As part of the ongoing sixth birthday celebrations for Wargaming’s World of Tanks Blitz, PowerUp! had the pleasure of speaking with Publishing Director Natalia Pershyts. Pershyts joined Wargaming more than six years ago and is experienced in World of Tanks Clan Wars on PC.
As Publishing Director for World of Tanks Blitz, Pershyts is responsible for the delivery of the game and publishing activities on a global scale. Her day to day is focused on collaborative marketing and communication as well as working on new ways to innovate and connect with the audience.
Below is our conversation rgearding World of Tanks Blitz and its six years of release.
World of Tanks Blitz
PowerUp! – How has WOT Blitz changed and evolved in the 6 years since launch?
Natalia Pershyts – Over a period of six years, a lot of things have changed and that’s especially true in gaming. As in our case, we’ve expanded to over 137m installs, launched our game on new platforms (such as Windows 10, macOS, Steam) and decided to really push the boundaries.
Three years ago, the game had proven itself to be a smash hit and top-class mobile shooter. It sounds great, but we felt like this was our highest point. We found ourselves at a crossroads and we had to make a decision; continue what we were doing and see how long it would last, or do something different and experiment with what our players loved about the game.
We obviously chose the latter and as a result, we’ve created thrilling game modes (such as Mad Games, Gravity Mode and more), partnered with well-known artistic talents (Peter Pound, Brett Parson and Kunio Okawara) and explored brand-new universes, like Girls und Panzer, Warhammer 40K and Valkyria Chronicles.
PowerUp! – WOT Blitz released on Windows 10, macOS and Steam. Do WOT, Mercenaries and Blitz all co-exist peacefully or do they cannibalise each other?
Pershyts – Despite sharing a common theme of armoured vehicular combat, the audiences for each of the games want different things. That’s not to say there’s no overlap, because there is; our players want to experiment and try all the games we put out.
But they are different games, built on different engines, custom-tailored to different audiences. As a result, we can all peacefully coexist, if you don’t include what goes on on the battlefield.
PowerUp! – Blitz has been successful as an esport. What makes it so fun to play/watch professionally?
Pershyts – Blitz is a team-based competitive game to the core. It’s the very foundation we’re built on. This is what makes it such a spectacular show when it comes to esports. We’ve also found that players like to watch the battles to understand what the professional players are doing in terms of tactics, loadouts and playstyles.
Taking a closer look at our annual grand event, The Twister Cup, it’s been a great success. Over the four years of its existence, it’s been gaining more traction each year and the prize fund has grown to $100,000. Last year, we hosted a seven-hour stream for the event and amassed over 2.6m views, with 30k concurrent viewers. It’s remarkable when you think the game started as a mobile tank shooter. And we’re planning to make future Twister Cups even bigger and better!
Our grand event and our esports scene give us a real feeling of just how big and international our game is. Representatives from several regions have taken home the Twister Cup. And an interesting fact: a lot of our pro players meet each other for the first time when they compete at this event.
PowerUp! – Where it WOT Blitz headed in the next decade?
Pershyts – We look to the future, but a decade is a long time. With the sheer speed that the mobile gaming industry is growing and developing, it’s hard to look that far ahead, and we see ourselves as an evolutionary game, so we’re prepared to move with the times.
As for the near future, we have a special game mode coming next month: Skirmish. Taking place on smaller maps with fewer players on each side, the battles are going to be even more intense with a pinch of hecticness. Then to look even further, we will soon be introducing the first-ever Swedish vehicles.
PowerUp! – Is Blitz a good place to start playing World of Tanks?
Pershyts – World of Tanks Blitz and World of Tanks on PC are two totally different games; just because you have a 60% win rate in Blitz, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll perform as well on PC. While the overall concepts are the same, Blitz tactics are different to those on PC.
But in general, World of Tanks Blitz is a great game for those looking to get into mobile gaming, or simply those who are in search of something new to play on the go. It’s free-to-play, you can play it any time, any place and our dynamic battles will keep you wanting more.
Additionally, we recently released Update 7.0 which improved the graphics somewhat and they’ll be automatically optimized for the device you play on, whether that’s your laptop, your computer or your mobile device.
Thanks to Natalia Pershyts for her time.
