'World of Tanks' developer expanding to consoles with studio purchase

Wargaming, the creators of the free-to-play "World of Tanks", announced Tuesday that it is expanding its development efforts into the world of game consoles such as the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. To accomplish this goal it purchased Chicago-based Day 1 Studios who is known for its work on "MechAssault" on the original Xbox.

Day 1 Studios was purchased for $20 million and will begin work on an unannounced console title. Both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 currently support free-to-play titles and Nintendo has said that it is open to supporting them as well with the Wii U. However, it is unknown if the console game Day 1 Studios is working on will be a free-to-play.

"The move into console game development is a huge step for Wargaming, as we begin to expand our presence into new platforms," said Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming. "We are looking forward to sharing the fruits of our labor soon."

"Wargaming is a clear leader in the free-to-play space and helps set the standard on which all other games in the genre strive for," said Denny Thorley , new Head of Wargaming's Chicago-based studio. "Our team is extremely excited to start the first console project for Wargaming.

Day 1 Studios was working on its own free-to-play PC title called "Reign of Thunder" that sought to recapture the studio's heyday with "MechAssault". However, the mech game entered a limited beta last year but has not been heard from since. The official website for the game now says, "Reign of Thunder is powering down for now, but fear not. Follow us over at wargamingwest.com for even bigger battles to come."

In addition to "MechAssault", Day 1 previously worked on "F.E.A.R.", "F.E.A.R. 3" and "Fracture" for consoles.

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Via: Press Release