Source: http://itc.ua/articles/viktor-kislyiy-glava-wargaming-nash-finalnyiy-sudya-eto-igrok/
(thanks to evilsexybear from Russian LJ for reposting this)
Hello everyone,
Ukrainian IT portal “itc.ua” published another interview with Viktor “Big Boss” Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming. Most likely it is yet another one from Warsaw, where he gave series of interviews for various blogs, magazines, news and portals. Inside:
- apparently, V.Kislyi is not worried of Armored Warfare competition, he says that WG will always have competition and always had, “there can only be one answer to them – quality and service” (then he goes on describing how WoT is great and free to play, usual stuff)
- WG now has over 3k employees all over the world
- WoT Blitz will not be just another simple mobile game like Angry Birds, but a fullblown MMO shooter, adapted for mobile devices (VK believes that the market for simple games á la Angry Birds is already saturated)
- Kislyi was inspired by Zynga, who “using Farmville turned millions of housewives into gamers”
- World of Tanks alone doubled the amount of gamers on RU market (VK explains a lot of people who never gamed suddenly tried it)
- the psychology of WoT works as this: “tanks”, “my grandpa fought”, “I saw it in the museum”, “friend plays” – “I gotta try it” and that’s how WG defined the Russian-speaking market
- the most important part for WG is how long a player sticks to their game – if he plays for a month, okay, but if he stays half a year or a year, that’s how they want it
- VK is not sure whether WoT Blitz will become mass hit, “maybe the time is not ripe for it yet”
- the “Let’s Battle” magazine was released as a part of the strategy to build a “universe” around World of Tanks (V.Kislyi mentions the relationship of the fanbase towards the game, eg. books, magazines, webcomics, t-shirts and such), it was not a random attempt and it will continue to be issued
- the launch of WoT Xbox was good according to V.Kislyi, but the market on Xbox is smaller than for WoT, since there are only like 48 million players (and only 20 million of them have Xbox Gold account).
- the audience for Xbox is “the same” as for WoT PC, “only in America, the usual guy doesn’t play on PC, he plays on console”
- VK is optimistic about the Xbox release, it is however too early to tell whether it will do well
- the partnership for Xbox with Microsoft was problematic, the Xbox 360 platform is considered “closed” and there were many technical issues and rules to be obeyed, WG however managed to pull through and work around some of the issues
- WoT comes only on Xbox because WG has an exclusive contract with Microsoft
- Xbox One version can come only when the console has 10-20 million users, before that it’s impossible to make a F2P game for it, developers are not working on that version and VK said he can’t promise they will even in a year, Microsoft has to develop the platform properly
- WG recognizes the issues in World of Warplanes, but they are not giving up on the project. VK admits there are some serious bugs in it, but WG is working constantly on fixing them
- VK states that although WoT made WG a lot of money, much of it is being re-invested into the company itself
- VK states that retail business models is practically dead, the future of game distribution is online
- “Yes, World of Tanks is dedicated to WW2 era, but noone forbids us doing space games, submarines, huge humanoid robots – we can do anything”
-Well Kysli, why not attempt to release these book in EN as well?
- Retail is not dead Kysli, as long as people like collecting things. BTW, why not release official box art files and manuals so that I can make me a WoT box?
Yeah… if they offered those vaporware tanks that only appear in some kind of mystery physical bundles online(have to order from Belarus, Russian or German sites right now) plus something “stupid” like a tank model or some other “bonus”I think they would make profit.
But this: “- Kislyi was inspired by Zynga, who “using Farmville turned millions of housewives into gamers”” … now that is just terrifying. Zynga was an absolutely terrible company with shit support (you think WG support is bad? Think again) and their ‘games’ were brain-rotting lag fest, I would know, I played Mafia Wars…
“- WG recognizes the issues in World of Warplanes, but they are not giving up on the project. VK admits there are some serious bugs in it, but WG is working constantly on fixing them.”
Are you kidding me? It’s not the “bugs.” The entire game itself is horrible. It needs to be scrapped completely!
That is a very BS thing you just said. Lets see whether you are smart enough tol understand why, or… not.
I played the game throughout closed and open beta and even revisited it post-release. I racked up a few thousand battles during that time and averaged a 58% recent winrate. I also submitted my own reports and recommendations on the forums and elsewhere. I think it’s safe to say I understand the game’s issues.
Unless you have anything meaningful to contribute, go flatter yourself elsewhere. No one cares about how gloriously “smart” you appear on the internet.
Good, so you did slightly less then me :) .
Here is what you did wrong :
1. Presenting subjective opinion as fact, something WT and WG fanboys do a lot. Hell all fanboys do it a lot. WoWP is not OBJECTIVELY bad and there are people the like it how it is.
2. It is a AAA F2P game. It is a HUGE investment. WG can not crap it. That is like just setting your money on fire. Besides refer to point 1, they can IMPROVE it.
3. It is slightly profitable.
Also, I am not flattering myself. I just have had it with such BS. Its like PS4 fanboys claiming you need a 1500 dollar PC to equal their 400 dollar console… that is absolutely absurd. It is insane.
Tripple A F2P game, you must be drunk?
there is no such thing by definition TrippleA=Pay to play
Free 2 Play, Free of Quality
AAA means budget mate.
It once may have used to mean quality… now AAA most definitely does not mean quality game…
“3. It is slightly profitable.”
I’m gonna have to ask for source on that.
