Wargaming creates new IP with UK studio

Although Wargaming has 17 offices around the world, it’s the UK office that the world needs to be paying attention to.

Last year the Guildford branch of Wargaming was formed, and after the acquisition of Edge Case Games, a local indie developer, opened their doors for the first time earlier this month. This is the office working on the company’s first major internally-developed IP since 2011, when World of Tanks launched.

Over the last few years, Wargaming has published a number of third-party games, including Pagon Online, Hybrid Wars, and Master of Orion, and there are new games in the works at many of their other studios. However, these projects are all based on realistic warfare, whereas what the Guildford office is working on is something completely different.

Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming, explains that while the current portfolio of ‘World of’ games have definitely cornered the market in some regions, there’s room for expansion into the western market, areas such as the UK, France, and other parts of western Europe. Kislyi went on to describe how the company’s new IP is action-based, and will be something that captures the market’s attention, with big fight scenes and Hollywood style action.

Sean Decker, UK Studio Director, described how this new IP is going to take a niche and make it more mainstream. The target audiences are those gamers who play Overwatch, League of Legends, and Fortnite, arguably the largest audiences out there. Decker also used Apex Legends as an example of what this new IP aims to do, solving issues, such as communication with other random players in Apex Legends through button prompts, where they are present in the most popular games on the planet.

The new IP, like all of the ‘World of’ games, will be a hobby game. Players have been enjoying World of Tanks for ten years now, and that’s the sort of investment that Wargaming wants for their new game. Thanks to the wealth of experience that Wargaming has from World of Tanks alone, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to create something new that gamers want to invest a significant amount of time into.

What form this new IP will take is still up in the air. One thing is for sure though, the game will almost certainly release for next-generation consoles like the Xbox Series X. If Wargaming is looking for a ten-year investment from players, they need to be producing a game that’s on the latest hardware, offering the best visuals possible at the time. This is a tall order, but if anyone can do it, it’s Wargaming.