Obsidian Drops Armored Warfare -- Consultant Says Mail.ru Just Wanted "World of Tanks Clone"

By Jason Winter, News Editor February 11, 2017

In a brief statement today, Obsidian Entertainment announced that it would no longer be developing Armored Warfare. The continued development and updating for the game will be shifted to My.com in Russia.

No word was given as to the fate of the development team in Obsidian's American offices -- some of whom were let go back in December -- but as a veteran RPG company with other properties under its roof, such as Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, one hopes they'll be taken care of. No word was given on the fate of Skyforge, which is also a joint venture with My.com, which is a subsidiary of Russian internet giant Mail.ru ...

... which is the entity that one consultant on Armored Warfare blames the most for the game's shift in management. In a post on Reddit, "Gatortribe" talks at length about Armored Warfare's shortcomings. He points some fingers at Obsidian and My.com, but saves the bulk of his venom for Mail.ru, which he says is "very shortsighted" and "chose Russia as the only market they cared about, to no one's surprise."

"They [Obsidian] developed this magnificent plan for Armored Warfare – what could have been is not at all what we have today. In fact, I'm not even sure if you would have been able to call it a World of Tanks competitor as the games only had tanks in common.

"So, what happened to that? It's simple. Mail.ru said they wanted none of that, and they tasked Obsidian with making a 'World of Tanks clone.' Yes, it was supposed to be as close to World of Tanks as they could get with modern tanks and without getting their asses sued off by Wargaming."

While Mail.ru eventually relented, slightly, and gave Obsidian a bit longer leash, the two companies never quite saw eye-to-eye, with frequent clashes occurring and feedback from Gatortribe's consultant group being wholly ignored. The reason? "We aren't Russian."

Even in its current state, I thought Armored Warfare was an enjoyable game, with just enough different about it from World of Tanks to stand apart. Between the constant press releases and the media junket Obsidian planned back in October 2015 (from which I wrote this and this), it seemed like the company invested a great deal in the game and had a solid vision for that it wanted to do. Those queue times, though ...

It's nearly impossible to paint this as good news, and it wouldn't surprise me to see the already-small player base shrink even further. The game isn't shutting down -- not yet anyway -- but I don't know if I'd give it positive odds to make it out of 2017.

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In this article: Skyforge, My.com, Obsidian Entertainment, Allods Team, Armored Warfare, Mail.ru.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

asheen 3 years ago

Well articles like this do have impact. The picture you painted was not as factual as you might have wanted it to be. Reality - The russian server is full and makes money. Yes the game wanted to have and has created some obvious WoT characteristics. A clone? Not really. It still specializes in PvE and is not even planning to have a mapped based "clan war" system. They do want a "team" based game for battalions but that has been put on hold while they push the story line campaign system. This is something else that is unmatched in WoT. This article sheds some light on the "break-up" and was good for that but the doom and gloom reporting hurt the player base more than the decision to have Obsidian leave. If the end of your article even tried to imply that this was a comment from Obsidian's sideline and that the player base was still growing then maybe it may be in better shape today. Development under Obsidian was slow. Yes it was different from WoT but it was sooo different that many people played, saw the direction and basically went back to WoT for full time tanking and played AW for a change of pace game. I personally don't see that they are moving fast enough with the Battalion activities and fear that this is driving the better players from the game but that is going to be remedied within the year. By the way, the statement was made that you would be surprised to see the game make it out of 2017. SURPRISE! It's mid 2018 and it's still kicking. Player base is down... you said it would happen.... Harbinger of doom, you were. With player base down revenue is down. How about a follow-up to this story and actually come to the game and see the changes and report on how much more work has been done to the game in 1 year compared to 2 from Obsidian?

Shaking My Head 4 years ago

Looking at the WoT clone garage of .20, the upgrade screen clone of WoT upgrade screen.. yeah.. it is now heading in the WoT clone direction.

wtf 4 years ago

wtf? i liked this game and just wanted to get back playing it...

Mysterion™ 4 years ago

So they just admit to a quick cashout.
Good to know for the future.

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trionisshit 4 years ago

Thats why this is shiiit game, cloned from shiiit, bunch of pay to win nerds donating like degenerates, all mycom games suck!For total brainless!

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DeathSlug 4 years ago

This is actually kinda sad because this is a really good game and just like example only: World of Warcraft any game close to it gets slammed and the sad part is most probably didn't even play any of the so called clones. World Of Tanks yes is a good game but in my personal opinion if most would actually stop comparing it to any game and just play Armored Warfare they might actually see how good of a game Armored Warfare is . Its like why isn't War Thunder saying this a a clone or that its a clone to World Of Tanks or even worse Tanki and for these stupid reasons is why most games end up failing because so many get stuck in their ways and that's OK too each their own =) sorry to see this 1 fail because in some ways Armored Warfare is better then World of Tanks and and vise versa WoT is more like a strategist style and AW had more of a arcade feel to it. OK I'm rambling on now so ill just end in saying Thanks Obsidian for the time and effort you have put into AW peace =)