Interview with Big Boss Kislyi

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Source: http://www.vedomosti.ru/library/news/29261941/my-prevratili-tank-v-brend-viktor-kislyj-osnovatel-i

Thanks to Maiorboltach (yet again) for providing a link to this news :)

Hello everyone,

on the portal linked above, there is a huge interview with Viktor “Big Boss” Kislyi, Wargaming CEO and one of the most influential Wargaming people (if not THE most influential person). The interview took place in Nikosia (Cyprus). The interview is very long, so I’ll make an abridged version.

- in top 200 Belarussian businessmen, Kislyi is on 13th place
- his first contact with computergames was in his father’s science laboratory on very old computers
- VK went to specialized chess elementary school
- he studied physics faculty in Belarus (on the insistence of his father)
- one of the first games he programmed was a sort of multiplayer strategy, playable over e-mail in 1996
- he worked as a programmer for 25 USD per month, just enough to keep from starving, the first videogames were not profitable
- Kislyi did not get money from the big “Order of War” either, because it came during the 2008-2009 crisis, that’s when he learned that the retail model for small and medium game projects is dead and that if they make games like that, they will barely survive, so it was either stop making games or to come up with something new, which was online distribution


- the idea behind World of Tanks was “there are enough games with infantry, let’s make a game with tanks only!”
- “We had no idea to what extent will the size of the game grow – last month, in Moscow, at 20:00, during one second, 1.100.000 guys were sitting and playing tanks, that’s a record”
- the owners of Wargaming are: Viktor Kislyi – 38,5 percent, Vladimir Kislyi (his father) – 25,5 percent, Nikolai Katselapov – 17 percent, Ivan Mikhnevich – 17 percent
- the start of WoT was problematic and VK even considered selling a share of the company
- they couldn’t find proper publishers, because existing publishers did not understand the F2P model
- 70-75 percent of players do not pay anything for playing
- the game started to earn first real money in August 2010, a lot of the game popularity came from rumors guys telling their friends about it
- VK states that they chose Cyprus as Wargaming seat, because they needed to find a special place, allowing them to do international business properly while being transparent enough, stable, with all the taxes paid correctly. The choice was influenced by the need of find a place “between East and West and in Europe at the same time, also with many Russians and with similiar mentality, including the Orthodox church and some lifestyle elements (coffee, “dreaming of life”) and that was the Cyprus republic.” VK states that there was no intention to use the place as “offshore”
- the company currently employs 2800 or so people in the entire world
- the atmosphere is very informal in Wargaming, Kislyi is very respected on Cyprus, he has informal access to the Cypriot minister of finances, if he needs to talk about something financial
- according to VK, the entire group of WoT developers is 600 people. A half of the company (1300-1400 people) are “publishers”, who deal with service
- WG has office in Paris and San Francisco, because they tried to run the game service from Minsk and it didn’t work out

Actually, the entire interview is very long and very, very interesting (I am actually sorry I don’t have the time or strength to translate it in its entirety). Not in the info provided, it’s more like… the way he talks about Cyprus and the way he sees the world. Of course, for average players it’s irrelevant, but I find it quite admirable.

46 thoughts on “Interview with Big Boss Kislyi”

  1. “very not formal”

    Very informal? Very casual? This sentence sounds a bit weird with the second part of it… does it mean they have no formal atmosphere inside of the company or regarding the company’s business to outside?

  2. - “We had no idea to what extent will the size of the game grow – last month, in Moscow, at 20:00, during one second, 1.100.000 guys were sitting and playing tanks, that’s a record”

    I wonder how many of those were bots or AFK.

    • “… в 20.00 по Москве …” means at 20.00 Moscow time, not in Moscow.

  3. - according to VK, the entire group of WoT developers is 600 people.

    600 developers and they struggle THAT hard to add new tanks and balance the T-44-85?

    WGA has a lot of non historical information so why can’t they use such info making a T-44-85.

    How can you have 600 developers and struggle to do simple things?

    • “How can you have 600 developers and struggle to do simple things?”

