According to meteorologists,
2016 was the hottest year on record.
And you can bet the atmosphere in our studio
and in World of Warships’ battles
was hotter than a HE shell.
This year,
World of Warships saw 14 major updates.
Five ship branches joined our fleet:
German battleships and destroyers,
Soviet and British cruisers,
and Japanese destroyers.
In addition to 26 Premium ships,
there are 67 new ships
and 98 airplanes,
128 camouflages
and 124 onshore objects.
The area of World of Warships
gained an additional 14,400 square kilometers —
16 maps and 7 Ports, to be exact.
Thanks to the Epicenter and Bastion game modes
that we recently implemented,
players can employ new tactical maneuvers.
In Bastion mode,
players fight not only against enemy ships
but also against onshore structures.
Another two special game modes
came out this year:
Jacuzzi and Halloween.
These events introduced campaigns to the game,
which can be considered a further development
of the Missions system.
Technical issues in the game client
were also remedied.
The file storage system was improved,
which allowed us to decrease
the number of files in the game client by 20 times.
The implementation of the multicluster system
allowed us to increase
the maximum number of online users
simultaneously playing the game.
30 new soundtracks were added to the game.
The dynamic mix of the game was improved.
The sound options were supplemented
with many useful functions
that let users customize music in the game.
We implemented voice communication
and Dynamic Divisions
for better cooperation in battle.
Over 16 million Divisions engaged in battle during 2016!
This year,
all special effects reached new heights:
shots, armor penetration,
fire, explosions,
and many other effects
became more realistic and intense.
The Port can now be seen under a starlit sky;
but what's more important
is a newly added weather feature
and the Cyclone scenario,
which made gameplay richer and more unpredictable.
Just look at the new style of World of Warships,
and ships in particular!
Thanks to anti-aliasing technology,
and special rigging and wiring rendering techniques,
ships now look even more realistic.
The detailed armor layout
became an outright treat for our players.
This year was full of changes and innovations.
In addition to new features,
we improved the commander skills
and upgrades systems.
Thanks to the new matchmaker,
we managed to improve the game balance for all tiers.
The in-game economy was also developed:
we introduced reward containers,
where players could find additional
signals, consumables,
camouflages, and other useful items;
rewards for spotting enemy ships
made battles more profitable.
Spotting enemy ships
is now shown in the battle statistics,
which became even more detailed.
These are the most significant innovations—
we didn't mention numerous balance tweaks
for maps and ships,
and game interface improvements.
This year was also full of events.
Our players took part
in three seasons of Ranked Battles.
We held numerous events in Europe
and around the world,
such as Gamescom,
the Tokyo Game Show,
and WG FEST.
We cooperated with the Arpeggio of Blue Steel
manga designers,
introducing the Fleet of Fog to the game.
In the United States,
as part of a charity program,
our players donated over 125,000 USD
for veterans and sailors’ families;
over 100 game consoles were purchased for children.
And what about the number of our players?
By the end of this year,
the total number of players reached 8.5 million.
Globally, over 30 million unique users
visited our official sites.
They left over 3.5 million comments,
and the number of likes and reposts
is simply innumerable.
Finally, thanks to our Video Team,
more than 100 videos were released
on our YouTube channels,
which were viewed over 20 million times.
In total,
viewers spent over 200 years
watching our videos.
2016 was a success!
We have a rich history behind us,
but our ship isn’t going to slow down
or change her course
because exciting horizons lay ahead.
Happy New Year!