Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Opinion: World of Tanks to launch on Xbox 360, here's what we think
My eyebrow frowned, my face, tight. My eyes, sharp and searching, my breathing controlled. The announcement of world of tanks for the Xbox 360 console system brought mixed feelings to me. How mixed? Well, let’s just say that I myself don’t understand what’s coming out of my mouth. I’m not saying that I disapprove of it, but I will say, it brought up certain concerns, yet, at the same time, brought excitement.
First of all, let’s start with the good part of this news. Well, as we all should have known by now, world of tanks is a hugely successful online game on the PC. It’s already a tried and tested game that has managed to grow exponentially within a short space of time. So it coming into the Xbox 360 would only help to improve its success.
But, in terms of features...
“The title will feature revamped controls, matchmaking, a new user interface and other features to take advantage of the Xbox 360’s technological capabilities and online features.”This was the first thing that I noticed as I read through the press release. I am pleased to know that they are making all sorts of effort into making the conversion as efficient as possible, and to hopefully make it perfect the first time around (Hats off to wargaming). This would also make it very interesting and appealing. Never have I thought of playing world of tanks on a 52 inch LCD screen TV with a xbox 360 controller. And never have I imagined inviting my Xbox Live friends to join in on the pure steel carnage (although I don’t own a Xbox 360).
But, what I eagerly look into would be the possibility of playing it split screen with a friend beside you. Just imagine it, you playing split-screen with a friend, then he decides to push you out of cover with his big arsed KV5, and so naturally, you get killed. You would then hear him sneer in laughter and grin at your face, and then suddenly, SLAP! You slapped the grin out of his face. Just the thought of this is irresistible, and is making me froth in my mouth (no, I don’t have rabies). These are moments that are almost priceless, and if they do pull this off, it would be a great milestone of an achievement, thus cementing their future in multiplayer games.
However, what worries me most is that first of all, Wargaming was a PC exclusive. This means that all their game titles was released for the pc, and pc only. And so they are entering a new, hostile environment that is filled with landmines here.
Trying to break into the Xbox console environment will be very difficult. They need to watch their step, and take measured, calculative decisions if they don’t want to fail. I will admit, this is a very bold action, and one that worries me, but if they do pull this off, and hopefully they do, then it will be a huge success.
If they do this right, it will be very big for Wargaming. They have the capabilities, they have the resources and they have the motivation. But the biggest question would be, how far are they willing to go? As they say, the sky has no limits. But for Wargaming, the clouds are blocking out the horizon. Will they succeed and go through the clouds? Or will they falter and get lost in the dark horizon? Only time will tell. And so until then, I shall sit here on my chair, continuing the painful grind for the top tier French medium. And hopefully by then, it would have been released.
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Written by: Kautsar / Malaysian Rep
