The developer of World of Tanks, Wargaming, has announced its decision to close its offices in Belarus and Russia and leave both countries.
In a statement on its website, the company stated that it will cease to operate any business in Russia or Belarus. Its live service games that operate in those countries will now be transferred to local management by Lesta Studio. Wargaming bought Lesta Studio in 2011, however as of 4 April 2022 they are no longer affiliated with the company.
The company will not benefit from this process, and admitted that it expects to suffer “substantial financial losses”
The complete closure of the offices in Belarus has already started. The company will be supporting staff affected by the change.
Wargaming was founded in Belarus in 1998, however in 2011, it relocated its headquarters to Cyprus. Its first game in its popular military MMO series, World of Tanks, is extremely popular in Russia. Since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the company has rerouted company resources to support its 550 staff in Kyiv. Wargaming has also fired its creative director, Sergey Burkatovskiy, after he posted on Facebook in support of the Russian invasion.
In 2019, Statista found that World of Tanks was the most profitable game in Russia. In 2021, similar results were found in a study conducted by the Global Web Index with Wargaming, ranking World of Tanks as the most popular game in the country. The game has also won several awards, including four Golden Joysticks for the best MMO.
Words by Kieran Burt
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