2017|alt= The developers thought of the concept of
World of Tanks in December 2008. The game was officially announced by
Wargaming on 24 April 2009. Developers claim that the game budget was the largest ever in the game industry of the
CIS. Alpha testing of the Russian version of the game began September 2009, with only six different vehicles and a single map available. By the beginning of the closed beta test, which started on 30 January 2010, several dozen vehicles and three maps were completed. In three months, the number of beta tester requests approached 40,000, and over 400,000 tank battles took place. Open beta test of the Russian version started 24 June 2010; at that point, there were seven maps available, along with over 60 Russian and German vehicles. Closed beta test of English version of the game began on 8 July 2010. The Russian version of the game was officially released on 12 August 2010; however, due to technical difficulties, the game servers went offline on 13 August. The
open beta of the English version of the game was launched on 27 January 2011; the official release was scheduled for 12 April 2011. The
World of Tanks pre-orders were scheduled to be available for the American and European clusters before the game release.
World of Tanks was released online on 12 April 2011 in Europe and North America, before being released for retail in the latter on 6 September 2011, and in the former on 2 December 2011. The game was localised into the Japanese language within the Asia server on 5 September 2013. The Vietnamese server was shut down and merged into the Asia server during 2014.
Promotion and other media 2017 In April 2016, Wargaming announced that a comic book based on the
World of Tanks universe was in development. Titled
World of Tanks: Roll Out, the five-issue series was written by
Garth Ennis and
Carlos Ezquerra and was published by
Dark Horse Comics. The Japanese version has collaboration events related to the tank-battle
anime series
Girls und Panzer; by 2021 these events were extended to the other languages and servers. As of June 2017, Wargaming released two premium tanks based on the anime series
Valkyria Chronicles on the East Asia server. Six voice packs featuring the characters from the anime and an expansion pack changing the tanks' look have also been released. In August 2017, Wargaming and
World of Tanks announced a collaboration with the Swedish metal band
Sabaton, shooting a
World of Tanks drive-style video for Sabaton's song "
Primo Victoria", and adding a tank named "Primo Victoria" to the game. This featured the Sabaton logo, with its crew having the visual likenesses of Sabaton members, and lead singer
Joakim Brodén voicing the captain of the tank. In July 2020, the console version partnered with the
WWE to produce in-game content, such as vehicles, related to various WWE wrestlers, such as
Becky Lynch,
Stone Cold Steve Austin,
Sgt. Slaughter, and others. Later that year, this version also partnered with Mattel, makers of the
Hot Wheels brand to create various Hot Wheels-themed content.
World of Tanks console and PC both collaborated with the makers of
G.I. Joe to release in-game cosmetics that would make certain tanks resemble GI Joe vehicles, and exclusively on console, a playable version of two armored fighting vehicles from the
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series, the M.O.B.A.T. and the H.I.S.S.
World of Tanks Blitz In March 2013, Wargaming announced
World of Tanks Blitz, a mobile version of
World of Tanks for tablets and smartphones using
Windows 10,
Android and
iOS. The game allows 7v7 battles, as compared to the 15v15 battles on PC. The Closed Beta Test (CBT) started on 19 March and ended 3 April.
World of Tanks Blitz was released (on iOS only) in May 2014 in European countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, with all other countries, at the time, awaiting launch. It was released on 27 June 2014 in North America (again, on iOS only). Beta testing of the Android version was released in Russia, with
World of Tanks Blitz being released worldwide later on 4 December 2014. The game was released in the
Windows Store on 28 December 2015, making it available for PC users running Windows 10. On 9 November 2016,
World of Tanks Blitz was released on Steam.
Console versions World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition was developed with
Wargaming West, formerly Day 1 Studios until purchased early in 2013. Day 1 was looking for a publisher for their console
mech game when Wargaming asked the studio about porting World of Tanks. Playing the game earns experience for tanks and accessories, and silver for buying tanks and equipment. The game was officially announced during
Microsoft's E3 2013 press event. The beta was for
stress testing the servers and multiplayer matchmaking. The beta closed on 28 January 2014. All stats on all of the players who participated were reset. The people who participated in the beta got the game first when the full version came out on 12 February 2014. On 18 February 2015, Wargaming announced that they were developing an
Xbox One version of the game. The game was released on 28 July 2015. It supports cross-platform play between Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Players' status and progress can be transferred from the Xbox 360 version to the Xbox One version. Xbox Live regulations bar Wargaming from offering premium accounts as recurring subscriptions. On 17 September 2015, Wargaming announced at the
Tokyo Game Show that
World of Tanks would be coming to the
PlayStation 4, developed by Wargaming West, the same studio as the Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions. The PlayStation 4 version was released in 2016. On 21 July 2020 at 00:00
UTC, the Xbox 360 version of the game was shut down and support ceased, making the game no longer playable. Accounts and progress on the Xbox 360 game can be transferred to the Xbox One version. == Esports ==