Wargaming, the publishers of various free-to-play multiplayer games such as World Of Tanks, World Of Warplanes and World Of Warships has announced a new partnership with UK-based developers Splash Damage. This partnership will utilise the developers expertise in making multiplayer games.
Splash Damage started out as a mod team which grew to make their own team based multiplayer games such as Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Their last AAA game, Brink, was an interesting take on a class-based shooter which ultimately bombed. They then developed a free-to-play class-based FPS Dirty Bomb, and has lend a hand with the development of Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition and Gears Of War 4.
“What impresses me most about Splash Damage is their passion for every project they take on,” said Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming. “They’re working incredibly hard to create truly memorable games, won’t stop until everything runs like clockwork, and share in our values of player-focused game design, which makes them just the right partner for Wargaming.”
Wargaming has found huge success in their free-to-play games, especially in Eastern Europe. The company is reported to be valued at $1.5 billion USD in 2016. Wargaming have dabbled with games outside of their main “World Of ” games, the first was a reboot to the classic 4X game Master Of Orion.
The partnership sounds good on paper. Splash Damage has been making decent games but couldn’t find a big audience, so tapping in to the fanbase (and budget) from Wargaming is a pretty good choice for the studio.