Source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/09/23/interview-victor-kislyi-on-wargaming-in-a-single-breath/
Thanks to Mesotronik for this one.
RPS (editor Graham Smith) released yet another interview with Wargaming CEO, Big Boss Kislyi. You can read the full version of his answers up there, but there is nothing really groundbreaking in that interview. Short version:
- Wargaming is 16 years old
- there are cca 90 million of installed copies of WoT worldwide
- the amount of WG games installed goes over 100 mil if you count WoWp and Blitz as well
- 16 offices all around the world, including Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, East Europe, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
- WG invests in the USA heavily, the offices include San Francisco publishing, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas
- in February 2014, a record was broken – 1,1 million RU players played at the same time, which is like 2 percent of the entire Russian male population
- in six years, WG grew from 60-80 people to 3500
The part about World of Warplanes is specifically interesting. Viktor Kislyi admits they did things wrong:
“We have noticed that just big size, just big financial size in one place does not necessarily guarantee automatic success at the next attempt. I’m talking about World of Warplanes.
Something we did wrong, it looks like we spent these months looking for where, analysing the players, what was right, what was wrong, we came up with some explanations and solutions and it’s going to be a couple more months and the game will be quite significantly changed with new cool additions which will fix or address the problems which we have found, but again the good news is that we are still flexible and we cannot meet mistakes and we are eager to correct them.”
- when it comes to mobile games, VK talks about the whale economy (SS: remember about that recent economy article? I mentioned it there) and explains how they specifically bar players to spend insane amounts of money on games via the free to win mechanism: even if you want to spend it, there is nothing to buy for that.
- there are 17 million Xbox gold subscribers, that can play WoT Xbox, WG “respects Microsoft decision” in this case.
Overall, I must say that Big Boss Kislyi is one of my favourite WG employees – for a game developer and CEO, he’s a really cool guy I think – not a stuck-up fucktard like Phil Fish or Derek Smart, or a total beancounter like the Activision guys. For all the morons, fuck-ups and other shit Wargaming had over the years, I think they are headed in reasonable direction.
”there are cca 90 million of installed copies of WoT worldwide”
lol, and 90% of that accounts are dead and buried. just lazy people who forgot to uninstall. stronk numbers, anyway.
Doesnt matter. Still one of the most played games in the world. No console game ever made in its launch even on two consoles at once has as many people online as WoT.
PC Master Race.
This is along the lines of an argument I used to have with a pal vs “Number 1 Record Sales”…
We generally ignore the total possible amount of consumers who can buy/get such products.
Also WoT has a LOT of duplicated accounts. I know people that re-rolled 3-4 times, These are all counted.
90 million installed is impressive, but I would hazard a guess that “unique” installs are probably closer to 20 million (And that would still be highly impressive!).
Also, WoT is not “Launching”, It’s far from a new product. So you cant compare a “Launch Product” to it. Tetris (More RU games!) probably has in excess of 150 million unique installs. Mario Brothers 1, Minecraft, and a couple of other games come to mind.. But I would be reluctant to include Minecraft (with numbers published) as people purchase it for multiple platforms.
No it’s probably closer to 70-80 million unique accounts. A drop from 90 million to 20 million for those reasons is pretty ridiculous.
I believe you may be misinterpreting what they mean. You seam to be referring to player accounts, not installed copies of the game client which is what they are counting. It sounds to me that WG is talking about the number of times that the game client has been downloaded, which will also be wrong since someone may have to re-download the game. Please correct me if I’m wrong on the whole “game client v.s. player account”
And how is that not true of every game out there?
I like that part when he admits that WoWp is broken. It is fun for some minority of the playerbase, but it isn’t done right for the large playerbase. Specifically because there you move in 3D space. It’s a LOT more complicated than 2D space like WoT or WoWs. This is a big aspect they underestimated. I hope they can fix this mistakes, primarily because I love airplanes and warplanes.
”WG invests in the USA heavily, the offices include San Francisco publishing, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas”
i fell a steep and painful downfall for WG.
the popcorn box is prepared, can’t miss the moment.
https://i.imgur.com/U5gLbt3.gif
”there are 17 million Xbox gold subscribers, that can play WoT Xbox, WG “respects Microsoft decision” in this case”
of course, if you are a crap-shit developer, you’ll respect everything.
I sense butthurt
If you “respect” X’s decision while in an interview, and while you’re still working with X, it usually means the contrary.
Contrary: (Adj.) Opposite in nature, direction, or meaning.
I felt like I had to emphasize that for someone of your, ahem, intellect.
EA says Hello.
Every company has its ups and downs,failures and successes.
We are all waiting for World of Warships.
that will be a huge fiasco, just like the planes.
WG may piss people off with the way they run their business and the game, but I would much rather be playing this than running around killing 20 bears to give the pelts to a ogre in Warcraft, attempting to find actual gameplay in Eve or being basecamped in a multitude of FPS.
I like shooting stuff in tanks and so do all of you, so hoping for their downfall or the company failing is counter-productive for yourselves. Perspective needed.
