War Thunder is a 2013 free-to-play vehicular combat multiplayer video game produced by Gaijin Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Oculus, and Vive. It was first released in November 2012 as an open beta with a worldwide release in January 2013; it had its official release on December 21, 2016. A spinoff game called War Thunder Mobile (also known as War Thunder Edge) was released in 2023 for Android and iOS.
Gaijin Entertainment is a Hungarian video game developer headquartered in Budapest. The company is mostly known for War Thunder, Crossout, Star Conflict, CRSED: Cuisine Royale (formerly known as Cuisine Royale and CRSED: F.O.A.D.) and Enlisted.
Gaijin Entertainment was founded in Russia in 2002 by Anton and Kirill Yudintsev, whose first big project was the PC racing game Adrenaline. After the successful launch of War Thunder in 2012, an office in Germany was established, to manage global operations and marketing. The company moved their distribution business from Moscow to Budapest around 2015, and their development headquarters followed shortly after. According to Hungarian tax records, Gaijin had 42 employees in Hungary by January 2022 and 56 employees by January 2023.
Presently, all Gaijin online games are operated from Germany, Cyprus and Hungary, while the development is scattered across Europe. The company now has six offices in total: in Karlsruhe (Germany), Larnaca (Cyprus), Budapest (Hungary), Riga (Latvia), Dubai (UAE) and Yerevan (Armenia). The company has around 200 employees split between those offices, with 60 of them based at the Hungarian HQ.
Gaijin Entertainment group generated 2.6% of all the Hungarian Software Industry profit in 2020.
While Gaijin have produced a few single-player games in the 2000s, the company is now focused on free-to-play online titles. According to László Perneky, Gaijin’s lead programmer, “Those who can decide on projects at the company mostly like to play multiplayer games”
Gaijin Entertainment name comes from the Japanese word for foreigner. According to Anton Yudintsev, he was dreaming to enter the Japanese market one day while staying true to their roots as a European company and accept their position of an outsider there. Gaijin actually entered the Japanese market with the release of anime-style action game X-Blades in 2009.
Gaijin’s logo features snail that is a reference to Issa Kobayashi’s haiku, translated by R.H. Blyth as:
O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly!
(Katatsumuri / sorosoro nobore / Fuji no yama; 蝸牛/そろそろ登れ/富士の山)
Gaijin Entertainment develops and publishes various online games, including the vehicular combat MMOs War Thunder and Crossout, the first-person shooter Enlisted, the nautical adventure Age of Water, and the vehicular warfare sim Modern Warships. Other notable titles include the space combat game Star Conflict and upcoming releases like the VR flight simulator Aces of Thunder.
Developed as a “flying simulation game”, it was previously named War Thunder: World of Planes, but due to its similarity with Wargaming’s World of Warplanes, it was changed to its present name in 2012. Initially, Gaijin claimed after the game was announced that it was an April Fools joke before confirming its existence in June that same year.
War Thunder won several awards following its release, winning Best Simulation Game at the Gamescom 2013 Awards as well as winning Best Game, Best Developer, Best Technology and Best Sound at the KRI 2013 Awards. In 2019, War Thunder was among the most played games on Steam with over 25,000 concurrent players. As of November 1, 2022, War Thunder had over 70 million registered players on all platforms combined, out of which 160,000 play concurrently. In February 2024, War Thunder set a new record of over 250,000 concurrent players.
War Thunder is based around combined arms battles on air, land, and sea. Vehicles range from pre-World War I (ships only) to modern day, with an emphasis on World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Players can control aircraft, ground vehicles, and warships from nations with a set of technology trees attached to them. The game also incorporates other nations. These nations are included either as “sub-trees” (parts of the research trees of bigger nations being dedicated to a smaller nation) or premium vehicles, purchasable with real money or in-game currency.
Vehicles are divided into three main categories: aviation, ground, and fleet, while game modes are divided between arcade, realistic, and simulator. Aviation is divided between fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, fleet is divided between “Bluewater”, ships from the size of destroyers to battlecruisers and battleships and “Coastal”, smaller ships and boats such as motor torpedo boats, motor gunboats, submarine chasers, and frigates. A single-player mode that focuses on historical battles, and a co-op wave survival mode for battling AI ground vehicles and aircraft, are also available.