      2 doing new stuff and 598 fixing their screw ups.

      and failing

    • If (brain.think(programing, game_balacing) == “simple”)
      {
      return “make your fcn game”;
      }

    • I think I just realized why they dropped the T-44-85: If you were looking for a crew trainer for your russian medium crew and had the choise to buy a functional t7 for 7000 gold, would you bother to spend 11000 gold for a similarly functional t8?
      It’s not a question of ingame balance, it’s all about IRL economics: the T-44-85 would “steal” sales from the T-54 mod 1945.

      • Does it matter? Money is money and some people would rather have a functional tier 8 prem medium for the tier 8 prem ultra credit bonus. However the T-54 1945 does not seem like it will be a functional prem med at all.

        The T-44-85 in test 1 when it went public WAS a functional prem medium as it had great mobility in order to flank and use its low pen.

        • But why settle for having the player pay you for 7000 gold when you could force him to pay you 11000 instead?
          A t7 premium is expensive enough for people to go “No I won’t buy a t8, I’ve paid enough for my t7 already.”
          Very few players pay for both a t7 and 8 premium if both fill the same function and WG would lose profit on every player who chose the cheaper option.

          • There are players who won’t even bother wanting to pay the extra for a tier 8 prem med (11000) because they see a 7000 gold price as their spending limit.

            Introducing both tanks is still a win win because in the end, people will use the T-44-85 for crew training and people will use the T-54 1945 for crew training and credits.

            • I don’t have the statistics, but I’m pretty sure that those who are willing to spend as much as 7000 gold on a single vehicle won’t mind going up to 11000 if that’s what it takes to get what they want. However, those who are thinking about spending 11000 gold on a single vehicle might chose to spend less if possible.

              Look, I also want the T-44-85 (especially after the ST buff it got, 148 mm pen, 200 dmg and 9.81 RpM. Not bad for a t7 medium) but I still think this is the reason for why it wasn’t released. It could be balanced gameplay wise but it wouldn’t be good for their economy.

              I mean, look at the Panther M10 and Pz4S. Both tanks are sub-par for their tier, but I can almost guarantee you that they sell more Panthers than they sell Pz4S despite the higher price.

              EDIT: t8 premiums don’t earn THAT much extra credits, I average about the same credits/game in my E 25 as I do in my Type 59

              • Good point.
                Worth to note, that (according to vbaddict) M10 Panther is one of the best earning premtanks. Best on T7, and surpasses quite a few T8 earners….
                that’s what happens, when they do a limited MM T7 prem med with penetration onpar with standard meds…

                So yes, T-44-85 could “steal” a lot sales from T8 prem med = bad bussiness for WG.
                And the players prooved many times they will buy the premtanks, no matter the price IF they don’t have much choice (matilda BP as a trainer – lol) while having big needs (3 T10 meds, 2 T9 meds… there is no other nation with that many high tier stuff).

                WG is smart.
                They T-44-85 might come in a year or two, when the T54 light saturates the market.

                • Yup, now we’re on the same page.

                  I wouldn’t expect to see the T-44-85 in the shop for a while but we will definitely see it ingame sooner or later, just like the SU-85i (only took like 2 years >_>)

  4. - VK states that they chose Cyprus as Wargaming seat, because they needed to find a special place, allowing them to do international business properly while being transparent enough, stable, with all the taxes paid correctly. The choice was influenced by the need of find a place “between East and West and in Europe at the same time, also with many Russians and with similiar mentality, including the Orthodox church and some lifestyle elements (coffee, “dreaming of life”) and that was the Cyprus republic.” VK states that there was no intention to use the place as “offshore”

    I thought Cyprus was where the Russian Mafia laundered their ill gotten gains?

    • Funny you should say that. I used to work in the offshore tax business, and most of our Russian and Belorussian clients would not touch Cyprus, because of its association with the Russian Mafia.

