Previously based in Belarus, Wargaming has moved its headquarters to Cyprus.

Wargaming, known for World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and World of Warships, has announced that it will close its Minsk office and transfer the operation of its infrastructure there and in Russia to a Russian company Lesta Studio. They used to be Wargaming St Petersburg and are no longer involved with Wargaming on paper, which can be seen as an intellectual continuation in the two Slavic countries.

Wargaming will not profit from the exit and the transfer of their “legacy” and is preparing for significant losses on the decision, so financially, this move will not be suitable for the company (at least in the short term, it will undoubtedly be a challenging period). Their departure does not mean that their games in the two countries will become completely unavailable, as Lesta Studio will be responsible for ensuring that everything continues as intended in both Russia and Belarus.

On LinkedIn, they said: “We will be completing the operational transition with all due speed while remaining in full compliance with all laws and ensuring the ongoing safety and support of our employees. Despite the magnitude of this decision, we as a company are confident in the future of our business and are committed to delivering quality games to our players.”

In March, we heard how Wargaming fired Sergey Burkatovskiy, the creative director of World of Tanks, after publicly supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. We also wrote about this issue. So Wargaming is now looking to move out of their home soil to continue working on multiplayer-centric action games, available for both console and PC, in a more peaceful Western environment.

We wonder when we’ll hear from World of Tanks that the studio will be making a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series port? It wouldn’t be surprising, as this IP is perhaps Wargaming’s best known. There’s already a Nintendo Switch port of the ‘tank game’, released for the hybrid platform on 26 August 2020.

Source: Gamesindustry