Commenting on the Industry pt.1 - Wargaming.net

Editorial Staff | March 04, 2004  | 0 comments  | Print  | E-mail

Published: 04/03/2004
By: Ryan Newman

The videogame industry is an interesting one. Instead of pretending like I know much about it, I decided to ask some folks who actually do - we do, however, reserve the right to continue to gripe and complain. This is the first in a series of articles we’ll be having with developers and publishers who are either new, smaller outfits, or just not well-known in North America, comment on topics regarding the industry, including their ordeals and successes. Some will have a single title under their belt while others will have several, but we feel that all of the companies are worth taking note of due to the quality of their work. We thank the participants for their time, and we certainly hope you enjoy yourselves as well.

First up is WarGaming.net. Recently, the European-based company put out the Massive Assault. Not only did I enjoy my time with the title, but so did others as it was recently nominated for ‘Best Strategy Game of 2003′ by one of Russia’s premier online gaming publications, Absolute Games. While Massive Assault may be getting all the attention, they have also been running DBA Online for some time now. DBA, De Bellis Antiquitatis, is a tabletop wargame that uses miniatures to represent historical battles*. The company also runs the DBA online club.

Commenting on our topics below is Victor Kislyi, president of WarGaming.net. Special thanks to Nick Katselapov for the assistance. And away we go?

Wargaming.net
Commenting: Victor Kislyi (President)
Country of origin: Belarus
Number of employees: 20
Year of company’s creation: 1998
Working on: Massive Assault II (working title)

Titles Developed/Published

DBA Online (PC)

Massive Assault (PC)

Eastern Europe seems to be gaining momentum, with adventure titles leading the pack. Comment on the current state of software (gaming) development now and its future there:

Eastern Europe is not only keen on adventure games. Recent years have demonstrated that world-class strategy, FPS’s and RPG’s are made here as well. I witness that software development industry in general is boosting in the region - with many western giants opening their development centers in Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Prague, etc. The number of skilled software professionals is permanently growing. This factor is definitely a favorable one for the gaming industry development - now the Eastern game development and publishing companies are not those groups of enthusiastic students, but well-organized business-oriented enterprises. Currently I cannot see a single reason for the gaming industry in the Eastern Europe to stop growing.

Mistakes made and corrections:

Marketing. It’s definitely one of the most crucial and maybe most difficult part of the game development. You know, you need not only understand the western gamer’s needs and way of thinking, but also pay attention to the specialty of various regions. As for Wargaming.net’s Massive Assault, I wish we could work more closely with our western publishers at the earlier stages of the project, researching and elaborating on the marketing aspects of the game.

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