War Thunder

War Thunder
Cover art for the PlayStation 4
Developer(s)Gaijin Entertainment
Publisher(s)Gaijin Entertainment
Composer(s)
Platform(s)
Release
August 15, 2013
  • Windows
    • WW: August 15, 2013[1]
  • PlayStation 4
  • OS X
    • WW: April 17, 2014[4]
  • Linux
    • WW: November 6, 2014[5]
  • Android
    • WW: June 2, 2015[6]
  • Official release
    • WW: December 21, 2016[7]
  • Xbox One
Genre(s)Action, vehicular combat, combat flight simulator
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

War Thunder is a 2013 free-to-play vehicular combat multiplayer video game produced by Gaijin Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Oculus, and Vive. It was first released in November 2012 as an open beta with a worldwide release in January 2013; it had its official release on December 21, 2016.[11][7] A spinoff game called War Thunder Mobile (also known as War Thunder Edge[12]) was released in 2023 for Android and iOS.

Developed as a "flying simulation game", it was previously named War Thunder: World of Planes,[13] but due to its similarity with Wargaming's World of Warplanes, it was changed to its present name in 2012.[14][15] Initially, Gaijin claimed after the game was announced that it was an April Fools joke before confirming its existence in June that same year.[16]

War Thunder won several awards following its release, winning Best Simulation Game at the Gamescom 2013 Awards as well as winning Best Game, Best Developer, Best Technology and Best Sound at the KRI 2013 Awards.[17][18] In 2019, War Thunder was among the most played games on Steam with over 25,000 concurrent players.[19][a] As of November 1, 2022, War Thunder had over 70 million registered players on all platforms combined, out of which 160,000 play concurrently.[20] In February 2024, War Thunder set a new record of over 250,000 concurrent players.[21]

  1. ^ "War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game for Windows, Linux, Mac and PlayStation®4 dedicated to aviation, armoured vehicles, and naval craft from World War II and the Cold War". Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  2. ^ "War Thunder PlayStation®4 launch in North America". Warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  3. ^ "War Thunder for Playstation®4 is out!". Warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  4. ^ "Mac client launch!". Warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  5. ^ a b "War Thunder is now available on Linux!". Warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  6. ^ "War Thunder on NVIDIA® SHIELD™". Warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  7. ^ a b "War Thunder is now released!". warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020. We are proud to announce the official release of our game. As we have completed all the goals we set ourselves in the early stages of development, the open beta-testing of War Thunder ends with update 1.65 'Way of the Samurai', an update which also brings Japanese ground forces, cockpits for all aircraft, and heaps of improvements and bugfixes.
  8. ^ a b "[News] War Thunder to be released on Xbox One and Xbox One X!". Warthunder.com. Archived from the original on 2017-11-19. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  9. ^ a b "Vehicle combat MMO 'War Thunder' launches on Xbox One". Windows Central. 2018-06-19. Archived from the original on 2018-06-19. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  10. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (14 May 2013). "War Thunder Is Headed to the PlayStation 4". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  11. ^ Stapleton, Dan (9 June 2011). "No joke: World of Planes flight sim MMO is real". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  12. ^ GamingLyfe.com (2022-11-16). "Military action Online Game War Thunder Edge Prepares for Beta". GamingLyfe.com - Gaming News, Esports News, Gaming Community. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
  13. ^ War Thunder - Beta Launch Trailer, 30 March 2012, retrieved 2023-05-10
  14. ^ Papadopoulos, John (7 March 2012). "World of Planes renamed to War Thunder: World of Planes; new screenshots released". Dark Side of Gaming. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020. There was a lot of confusion between Gaijin's World of Planes and Wargaming.net's World of Warplanes. Thankfully, Gaijin decided to rename their title and it's now called War Thunder: World of Planes.
  15. ^ Reahard, Jef (17 June 2011). "Gaijin announces World of Planes MMO". Engadget. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2020. Gaijin's press release calls World of Planes a 'flying simulation game', and the company will be drawing on its previous genre experience thanks to titles like Wings of Prey and Wings of Luftwaffe.
  16. ^ Stapleton, Dan (9 June 2011). "No joke: World of Planes flight sim MMO is real". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020. They all laughed back on April 4, when PC Gamer posted a story on World of Planes, an exciting massively multiplayer WWII flight sim from Wings of Prey developer Gaijin Entertainment ... which Gaijin revealed on their forums to be a joke. Yeah yeah, we fell for it. Very funny. Well, who's laughing now? That's right: Gaijin checked in today to say that World of Planes [update: not to be confused with Wargaming.net's just-announced World of Warplanes] is not, in fact, an April Fools joke, but a real game about planes and the wonderful world they fly in.
  17. ^ "Gamescom 2013 Awards – Best Simulation". PSU. 27 August 2013. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2020. The Winner – War Thunder: The demo of the PlayStation 4 launch title War Thunder was lauded at Gamescom 2013 for its explosive World War II aerial battles.
  18. ^ "War Thunder gets KRI awards!". warthunder.com. Gaijin Entertainment. 19 May 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020. War Thunder gets four prizes of the Russia's biggest gaming conference KRI 2013 (Russian Game Developer's Conference)! War Thunder and Gaijin Entertainment have been awarded in four nominations of KRI 2013: Best Game, Best Game Developer, Best Technology, Best Sound.
  19. ^ Palumbo, Alessio (27 December 2019). "Steam Reveals Top Selling and Most Played Games of 2019". wccftech.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2020. Most Played Steam Games - Over 25K Concurrent Players: War Thunder
  20. ^ "'War Thunder' Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary With New Content, Freebies And Activities". WorthPlaying. Archived from the original on 2022-11-14. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  21. ^ Hussain, Mudassir (2024-02-15). "Gaijin Entertainment Plans To Release Five Major War Thunder Updates Per Year". eXputer.com. Retrieved 2024-02-15.


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