The “little brother” of World of Tanks, World of Tanks Blitz, is played differently in various regions. Our MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn spoke with the game’s Publishing Product Director and learned that Russians play differently than Americans or Western Europeans.
What is World of Tanks Blitz? World of Tanks Blitz is essentially the well-known tank MMO World of Tanks, but optimized for mobile devices. As in the “original”, here a team of tanks fights against another tank team. However, battles in Blitz are much quicker, as the battlefields and teams are smaller.
Additionally, players unlock progress and new vehicles faster and are regularly presented with fun events. World of Tanks Blitz started in 2014 as a pure mobile game on iOS. Nowadays, it can also be played on a multitude of Android devices, Windows 10, and on Steam. And all of this with crossplay and cross-progression on a single account.
Whom did I speak with? As part of our major project “Find your Next Game,” we already had a large special on WoT Blitz and its 6th anniversary. For this, the developer Wargaming provided us with an interview with Natalia Pershyts, the Publishing Product Director of World of Tanks Blitz.
We asked Natalia, among other things, how the development went, what the biggest challenges were, and if there were differences in usage and playstyle of the game in different regions.
This is how WoT Blitz plays around the world – Differences and similarities
MeinMMO: What device do most players use to play Blitz? Are there regional differences?
Natalia Pershyts: World of Tanks Blitz is predominantly played on mobile devices, and more members of our community play on Android. This makes sense, as more devices support Android and they are often less costly.
However, the game can be comfortably played on any device that is supported. It features functionality that automatically determines the necessary settings for each device.
MeinMMO: What is the target audience for Blitz and why?
Natalia Pershyts: Those looking for a PvP action shooter that is more casual would be just right with World of Tanks Blitz.
MeinMMO: So who is the typical player of Blitz?
Natalia Pershyts: On a base level: A married man aged between 25 and 35, who mainly plays at home in the afternoons.
But World of Tanks Blitz has an extremely diverse audience: a mix of young and older players with a variety of interests and hobbies. In Europe, we have both players under 17 and players over 50. However, the average age is 31 years. And of course, the audience is predominantly male, but we also have female players!
The average daily session lasts 110 minutes, but this mainly depends on the environment at the time the game starts. There are different gaming behaviors and patterns. Some people play 1 or 2 battles while commuting to or from work, while others have a long session consisting of several battles, and this is their way to relax for the day.
And of course, there are also cultural differences in gaming. When comparing the CIS with North America and Europe, a significant difference is that players in the CIS care more about their combat performance, while players in the West participate in the battles more for enjoyment and recreation.
MeinMMO: Do “Blitzers” stay among themselves, or do they overlap significantly with regular WoT players?
Natalia Pershyts: To put it simply, we are two different products that share a common theme. Therefore, it is only natural that there are some overlaps. But over time, we see a trend towards a decrease in overlap. The communities on the different platforms are diverse, and this is also reflected in our games.
Those who play Blitz seek more “pick up and play” quick battles, while our PC brother focuses more on tactics. We would probably say that World of Tanks Blitz targets a mid-core to casual audience, which means we can push the boundaries even further!
Development and Challenges with WoT Blitz
MeinMMO: Tell us how the project has evolved over the years. How did it become a full-fledged PC game after starting out as a mobile game?
Natalia Pershyts: Eight years ago, with the huge boom of World of Tanks PC, we had the idea to make its engaging gameplay accessible to more people by making World of Tanks available on mobile phones.
During development, we immediately understood that the PC gameplay simply does not work on mobile devices and is not really what the mobile gaming audience is seeking. For this reason, we had to create an experience tailored to the mobile market; mainly, we had to make the gameplay a bit faster, hence the name
