fired out and forgotten about: "esports needs a strong community, large amounts of viewers and good support, but I have no doubt that as World of Warships progresses we'll definitely get involved with it."

World of Tanks' commitment to eSports is strong, with a World of Tanks Continental Rumble taking place this past weekend. Wargaming embracing the scene makes sense both from a financial standpoint, but also because those esports fans, and the gigantic events that Wargaming hosts around the world to cater for them, make up the most vocal element of the franchise's fans.

While there's no chance of pitting tank against plane against boat (the scale differences between tank, boat and plane make it sadly impossible) Shill hints at a larger meta-game between the three branches, something possible in a future iteration of Clan Wars, but it's something that'd be exciting to see carried over into the complete game: an optional game mode adding a layer of persistence to the combat. We can hope.

Now that players can take the fight across land, sea and air in whichever Wargaming game suits them best, the burning wreckage of WW2 machinery is providing a bright future for Wargaming. With several years of content still to come for each game, the fast-growing esports scene and several different properties on the horizon, this battle is Wargaming's to lose.