Retrospective: World of Warplanes’ First Year In Review

VERSION 1.0 - November 13th 2013

World of Warplanes officially took off into the skies on 13 November 2013. Previously, a successful Open Beta had allowed participating testers to try out the game upfront so that our developers could use their feedback to shape the final look and feel of the game.The release was also the opportunity for us to thank our community for their continuous support as we gave out gift planes, Premium Account and various other rewards for the most dedicated players.

Finally, a couple of weeks later, we also introduced Unified Free XP for the entire Wargaming community, allowing players to share their progress throughout all Wargaming titles.

VERSION 1.1 - December 18th 2013

The first update to the game followed shortly after, right around Christmas time. Apart from the festive hangar, Version 1.1’s main highlight was the introduction of a branch of new Focke-Wulf aircraft. The nine new fighters were a long-anticipated addition to the game and filled out the German tech tree nicely.

Other prominent additions included two new maps, Adriatic and Fortress, which added two very interesting and diverse locations for mid- and high-tier battles.

VERSION 1.2 - March 6th 2014

The development of the game continued with Update 1.2 early in the year, bringing Battle Missions and a much-requested Battle Replay feature to World of Warplanes.

While the former allowed virtual pilots to look for new challenges (and score new rewards), the replay functionality allowed players to save and re-watch their most memorable performances.

The feature also served as the basis for our Rollin’ Replays and Follow the Leader contests that further rewarded the community.

VERSION 1.3 - April 23rd 2014

In late April the developers followed it up with Version 1.3, introducing a new branch of U.S. Heavy Fighters into the mix of available aircraft.

The new tech tree extension included not only legendary warbirds such as the P-38 Lightning, F7F Tigercat or the powerful F2H Banshee, but also brought back a crowd-favourite that was gone since the Beta days – the popular XF5U Pancake. 

VERSION 1.4 - June 2nd 2014

The jam-packed Version 1.4 brought a host of new items to the game that further diversified World of Warplanes gameplay. The highlight for most players was surely the introduction of five new Tier VI Premium aircraft, one for each nation, which increased the Premium plane pool to a respectable thirteen.

Other additions were two new maps, Winter War and Hidden Airbase, that first introduced night-time battles into the mix.

Lastly, Update 1.4 also included the SD/HD client separation, allowing players to download different-sized versions of the game, depending on their hardware needs. 

VERSION 1.5 - August 20th 2014

For gamescom 2014 we released Version 1.5, whose undeniable highlight was the Battle against Bots mode. The new PvE game type allowed players for the first time to play cooperatively against a team of NPC-bots – a welcome addition which facilitated a better learning curve for newcomers.

Other new features were complex ground targets, a revamped National Park and completely new Canyon map as well as 50 new achievements for the ever challenge-hungry community. 

VERSION 1.6 - October 22nd 2014

Our most recent Update 1.6 further extended the collection of available aircraft by introducing the legendary MiG-fighter line to the Soviet tech tree.

The other nations received an extension as well, welcoming a new Tier VII Premium aircraft in their line-up each.

Last but not least, the developers also reshuffled the plane classes, adding Multirole Fighters that further accentuated each plane’s character.