Well said
Most fps’ l dont let people spawn in a close proximity to enemy players,never played eve, warcraft looks and plays like shit, wot simply looks like shit, but they have a pretty good game going there. I personally think that gaijin will win with WT because look how well optimized, pretty, good it is and look how much money to people are throwing at it. It has everything WoT has but better most of he time. I do like VK tho. Hes a good guy.
WT and WoT can’t actually be compared to each other. Ground Forces isn’t doing nearly as well as their planes game, primarily due to the uninhibited bias towards russian tanks the game currently has. It’s horrific how bad it is. The germans get top tier tanks in the KT and JT, while the Russians get the IS-4?
WTGF is a quasi-simulator (it isn’t really, but tries to make itself out to be one) for people who want to play tanks without playing World of Tanks. World of tanks is a competitive armored vehicle shooter that actually believes in a thing called “Game Balance”. They aren’t perfect about it, but they’re a hell of a lot better off than Gaijin.
cool…
When will be that stream with SerB or somebody ?
GOD FORBID, NOT SERB.
IT’S MIKHAIL ZHIVETS. AKA STORM.
Stronk wergayming piepul…
Nah, the entire Slavic gaming industry is doomed as long as bastards like SerB are still alive…
The entire Anglo-Saxon gaming industry is doomed as long as fuckheads like Robert Kotick are there.
Also, Anita & Zoe.
*trumpets of doom can be heard*
Expecting another big failure like ’89, comrade? X)
If it kills Activision and EA, it can only be a good thing.
Some of best games of all times come from non western area:Commandos behind enemy lines,Operation flashpoint,World of tanks!
Operation Flashpoint is one big damn good game, but sadly, ArmA has taken the lead from it.
Commandos was made by Pyro and they are from Spain. That’s fairly western to me.
*Looks at World of Tanks as one of the most played games of all time*
*Looks at GSC, the developers of STALKER*
*Looks at the tech gods at 4A Games*
*Looks at Vostok and Gaijin and Haemimont*
Looks like they are pretty damn fine overall. It is overpriced and over marketed Piece of shit AAA western devs that worry me more.
And don’t forget CD Projekt Red, the polish creators of The Witcher (based on a polish writer’s work).
How could I forget… stupid me…
*sees WoT as one of the worst games in terms of player quality*
*sees GSC’s CEO as one big fucking bastard, no better than goons at Retard-vision*
*feels the absence of Metro 2034*
*ingores the other makers, since they’re simply trying to survive*
Did I make myself clear, Alex?
*Player quality decreases with SIZE of playerbase. NOTHING can be done here. In fact, considering that WOT has MORE players then CoD and has a better community, things are good here*
*So? Game was a financial success and is still unsurpassed in terms of quality and community*
*Metro: Last Light is what you mean and is based on the yet unreleased Metro 2035. It was released a year ago. Metro 2034, the book, has nothing to do with it and will be EXTREMELY hard to adapt as a game*
*Not really, they are all doing QUITE well overall.*
Add CD PROJECT Red too.
All I see from Western AND Japanese devs is SHIT coding and overpriced and overmarketed stuff. Not saying all is bad, but I cant excuse technological incompetence and artificially inflated budgets.
Did you even read Metro 2034?
[SPOILER AHEAD]
Even Last Light was a big stretch and I don’t know how D. G will make 2035, since good ol’ Artyomka fricking died in 2034.
…
Metro 2034 was translated in Bulgarian BEFORE the first game came out. Ive read it before you probably read even 2033.
ARTYOM DID NOT DIE IN 2034! That is A DIFFERENT Artyom! It is a POPULAR name in Russia.
Read The Gospel According to Artyom.
Metro 2035 is the book to Metro Last Light.
No need to go all hipster on me.
And man.
There must be a lot of Artyoms in the metro who killed an entire race from the botanical garden.
The guy who got shot at the end IS our Artyom!
His past is mentioned a lot of times.
Read it again.
There is a reference to Artyom FROM 2033 that has gone back to Exhibition.
There is ANOTHER Artyom in the plagued station. A different one. There are many Alexanders, there are almost as many Artyoms.
Here, read this too by Glukhovski:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF4B95YHWZw
Metro 2035 is coming this December. The novel on which Last Light is based on.
Also:
http://metrovideogame.wikia.com/wiki/Artyom
“In Metro 2034, there is another character called Artyom. Although he shares the name of Metro 2033′s protagonist, he is a completely different character and of no relation to the first Artyom.”
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Speaking of activision, manuel noriega is suing activision for him being the ortrayed as a bad guy in ablack ops 2. 80 stain to humanity in his panamanian jail cell mad about being a bad guy in COD. lol…
Noriega is still alive? Tch, he should have been thrown out to sea to be shark food.
I really only played for 2-3 hours, since Black Ops 2 was steaming pile of shit, but that guy seemed to me like the only good guy in the whole thing >_>
Yea Viktor Kislyi is a good man. One of those people that never forgot from where they started. I respect him too. God bless you all!
Yes, because he with his dad I believe, started the company with same vision, to create games, the games/company is their legacy that’s why he is one of the cool CEO guy, but once you appoint another CEO specially from other shareholders and only wants profit, that would be the time their games will suck badly