An exclusive story on GamesIndustry.biz states that the monthly profits for the F2P title, World of Tanks, is in the "double digit millions." That is a whole lotta cheese.
The Wargames CEO, Victor Kislyi states that the game now has over 20 million registered users and as a result, the company has ballooned from just 120 employees a year and a half ago, to nearly 800 staff members around the world.
How many of those 20 million registered users are also picking up items with real world money? No specific figures were given but an estimated 25-30% of the userbase has purchased at least an item, a figure that Kislyi claims is "one of the highest payment ratios in the industry."
The game still reigns supreme in the land that it was first released in, Russia. Kislyi states that just last week, the number for concurrent users hit 423,000 just in Russia alone. That figure is a new record for the game and a number that is reportedly "1.5 times bigger than the whole user base of EVE Online." Remember, that figure was just for the number of Russian players on at once and does not include the players from all over the world also on at the same time.
Surprisingly, America is one of the slowest countries to hop onto the World of Tanks train, having just around 25,000 to 30,000 on during peak hours and roughly 500,000 registered users.
The game continues on growing with future prospects and offices all around the world. Localized versions of the game are also a luxory that the studio can afford, providing historically accurate tanks built for China, Korea, Russia, and just about anywhere that a tank was made. You can read more at GamesIndustry.biz.
The Wargames CEO, Victor Kislyi states that the game now has over 20 million registered users and as a result, the company has ballooned from just 120 employees a year and a half ago, to nearly 800 staff members around the world.
How many of those 20 million registered users are also picking up items with real world money? No specific figures were given but an estimated 25-30% of the userbase has purchased at least an item, a figure that Kislyi claims is "one of the highest payment ratios in the industry."
Kislyi, like all execs in the free-to-play space, is guarded when asked about profits from the MMO, but is happy to talk numbers in a game that doesn't have a high barrier to entry or pester the player to spend cash at every turn.
"Those would be millions of dollars [of profits] per month," he said of. "Many millions. I'm not going to give you the exact number, but double digits. Not high double digits."
"Ironically the game is not squeezing monetisation, it's not rough. There's no velvet rope over the gates and you have to buy a key to open it. Some MMOs are like this but we are not. It's smooth and non-intrusive," he insisted.
"For casual gameplay which most players do most of the time, people don't usually use gold or expendables. Of course if you want to win a tournament, if you're competitive, if you play clan wars, if you want to be at the top, we think it's appropriate to expect a little bit of money from you because you already spent hundreds of hours in our game and that's much more than the value of any $50 box. But it's still a micro transaction game, you would have to be very creative to spend $1000."
"Those would be millions of dollars [of profits] per month," he said of. "Many millions. I'm not going to give you the exact number, but double digits. Not high double digits."
"Ironically the game is not squeezing monetisation, it's not rough. There's no velvet rope over the gates and you have to buy a key to open it. Some MMOs are like this but we are not. It's smooth and non-intrusive," he insisted.
"For casual gameplay which most players do most of the time, people don't usually use gold or expendables. Of course if you want to win a tournament, if you're competitive, if you play clan wars, if you want to be at the top, we think it's appropriate to expect a little bit of money from you because you already spent hundreds of hours in our game and that's much more than the value of any $50 box. But it's still a micro transaction game, you would have to be very creative to spend $1000."
The game still reigns supreme in the land that it was first released in, Russia. Kislyi states that just last week, the number for concurrent users hit 423,000 just in Russia alone. That figure is a new record for the game and a number that is reportedly "1.5 times bigger than the whole user base of EVE Online." Remember, that figure was just for the number of Russian players on at once and does not include the players from all over the world also on at the same time.
Surprisingly, America is one of the slowest countries to hop onto the World of Tanks train, having just around 25,000 to 30,000 on during peak hours and roughly 500,000 registered users.
The game continues on growing with future prospects and offices all around the world. Localized versions of the game are also a luxory that the studio can afford, providing historically accurate tanks built for China, Korea, Russia, and just about anywhere that a tank was made. You can read more at GamesIndustry.biz.
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