About

War Thunder is an MMO military vehicle combat game developed by Gaijin Entertainment and released globally on January 28th, 2013 (open beta). It allows players to choose between combat vehicles such as tanks, half-tracks, warplanes, fighter jets, helicopters and warships in a massively multiplayer arena. It is most notably known for its realistic flight simulation combat in comparison to arcade-style flight combat games such as Wargaming's World of Warplanes. It was initially developed for Windows PC but was later ported to PS4, Xbox One, Mac OS X, Android and Linux.

Development

Development started in 2009 as World of Planes, with Gaijin Entertainment using the experience from their previously released military flight sims to create this one. The title was changed to War Thunder after confusion with Wargaming's World of Warplanes, as well as to plan for adding ground and naval vehicles in the future.^[1] Closed beta testing began on March 30th, 2012. The War Thunder official YouTube^[2] channel uploaded the beta launch trailer on March 30th, 2012, and received 316,000 views in nine years (shown below).

Open beta testing began in Russia on November 1st, 2012, then expanded globally on January 28th, 2013. Ground vehicles such as tanks, half-tracks and anti-air were added on May 15th, 2014. Footage of the closed beta test in Russia was captured and posted on YouTube^[3] by the channel VerTun on April 17th, 2012, and has received 113,000 views in nine years (shown below).

April Fools' Day Events

Pony Beta (2013)

The first April Fools' event added playable MLP-styled pegasus characters as an April Fools' event. The trailer for this event was posted on the official War Thunder YouTube^[4] account and received 355,000 views in eight years (shown below).

In-game footage of the event, as well as footage of some load-outs and an overall review of the event, was uploaded to YouTube^[5] by the channel Squirrel on April 1st, 2013, gaining 80,000 views in eight years (shown below).

GAIJILLA (2014)

The Gaijilla Event added the Snail Kajiu (which is a Gaijin Entertainment's logo) to the game where the snail terrorizes the map and players of both sides can fight the snail or play normal objectives. The title is a reference to Godzilla. The trailer for the event was posted on YouTube^[6] by the War Thunder official channel on April 1st, 2014, earning 308,000 views in seven years (shown below).

March to Victory! & Unrealistic Battles (2015)

The ST-1 (USSR), PzKpmfLfr 565(r) (Germany), and M35 (USA) assault walkers were briefly added to the game. "Unrealistic Battles" were also included in which the players have to drive inflatable tanks that shoot potato and carrot rounds and also have Heath bar included, taking a jab at World of Tanks and Wargaming.Net.

Sailing Fleet in War Thunder! (2016)

The event added traditional sailing ships to the game. If the player went out of the map then the Kraken would come and pull the player's ship down. The official War Thunder YouTube^[7] channel posted the trailer on April 1st, 2016, earning 470,000 views in five years (shown below)

Rank IX (2017)

Modern AFVs like the Leopard 2A5 and T-90A, and the helicopters like the GM-64 (AH-64) and the Mi-35 were added to the game.

Silent Thunder (2018)

The event Brings Submarines like the HMS Vanguard, USS Virginia and the Russian Submarine Yasen into the game.

Earth Thunder: We Are Not Their Playthings! (2019)

Earth Thunder Brings UFOs to the game and fights around the city.

Space Thunder (2020)

A Sci-fi game mode where players fight in a small spacecraft called "Space Combat Units" around an ISS-like space station with three asteroids surrounded.

TailSpin & Warfare 2077 (2021)

TailSpin added the planes that resemble Disney's 1990s animated show TaleSpin and Warfare 2077 let players fight in futuristic AFVs with laser weaponry, smart missiles, military drones and optical camouflage, as a reference to Cyberpunk 2077.

Related Memes

You Got a Hole in Your Left/right-Wing!

"You Got a Hole in Your Left/right-Wing!" is one of the crew voices for air battles where players have taken damage on the wings of their aircraft. However, it can become annoying if the crew says it repeatedly, even if the wing of the player's aircraft was gone.

Attack the D Point!

Attack the D Point! is one of the radio callouts for the now-defunct Point D (back when the game used to have four points of capture on Realistic and Arcade Modes). It is now used as a way to signal that you are a veteran of the series when used as a reply in threads about the game.

Russian Bias

Russian Bias refers to how Russian units seem to do better in the game than people would expect them to realistically do in real life.

Sekrit Documents

Sekrit Documents^[8] is a joke where Gaijin get the information and "Secret Documents" for the vehicle to perform absolutely unhistorical or in a broken way. Recently though, there have been instances where actual classified military documents are illegally leaked as a way to try and get certain tanks or units changed in-game.

Classified Documents Leak

War Thunder Military Document Leaks refers to an ongoing issue in the forums for War Thunder in which users, in an effort to make sure certain military vehicles are accurately represented in-game or to win an argument with other users in the forums, post classified documents detailing the specs of certain vehicles &mdash: a bannable and potentially treasonous offense. As of June 2022, there have been at least three confirmed instances of this occurring, though some speculate there may have been as many as six instances since its release in 2013.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References