The developers. Many times.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
Investing more time and money to try to rescue the project will just cost WG more time and money – resources they could invest in more profitable ventures. Cutting cost and focusing in areas where it has the most advantage or the least disadvantage would be the more sensible thing to do.
Whether WoWP is or can be a good game is immaterial now. It’s not just about product quality. WT has the lead in market share as well as the maturity of the product. The consumers are already invested in WT, and WT itself has had more development and fine-tuning. It’s not that WoWP is bad – it’s that it is late.
Then again, the wisdom of capitalist pigs like us fall deaf on brave, patriotic, and stronk Russian ears.
Here is the thing though… It is not losing money right now, it is making money.
The idea itself is good, the IP has potential, it is making a small amount of money even with continued development.
It wont be put down. That is not logical.
As for the second point… well yeah, even IF you were right, its better that they do not listen to capitalists in the game industry. Those same retards are responsible for the existance of consoles in 2014, the annual releases of CoD, the freezing of games like STALKER etc…
“Making money” is not enough. A positive income does not necessarily justify continued investment. It’s more a matter of growth than simple positive income. Just because there are consumers now doesn’t mean there will be more later. Overestimating future growth and over-investing is one of the worst mistakes a business could make.
And even if more money will come out of more investment, the company does not have limitless resources. To illustrate: Why would I invest my 1 million in a venture that will net me 1.2 million (WoWP) when I can invest it in a venture that can net me 2 (WoT or even WoWS)?
And remember, statements can be deceiving. WG is a corporation owned by stockholders. They wouldn’t immediately and publicly admit they’re losing money or that a project was a failure if they are not yet legally obligated to do so.
And lastly, I meant principles of capitalism.
Those “retards” may have released bad games, but people are buying them and they are making shiploads of money. Very retarded indeed.
In the end of the day, it is sound business decisions, not products, that keeps a company afloat. If it means cutting costs, abandoning a product to cough out its last drops of profit before wilts away, then so be it.
Here is the thing though, not only WG but other people, players have invested money and into it as well. Also its part of the WG universe thing…
I dont get what you are saying. You want WG to cancel WoWP just because you think it is not doing good enough or because you think it is bad?
Also, you do realize that the games have different studios and just throwing money at WoT or WoWS wont mean a better game. The fact that WoWP is there means nothing for WoT. Besides WG can keep all three games afloat in development.
I knew what you meant.
Just taking a jab at the poor game developers that have to waste their potential on milking CoD …. and the stupid publishing studios that try to imitate its success.
But I disagree completely, there is no logical reason to cancel WoWP. Improve, yes, cancel no.
“The entire game itself is horrible” – that’s pretty much a generalization, and a false one too.
There’s never a thing that bad, that you can’t improve it by changing stuff. It might take time, but if you can improve it (and online games have an advantage in this), you can make something good out of it eventually.
i played closed beta onwards, and didn’t enjoy it. I found it boring and the mouse controls rather annoying as well.
Felt like a chore to play rather then fun.
depends on a player, I have played since open beta and I still enjoy this game.
-”we can do anything”
“looks at world of warplane” yeah, he might rephrase that part >.<
Last time I logged in, saw 300 players online. If WG can “do anything,” they should work on multiplying that player base by at least 100.
“there can only be one answer to them – quality and service”
Lmao has this guy even played WoT. The day WoT has quality is the day noobs learn how to play
WG EU – oh yes, yes indeed :D
The sad part is that WG’s quality and communication are actually still one of the better ones on the market…
“- WG recognizes the issues in World of Warplanes, but they are not giving up on the project. VK admits there are some serious bugs in it, but WG is working constantly on fixing them”
Perhaps if they actually stopped ignoring the player base. Responded to the Q&As on the NA server in a reasonable time instead of more than a month without word.
http://forum.worldofwarplanes.com/index.php?/topic/28473-march-qa-strictly-moderated/
In Australia when we hear Kislyi make statements we believe that politicians are more honest.
- VK states that retail business models is practically dead, the future of game distribution is online
Not as long as there are internet connections with monthly traffic hardcaps.
- the audience for Xbox is “the same” as for WoT PC, “only in America, the usual guy doesn’t play on PC, he plays on console”
PC master race!
Also, they are catching pirates there in NA – here is the free land of the Internetz in EU :)
Depends.
As a platform, PC is the biggest. PS and Xbox are smaller even in the US. However it is true that total number of gamers in US is higher for consoles as a whole…
Still it is sad. Real sad that the US are a console country .
Inferior console peasants :D :D !
- World of Tanks alone doubled the amount of gamers on RU market (VK explains a lot of people who never gamed suddenly tried it)
That means RU servers are full of deers ;)
what a fucking looser this VK guy is. typical Russian oligarch who scammed his way to riches…
“huge humanoid robots”
Chris Taylor says “hi!”
Yea, let’s hope WoWP gets a lot better. its kind of crap at the moment, and if it gets into position to endanger War Thunder, then great, cause two companies fighting to get a better game out always turns out great for the customer.
V.Kislyi isn’t worried cause he realizes this game can only canabalize play time and gold purchases of normal PC gamers in the West, i.e., i7 3700′s+, and graphics cards made in the last 3 years.
This threatens not the potato-powered PC market of glorious Russian gamer.
- Kislyi was inspired by Zynga, who “using Farmville turned millions of housewives into gamers”
“gamers”… “gamers”… just because you play one game does not makes you into a gamer Viktor. It makes you “obsessed”…