One of the most played free-to-play action games not called League of Legends or Dota 2 is about to drop on another console.
World of Tanks project lead T.J. Wagner took to Sony’s PlayStation blog today to reveal that publisher Wargaming will roll out the open beta for the online war-vehicle battler on PlayStation 4 next month. Starting December 4, anyone can jump into the game on Sony’s home console without needing to sign up. The test will run through December 6. This will make the beginning of World of Tanks’ total global domination as the game is now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. Wargaming has also even produced a mobile version.
By opening up World of Tanks to a whole new audience of PlayStation players, Wargaming should continue to pad the game’s revenues. Last year, the tank shooter made approximately $400 million in microtransaction sales, according to research firm SuperData. And PS4 is an ideal place to make even more money. Sony’s system is a hugely popular platform in Europe, which is a region that has also embraced World of Tanks. Additionally, the free-to-play massively multiplayer game DC Universe Online had 76 percent of its players on PS4 by August of 2014, and the free-to-play sci-fi shooter Warframe contributed to increasing PlayStation Network’s revenues by 50 percent from 2013 to 2014. Clearly, a proven game like World of Tanks could also find a footing with that same group of players.
World of Tanks is also provides gamers with a different pace. It is a competitive online shooter, but it focuses far more on strategy since you control a large, lumbering behemoth instead of a lithe soldier or hyper-jumping space marine. At our GamesBeat conference in 2014, renowned game designer Will Wright (of SimCity fame) said it is a shooter for “old people. That means Wargaming’s release is more welcoming to a wider number of people who may not have the reflexes of a 15-year-old kid.
Finally, beyond the open beta test, Wargaming isn’t sharing much else about the eventual release of final game. It did promise some PS4 exclusives like two maps that will launch first on PS4. One of those is even the biggest World of Tanks maps yet.