News from the Russian Federation: free-to-play dogfighting game War Thunder is now on Steam. It’s been eight months’ work to get it there. First pitched to Steam Greenlighters in January, War Thunder was approved in February, and Gaijin have spent the time since tweaking the game’s palette to better complement the charcoal grey of the Steam overlay.
That last bit’s a lie. Sorry. I’ll pass you over Gaijin, who’ll be happy to tell you exactly what Steam really means for War Thunder.
“Earlier this year, the amazing community on Steam was gracious enough to support War Thunder and help get us approved,” said Gaijin CEO Anton Yudintsev. “Even though War Thunder currently has more than 3 million players in Open Beta, the best way to achieve success in the PC gaming industry is to have the support of the Steam community and we are glad to be a part of it.
“We look forward to growing the War Thunder brand and Steam is the next important step in this process.”
Steam is totally au fait with free-to-play now, so you won’t need to pay anything to get started. But Gaijin have put together a Steam Pack – an £18 goodie bag (currently at a 25% discount) for those who’d rather hand over their nickels and dimes upfront.
Let’s take a look at what’s inside:
- P-36A “Hawk” fighter of lieutenant Philip M Rasmussen, one of the few American pilots who managed to take off to protect Pearl Harbor from furious attacks of Japanese planes.
- Two premium airplanes: XP-38G and A6M5 Ko “Zero”.
- Two single player campaigns: USA Pacific Campaign and Japanese Pacific Campaign that will let players experience the battles at the Pacific during 1941-1943.
- Premium account for 30 days and 1700 Golden Eagles (in-game premium currency)
War Thunder is in open beta, and is still missing the ground combat we’ve been so much looking forward to. But it’s been more than playable for months, and now has Oculus Rift support.
A question for those of you among its three million: what have we been missing?