How Wargaming survived 25 years — and dealt with the Ukraine War | Victor Kislyi interview

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Wargaming has crossed its 25th anniversary this year, prompting CEO Victor Kislyi to talk about the company’s history in an interview with GamesBeat.

We talked about a lot of things with the maker of World of Tanks, including the Cyprus-based company’s most difficult moments after war broke out (anew) in Ukraine with the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. When the real tanks started rolling, Wargaming was split among the countries at war.

For much of its existence, including its early years in the 1990s, the company was based in Minsk, Belarus. It made games such as Massive Assault and other war games.

Then, in 2010, it published the online multiplayer game World of Tanks, and it changed its course in gaming history. Made with a team of more than 100 people, the title took off and generated tens of millions of downloads. And it made money, despite skepticism about free-to-play games. It was popular in Eastern Europe, but it also broke through as a major hit around the globe. It kept on growing, expanding to the consoles and mobile devices, and it had surpassed 140 million downloads as of 2021. Its tanks had gone out to conquer the world — in a video game way.

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But the company didn’t stay