      • i leave in greece.i don ‘t know much about the things going on cyprus(even if we are close and greeks and the people of cyprus share the same ”blood” and language).from what i heard from our local channels(don ‘t trust greek reporters to telling you the truth) is that cyprus went on bankrapt and the EE offered them money.the banks where empty of cash because the citizens were afraid of losing their money.cyprus was/is the centre of storing russian(and not only them) money.low taxes and biiiiiiig profit.all the greek side of cyprus is used as a giant anofficial treasury.

  5. “allowing them to do international business properly while being transparent enough, stable, with all the taxes paid correctly”

    The last place to go on earth with your business with that in mind – well it might not be Cyprus, but it’s for sure on the shortlist :)
    So far cyprus is known as seat for companys doing their business not properly, refuse all transparency and refuse to pay taxes.
    But good to know, that he always has access to the finance minister of cyprus. There is for sure no corruption :)

  6. “Actually, the entire interview is very long and very, very interesting (I am actually sorry I don’t have the time or strength to translate it in its entirety). Not in the info provided, it’s more like… the way he talks about Cyprus and the way he sees the world. Of course, for average players it’s irrelevant, but I find it quite admirable.”

    Looks like i have to learn russian after all…
    I would really like to understand that interview.

  7. - 70-75 percent of players do not pay anything for playing

    <== Has to be a world record! Most FTP have 0.5 % plp paying…

    • Yup, thats an awesome achivement.
      There was a really nice post by SS (i think last year) with an industry expert (not WG related) anaysing WoT monetization, and the guy came to similiar conclusion based on his estimates. Shows he knew his job.

    • WoT monetization is the envy of the F2P industry. Other companies make more money but that is because they have more players.
      The guy who made the presentation was hired by Ubisoft to help them launch F2P titles. There is serious money in F2P, witness WG’s 2013 earnings of $+300M. Lots of big companies want a share of the cake.

      • Yes, and I think their vision of no significant advantage of paying customers to non paying customers are at works here, it’s either none or minimal pay2win, and many will disagree on me on this one. Look at some top f2p earners on the list, Dota, TF2 and LoL, since players, either paying or not are on equal grounds against each other except skills. I played other f2p-p2w mmorpg where you need to spend for upgrades,chance to upgrades, stats, less chance to destroy something etc are really annoying on the long run and they are just milking your money to become top player.

      • yep and now Ubisoft has given us a free iPad assasin’s creed game =D
        i’m diggin it, shame the cliff grind.

        on the other hand, Valve/Gaben is making a big pile of $$$$$ from TF2 and DOTA2

        VIVA SPONTANEOUS CONGA LINES AND TEAM-SWAPPING.

      • I saw the video, too. It was not an employee of Ubisoft, it was the CEO.

        Wargaming earns so much money with World of Tanks, because the target audience is exclusive. WoT attracts men between 12 and 99. This audience has a lot of money. Combined with the expensive free to play model it means jackpot.

  8. Pingback: Interview mit dem Chef von Wargaming Viktor Kislyi | WG-News

  10. WTF?!? According to Wikipedia the population of Moscow is 11 503 501 and 1 100 000 of them were playing WoT in the same time and only God knows how many more were offline by that moment ?!?
    Conclusions:
    1.Russians are damned mad bastards.
    2.Russian TV programmes are boring as hell.
    If this is in Moscow only how many are playing in the entire country?

  12. - they couldn’t find proper publishers, because existing publishers did not understand the F2P model

    It’s arguable that most publishers STILL don’t understand free-to-play (or rather, how to make free-to-play without making it pay-to-win or, even more insulting of our intelligence, pay-to-progress – No, I don’t mean premium accounts in WoT, if you’re good enough you don’t need them, I’m talking about “free-to-play” games that are designed entirely around shoving monetization in your face.)

    • it’s understandable. how many people nowadays are kind enough to give us some awesome stuff FOR FREE? I only acknowledged 3 companies:
      1) WG
      2) Valve
      3) Red 5 Studios (makers of Firefall, which will be global open in a few more days, and is totally going to rekt your computer. that game has preety insane heavy graphics)