Wargaming has acquired Day 1 Studios out of Chicago and Hunt Valley, Maryland for $20 million. Immediately upon conclusion of the deal, this new studio under Wargaming will begin work on a new console title.
To date Wargaming has kept its development efforts strictly in the free-to-play PC space and found great success targeting this market. It’s been a common sight at the past few E3s to see massive full-scale tanks or airplanes outside the Los Angeles Convention Center to promote Wargaming’s latest game. Inside E3, the massive Wargaming booth is typically packed with players.
Unfortunately no additional details are available at this time regarding Wargaming’s first foray into the console gaming space. Will this new game be for next generation consoles or current generation? Will it be free-to-play and make money off ads or upgrades? We simply don’t know.
What we do know is that Day 1 Studios is now known as Wargaming West and their motto is “let’s battle.” You may remember some of their past games including Fracture for LucasArts, two MechAssault games for Microsoft, and the more recent flop F.E.A.R. 3 that lead to unprecedented layoffs upward of 95 percent of their employees. Their last known project in development was titled Reign of Thunder, but it’s not known if that game’s existing assets will become the Wargaming console debut.
– Dan Bradley
