War Thunder players take a break from leaking classified information to review bomb their beloved game for adding an auction house
Gaijin Entertainment's War Thunder is usually in the news for one repeated reason: The people who play this military simulator take it incredibly seriously, and have a habit of leaking classified information onto the game's forums in an effort to win Internet arguments. But when they're not targeting each other, the favourite target of the playerbase is developer Gaijin and in various ways the game's extreme F2P grind: And they have a new focal point.
War Thunder introduced a new auction system on February 3 that, at the moment, allows players to bid on vehicle cosmetics with Gaijin Coin, an in-game currency bought with real-world money. The sense of putting limited time windows on premium currency sales, and the obvious FOMO of mixing that with time-limited items, is where the problems begin.
The feature is currently in beta and is intended for players to be able to sell each other their own cosmetics, though gaijin retains an element of control over what's selected. But the players don't think things are going to end there, and the negative reactions to the auction house centre on a single suspicion: Gaijin is going to use this to sell actual vehicles, the game's holy grail.
To be clear, Gaijin has neither done this nor indicated any plans to do so. But the players are convinced, and the most devoted are in uproar across the game's forums, subreddit and social media, as well as executing something of a small-scale review bombing campaign. The downward spike on Steam reviews consists of the same complaint: «The newly implemented auction system is predatory and one of the most greedy decisions Gaijin has ever made,» says Galaxian, who has 2,700 hours in War Thunder.
«On the 3rd February, 2025, in the newest newsletter Gaijin introduced an auction system where players can bid Gaijin Coin on virtually limited tank and jet skins,» says Erinkaze. «It sets a horrible precedent where in the future they could start selling Rare, removed from the game or OP vehicles for
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