The niche that World of Tanks has fallen to is soon to be populated by another steel colossus. With Armored Warfare, Obsidian Entertainment plans a direct assault on Wargaming.
In the god MMO Skyforge , Obsidian Entertainment is already working in support with the Russian team Allods under the umbrella of Mail.ru to make Skyforge attractive for the West. In a second project under the aegis of Mail.ru, Obsidian now aims to launch an assault on the genre leader World of Tanks.
Armored Warfare is set to start where World of Tanks stops
In an interview with the US magazine Polygon, Feargus Urquhart, the CEO of Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas, Southpark: The Stick of Truth) lays the cards on the table: Armored Warfare will start where World of Tanks leaves off. With the Korean War.
And it will not be the only time in the interview that Urquhart mentions World of Tanks when discussing the new project Armored Warfare: “World of Tanks has basically defined its own genre, so we must ensure that our game also feels like World of Tanks. It cannot be like Call of Duty, it cannot be pure deathmatch, it needs strategic elements.”
From the strategic partnership with the Russian internet giant Mail.ru, Urquhart expects quite a bit: “They already have a player base and they can deliver us players.” But one must convince them with strong gameplay, and despite all the similarities to World of Tanks, it is important to highlight the differences of one’s own game.
For Armored Warfare, the focus will not only be on tanks but also on other aspects of warfare after World War II. There will be artillery, smoke grenades, and guided weapons. The battlefields have also evolved compared to the time period in which World of Tanks is set: In Armored Warfare, players will also fight over oil fields.
Armored Warfare is also set to bring light RPG elements
Obsidian also wants to embrace its RPG roots and incorporate them profitably: They will bring characters into the game that are tradable and have skills that can be increased, as well as tell small stories about each character and give them personality.
Armored Warfare is expected to enter beta phase in 2015, at least in Russia. Mid last year, it was stated that over 500,000 players had already signed up for the beta. The interest is clearly there.