Events
Events in War Thunder provide custom missions, usually based on one of the three main game modes, but with alternative settings regarding allowed vehicles, mission specifics, etc. Examples are the recreation of historical battles by restricting available vehicles (e.g., Battle of Britain).
Traditionally, the developers prepare unconventional events for April Fools’ Day. These events are used to test planned game mechanics before their broader release to the player base.
For 2015, a new game mode called “Unrealistic Battles” featured inflatable rubber tanks firing potatoes and carrots. The “tanks” also had overall hitpoints instead of the usual separate modules, parodying the gameplay of World of Tanks, a competitor to War Thunder.
For 2016, ahead of the announcement of the naval forces update, War Thunder offered playable 18th-century sailing ships fighting in the Caribbean.
For 2017, War Thunder made playable rank IX main battle tanks and attack helicopters. Available vehicles were the Leopard 2A5, AH-64 Apache (Designated as GM-64 and operated by Germany in-game), Gepard, T-90A, Mi-35 Hind-E and ZSU-23-4 Shilka.
The 2018 event, named “Silent Thunder”, was based underwater in an Arctic Ocean map, with three playable nuclear submarines: the Vanguard-class, Virginia-class, and Yasen-class.
The 2019 event, named “Earth Thunder”, took place in a fictional American city named “Green Hills” and had players use UFOs.
In 2020, Gaijin changed the name of the game to “Space Thunder”, featuring space battles
In 2021, Gaijin held 2 events, “Tailspin” and “Warfare 2077”. Tailspin was a game mode that took place on a map called “Cape Somerset Bay” that had a cartoon art style with aircraft directly inspired by the show TaleSpin; one aircraft was also inspired by Studio Ghibli’s Porco Rosso. Players took control of new planes belonging to the “Republic of Air Pirates” faction. Warfare 2077 was a futuristic game mode that took place on the “Launch Facility” map and allowed the players to take control of futuristic tanks and unmanned aerial vehicles, teasing the September 2022 addition of drones to the game. Its advertising and name were similar to the (at the time) recently released Cyberpunk 2077.
In 2022, Gaijin introduced a Dune-inspired game mode called “Worm Thunder: Children of Arachis” which involved two factions fighting over cinnamon in the desert while also avoiding being eaten by a giant sandworm.
In 2023, Gaijin introduced “Mobile Infantry”, an event involving battles involving infantry wearing combat exoskeletons, main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and attack helicopters. Two nations were playable in the conflict, being the United States and Russia. The event was the first time fire-and-forget ATGMs were featured in the game, as the ATGM operator for the US side was fitted with Spike missiles.
In 2024, Gaijin introduced “Mad Max” style vehicles partially based on Gaijin’s other game Crossout. The event was called “Mad Thunder”. “Mad Thunder” gameplay included “you can find ancient electronics, scrap metal, vehicle parts and armor parts, which are all needed to improve your combat vehicles and to craft new ones.”
In 2025, Gaijin introduced World War One vehicles and aircraft with two playable sides: the Triple Entente and the Central Powers. They also added a map and obtainable World War One vehicles that could be used after the event. The event was a precursor to their next game Aces of Thunder.
Other notable examples include “March to Victory”, introducing playable mecha composed of tank parts; “The Pony Nation”, introducing the world of My Little Pony, Equestria, as a sixth playable faction (2013); “Gaijilla”, featuring a battle against a giant Godzilla-like snail (2014); and Atomic Thunder, featuring vehicles from the video game Atomic Heart (July 2023).
In August 2020, the game had a tank biathlon-style event featuring select Russian and Chinese tanks performing tasks on a tank range map, with the objective to finish in 1st place after navigating obstacles and destroying targets. The event was partnered with the Information Systems Department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Logos advertising the game also appeared during the event, notably painted on the side of the tanks during the real biathlon. The event was teased on August 17 with a YouTube video posted to the game’s official YouTube Channel, as well as on the official website.