2020 results: Anton Yudintsev from Gaijin Entertainment on the main thing for the year
He talked about new releases and updates in his resultsAnton Yudintsev, CEO of Gaijin Entertainment.
Anton Yudintsev
How was 2020 for the company?
2020 was an incredibly eventful year for Gaijin Entertainment (and it's not just that many new players have joined online projects due to quarantine).
In the fall, we upgraded War Thunder to a new engine, reformed the fleet and upgraded literally all aspects of the game. In addition, we have released the native version of War Thunder for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S – right at the launch of the consoles.
War Thunder on the new engine
Our new Enlisted online shooter about World War II, which we have been developing since 2016, has entered the PTA stage, has become an Xbox Series X|S console exclusive and is available on the platform right from day one. In the last generation, we had one game in the launch line of one of the consoles (War Thunder on PlayStation 4), this one has two (Enlisted and War Thunder).
Enlisted
The other day, the Cuisine Royale shooter was relaunched by us under the new name CRSED: F.O.A.D., with significantly expanded content. Its versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S are also ready and will be released after the approval of the platform holders (possibly even before the publication of this interview).
CRSED: F.O.A.D.
So this year we have three projects on next–generation consoles - more than any company in Eastern Europe, and most of them all. All games are immediately available in 4K and with 60FPS, and even with ray tracing.
It is also worth noting that we went into quarantine in March for obvious reasons. The mode of remote work for the vast majority of employees is still maintained. This did not affect the timing of product development in any way.
What new trends in your niche do you consider worth paying attention to?
More and more online games offer crossplay between versions for different platforms. We were one of the first to implement this feature in War Thunder and developed it as the limitations of the platform holders were relaxed. Now we have owners of all platforms – PC, PlayStation and Xbox of different generations - playing on the same server.
Another fashionable innovation is the integration of games with streams on Twitch. For example, we conducted an experiment – we allowed stream viewers to influence the fights they watched in CRSED: F.O.A.D. (then Cuisine Royale). For example, sending zombies at players. A little later, we saw exactly the same feature in Ubisoft's Hyperscape. The mechanics of Twitch Drops (handing out prizes to stream viewers) also look quite interesting. We do this in War Thunder and see a good return.
Finally, the quality of graphics in online games for mobile devices is growing, and Apple is paying more and more attention to such projects - for example, it uses them to demonstrate new hardware. We are actively testing our own mobile online game with advanced graphics - Crossout Mobile – and developing others.
What new market trends would you note in general?
The most notable events are related to the release of new hardware – that is, new generation consoles and NVIDIA's 30th series graphics cards. Of course, this year they went primarily to enthusiastic players, but I am sure that the audience of the new generation platforms will grow very quickly, and with it the use of new technologies.
What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2021?
Our main business is online games for PC and consoles, which regularly receive new content. So we will develop existing projects (War Thunder, Crossout, CRSED: F.O.A.D., Enlisted and Star Conflict) and launch new ones in the same way.
In addition, we conduct a lot of tests and experiments with mobile games of various scales – from arcades to large online projects. Crossout Mobile is at the soft launch stage, we expect to launch it worldwide in 2021.
Which third-party game releases are you interested in this year? Which ones did you pay attention to as a gamer?
I've played dozens of games at work. For entertainment, in addition to his own, he played Among Us (although this is not this year's release) and Phasmophobia.
