You know what’s wrong with society today? You might cite perpetual economic recession or fecklessness, but it’s neither of those (I'll level with you: I don't know what that last one is). It’s that there simply aren’t nearly enough good excuses to talk about tanks. That’s why Wargaming.net have poured £80,000 into a new education centre at Europe’s biggest tank museum in Bovington, England.
Victor Kislyi saved Gas Powered Games. Not a moment too soon, and perhaps a few too late, the Wargaming CEO stepped in to offer the onetime Supreme Commander developers a future, and the opportunity to rehire some of the staff founder Chris Taylor had been forced to let go during the disastrous Wildman Kickstarter campaign.
The match is a good’un - but under its new management, it seems GPG’s PC-only days are over.
World of Tanks creators Wargaming.net have today announced an iOS and Android-based spinoff, built from the ground up for mobile devices but “inspired" by its PC parent game.
Wargaming.net, the developers behind the enormously successful MMO World of Tanks and the forthcoming World of Warplanes, has bought the struggling studio Gas Powered Games. GPG recently cancelled their Kickstarter for Wildman, which didn't look like it was going to make its target, and in an emotional Kickstarter update a few days before, studio head Chris Taylor explained that he'd had to lay off the majority of his team.
Wargaming haven't yet revealed how much they purchased GPG for, but Taylor will remain with the business. "Wargaming's growth in recent years has been tremendous, and we're looking forward to joining one of the fastest growing gaming companies in the world," he said, in a short statement.
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Wargaming.net suffered an expensive disappointment earlier this month, but Victor Kislyi and co. haven’t lost their taste for spending just yet. The World of Tanks developers today announced the acquisition of Chicago’s Day 1 Studios for a cool $20m.
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting the extraordinarily resourceful team of people who will, in January, begin an archaeological dig in Myanmar for what they estimate is at least 36 Spitfires. Apparently, the planes were disassembled and buried in waterproof crates in 1945 and have never been seen since, and surveys of the area suggest there's definitely something big and metallic down there just waiting to be dug up. Wargaming are funding the expedition and today they've launched the project's official blog.
While I was speaking with Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi about his funding of
what could well turn out to be a historic dig for dozens of Spitfires
buried in Myanmar, we took a few moments to share his “winning strategy"
for one of his favourite tanks and maps. I’m not entirely sure that
this will work if you try it, but nevertheless, here’s how to win in
Himmelsdorf, according to the man behind World of Tanks. We’re hereby
dubbing his (slightly lunatic) strategy: THE KISLYI MANEUVER.
There's usually a tank and a tank destroyer hulking in the foyer of the Imperial War Museum but, for reasons unknown, they're not there right now and so I find myself stood on the balcony above with Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming, staring down at an empty space.
Both of us wonder where they've gone, neither of us have an answer. There's a school trip going on and as a couple of girls meander through the void below, Kislyi forlornly asks, "Why? Why are these young ladies not exposed to the beauty of tracked vehicles?"
I am not sure what to say.
The last time we met Wargaming.net, the slightly adorable madmen behind World of Tanks, Battleships and Warplanes, we had a chance to chat about their plans to unite the games under one online service. While the plans are still under-development the team are talking of shared XP pools, shared medals, and more. 
Wargaming.net haven’t announced a release date for World of Warplanes yet. That’s because they’ll only ship “when it’s ready", and it’ll only be ready once they’ve perfected the controls. And that’s reportedly pretty hard work. Until then nobody’s turning off the money tap, says CEO Victor Kislyi.
In 1945, US soldiers boxed up a squadron of Spitfires and buried them in Burma. The planes were tarred and waxed against decay and placed into crates in pieces, to prevent discovery by the enemy. Two weeks later, however, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the planes were forgotten.
Makers of World of Tanks Wargaming have announced that they've acquired BigWorld for $45m, a purchase ooh-ed and ahhh-ed by tank lovers, server lovers, and tank & server lovers the world over.
Surrounded by a hundred or so tanks, and a few dozen of his most Tank-obsessive fans, Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming.net had a few choice words to say about the state of subscription MMOs in an interview with PCGamesN. His thesis: that the business of games is being eaten alive by the free-to-play mode. “Boxed is dying off, and by that I mean consoles too, and subscription," said Victor. “Because what is a subscription but buying a box again?"
If you're a tank lover, then the UK's Tankfest is an absolute haven of ultraviolence. I've been one year (we hired a Sherman - don't ask me how much it cost) and spent a weekend on a farm surrounded by a hundred years of armoured killing machines. This year, for the second year running, World of Tanks is sponsoring the show. 
A free-to-play game purely about slow-moving ancient vehicles may not sound like the recipe for a hit game, but the spoonerism-inducing World of Tanks has attracted millions of players around the world. But how, exactly, has it captured the hearts and minds of a generation raised on Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft?
