War Thunder
Developed as a "flying simulation game", it was previously named War Thunder: World of Planes, but due to its similarity with Wargaming's World of Warplanes, it was changed to its present name in 2012. Initially, Gaijin claimed after the game was announced that it was an April Fools joke before confirming its existence in June that same year.
War Thunder won several awards following its release, winning Best Simulation Game at the Gamescom 2013 Awards as well as winning Best Game, Best Developer, Best Technology and Best Sound at the KRI 2013 Awards. In 2019, War Thunder was among the most played games on Steam with over 25,000 concurrent players. As of November 1, 2022, War Thunder had over 70 million registered players on all platforms combined, out of which 160,000 play concurrently. In February 2024, War Thunder set a new record of over 250,000 concurrent players.
Gameplay
War Thunder is based around combined arms battles on air, land, and sea. Vehicles range from pre-World War I (ships only) to modern day, with an emphasis on World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Players can control aircraft, ground vehicles, and warships from ten nations with a set of technology trees attached to them: United States, Germany, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, Italy, China, Sweden and Israel. The game also incorporates other nations, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Syria, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Vietnam (both North and South) and Saudi Arabia. These nations are included either as "sub-trees" (parts of the research trees of bigger nations being dedicated to a smaller nation) or premium vehicles, purchasable with real money or in-game currency.
Vehicles are divided into three main categories: aviation, ground, and fleet, while game modes are divided between arcade, realistic, and simulator. Aviation is divided between fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, fleet is divided between "Bluewater", ships from the size of destroyers to battlecruisers and battleships and "Coastal", smaller ships and boats such as motor torpedo boats, motor gunboats, submarine chasers, and frigates. A single-player mode that focuses on historical battles, and a co-op wave survival mode for battling AI ground vehicles and aircraft, are also available.
Events
Events in War Thunder provide custom missions, usually based on one of the three main game modes, but with alternative settings regarding allowed vehicles, mission specifics, etc. Examples are the recreation of historical battles by restricting available vehicles (e.g., Battle of Britain).
Traditionally, the developers prepare unconventional events for April Fools' Day. These events are used to test planned game mechanics before their broader release to the player base.
- For 2015, a new game mode called "Unrealistic Battles" featured inflatable rubber tanks firing potatoes and carrots. The "tanks" also had overall hitpoints instead of the usual separate modules, parodying the gameplay of World of Tanks, a competitor to War Thunder.
- For 2016, ahead of the announcement of the naval forces update, War Thunder offered playable 18th-century sailing ships fighting in the Caribbean.
- For 2017, War Thunder made playable rank IX main battle tanks and attack helicopters. Available vehicles were the Leopard 2A5, AH-64 Apache (Designated as GM-64 and operated by Germany in-game), Gepard, T-90A, Mi-35 Hind-E and ZSU-23-4 Shilka.
- The 2018 event, named "Silent Thunder", was based underwater, with submarines.
- The 2019 event, named "Earth Thunder", took place in a fictional American city named "Green Hills" and had players use UFOs.
- In 2020, Gaijin changed the name of the game to "Space Thunder", featuring space battles.
- In 2021, Gaijin held 2 events, "Tailspin" and "Warfare 2077". Tailspin was a game mode that took place on a map called "Cape Somerset Bay" that had a cartoon art style. Players took control of new planes belonging to the "Republic of Air Pirates" faction. Warfare 2077 was a futuristic game mode that took place on the "Launch Facility" map and allowed the players to take control of futuristic tanks and unmanned aerial vehicles, teasing the September 2022 addition of drones to the game.
- In 2022, Gaijin introduced a Dune-inspired game mode called "Worm Thunder: Children of Arachis" which involved two factions fighting over cinnamon in the desert while also avoiding being eaten by a giant sandworm.
- In 2023, Gaijin introduced "Mobile Infantry", an event involving battles involving infantry wearing combat exoskeletons, main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and attack helicopters. Two nations were playable in the conflict, being the United States and Russia. There were several types of playable exoskeletons, which included: Assault exoskeletons (Fitted with a high-caliber machinegun and 2 ATGM launchers), Sniper exoskeletons (Fitted with a 30mm anti-material sniper rifle and 2 disposable rocket launchers), ATGM operator exoskeletons (Fitted with 2 ATGM launchers and an 8.6mm caliber machine gun) and MANPADS operator exoskeletons (Fitted with a MANPADS launcher system and high-caliber machinegun). The other playable vehicles were the M1A2 SEP Abrams/T-80BVM, M3A3 Bradley/BMP-3, and AH-64D Apache Longbow/Mi-28N Havoc. The event was the first time fire-and-forget ATGMs were featured in the game, as the ATGM operator for the US side was fitted with Spike missiles. Fire-and-forget ATGMs were later added to the main game with the Chinese QN506 IFV, released as part of an accompanying event.
- In 2024, Gaijin introduced "Mad Max" style vehicles partially based of Gaijin's other game Crossout. The event was called "Mad Thunder". "Mad Thunder" gameplay included "you can find ancient electronics, scrap metal, vehicle parts and armor parts, which are all needed to improve your combat vehicles and to craft new ones."
Other notable examples include "March to Victory", introducing playable mecha composed of tank parts; "The Pony Nation", introducing the world of My Little Pony, Equestria, as a sixth playable faction (2013); and "Gaijilla", featuring a battle against a giant Godzilla-like snail (2014).
In August 2020, the game had a tank biathlon-style event featuring select Russian and Chinese tanks performing tasks on a tank range map, with the objective to finish in 1st place after navigating obstacles and destroying targets. The event was partnered with the Information Systems Department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Logos advertising the game also appeared during the event, notably painted on the side of the tanks during the real biathlon. The event was teased on August 17 with a YouTube video posted to the game's official YouTube Channel, as well as on the official website.