lineus Tech tips coverage of PS 2013 is brought to you by Western Digital Intel
and steel series we've got Chris Cook director of public relations at War
gaming and they are showing off not one but two extremely exciting things here
at the show we are going to be starting
with world of war planes so give me the basic concept assume they've never heard
of wargaming they've never heard of World of Tanks they know nothing so what
we're known for as a company is freet to-play games digital um we hit it
really really well with world of Tanks 70 million registered players around the
world a completely free-to-play game that is really about taking some of the
world's most iconic tanks from the World War II era pitting them against 15
versus 15 player matches it's really fun it's been hugely successful W of War PLS
is really our next chapter in this wargaming universe same concept
completely free to play 15 versus 15 PVP
but really taking a lot of the iconic planes and and warbirds from the late
30s to the early 1950s and letting players just really get into a game have
fun and and pro prove that they got what it takes now let's go ahead let's make
it even more basic let's assume they've never heard of free to play they have no
idea what that means what is your monetization model for World of War
plans because obviously this booth wasn't free sure so what we're known for
is like you just mentioned free-to-play games or a digital download game um you
have to download a client install it on your PC but there's no cost for that and
there's no cost to play the game where we make money is um in-game monetization
we have in-game purchases one thing that really I think sets us apart and what
makes us really proud is that none of our in-game purchas purchases give you
an advantage in battle so you're buying things from us like skins and
customization things to make your your tank or plane look cooler you're buying
consumables that you use in the heat of battle that are only temporary but
nothing that you buy is going to make you better than player B or C or D we
really pride ourselves on making our games all about skill we don't want
anyone whether you're paying or you're not paying at all to feel like you're
better or you have a better Advantage anyone else okay so let's talk about
balance then so World of War PLS is obviously a completely new challenge in
terms of I mean it's a completely different type of game so uh what have
you guys done to make com combat interesting tell me the top two or top
three things well you know I think we really sped the game up you know World of Tanks is a game that's a little more
methodical a little slower a little more strategic obviously when you're in a
plane you're moving constantly so you know you're doing things that take a lot
more I guess mental recognition of the
battlefield and where all the en players are where your teammates are but you
know we've done a lot of cool things like really making sure that the geography and the environments are going
to play heavily into battle things like Canyons cities even things like clouds
and sunlight can be used by the player while they're fighting that is
incredibly cool now obviously a question that I'm sure I'm not the first person
to ask you is is there some kind of a plan to take World of Tanks and world of
warplanes and combine them into World of Tanks and warplanes and whatever else
the case may be I think maybe someday we'll look at that right now we're
really focused on getting World of War PL just done out the door on September
26th in the US and make sure that we really we build it and grow with a lot
of cool content like new modes new nations new planes down the road maybe
the real challenge is is is making sure that's it's balanced because what we
don't want is a player in a tank to get blown up by a plane that's 10,000 ft
above them and have no real way to to stop it you know what I mean we want the
experience to be great whether you're in a tank or you're in a plane or whether
you're in a warship because we have a game World of Warships coming next year
as well we want to make sure that no matter what you choose you're going to
have a fun time it's going to be balanced so we'll look at it it's it's
something that we're always looking at and definitely as you said before lots
and lots of people ask us about it so we'll see maybe a little bit further
down the line great thank you so much and uh enjoy the rest of the show cool
thanks it's been a pleasure