The free-to-play shooter Warface has stuck around and grown stronger in the many years it’s been around, having amassed millions of players. It’s been on available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 for a while not. Switch players had been let out for a while, but that’s suddenly changed.

Out of nowhere, with no fanfare, the online shooter is now out on the Switch. The game is currently available on the Australian eShop, and should be releasing elsewhere shortly as well. It’s a little strange to see the game releasing with not so much as a trailer or any sort of announcements, but Switch owners will still be glad to have access to the free-to-play title.

Warface is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The developer is also looking closely at the upcoming next-gen consoles, and the possibility of releasing the game for those. Read more on that through here.

Recently, to lift the fog somewhat on that future, we sent across a few questions to the people in charge of the competitive online shooter, asking about everything from the future of Warface itself, to the potential of cloud streaming, to next-gen consoles and what they can potentially deliver, and more. You can read our conversation with Warface franchise lead Ivan Pabiarzhyn, of publishers My.com.

"We have room for keeping going further, growing our audience, and putting additional resources into the development of the project."

With a game like Warface, which is constantly growing and evolving, how do you decide when to draw a line and maybe start working on a sequel instead? Or do you view this as something you can keep going indefinitely?

Warface is a worldwide popular FPS F2P game with more than 80 million players around the globe. Although I can’t deny that we are thinking about expanding Warface universe, it is too early to talk about a sequel. At the moment we are available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One – so we have room for keeping going further, growing our audience, and putting additional resources into the development of the project.

As a free-to-play game, what are your driving philosophies behind monetization and in-game progression?

We have a diversified economy system and very deep achievement system in the game to allow players choose and control their progression themselves.

We have 3 in-game currencies: Warface Dollars, Crowns, and Kredits. Warface Dollars is the main currency earned by participating in Co-op, Versus and Special operations missions, based on how successful one played in them. Crowns, which is a reward for performing well in Co-op missions, Special operations or Raids. Rewards are dependent on two factors: completion time and kill score. And finally, Kredits, which can be either purchased using real money or earned by winning regular competitions and contests in the game.

In addition, there are more than 1,000 different achievements across all kinds of content. Every time players join the game, they can set their own long-term or short-term goals and keep playing to pursue them.

Do you have any plans to launch on the Switch?

Nintendo Switch is a fascinating device. There’s so much potential packed into the little chipset, and the tricks the developers are using to transfer full-fat current games to Switch are quite ingenious. While we cannot announce anything for Switch at this point, we’re keeping a close look on what’s happening around that platform.

Google has been talking about how cloud streaming can potentially expand multiplayer gaming in massive ways, with matches that can host thousands of players at a time, which should be quite exciting for a multiplayer game such as Warface?

The idea behind Google Stadia sounds really exciting, and it may be really interesting not only for the players but also for game studios and developers, as with Stadia Google might potentially be able to increase the total number of gamers in the world by attracting to the games those who for different reasons have no consoles or high performance PC for gaming. However, there are so many details which are not clear yet and so many factors that may impact on the performance of the service, that it is too early to have any real discussion about that. We’ll see.

"The transition to SSD is probably the most important improvement in the new-gen consoles."

How far away do you think such a scenario is from becoming a reality?

There is a great potential in Stadia. It may gain rapid popularity or the progressive one, depending on how effective the technical solutions will be implemented and how efficient Google will interact with the gaming companies. However, there are no doubts that this innovative service will find its place in the sun.

Warface started out on a 7th generation console (after its PC launch, that is), and then made the transition to PS4 and Xbox One. Are you planning on taking it even further into next gen as well?

We’ve already started communicating with the platforms about new hardware. For obvious reasons we cannot announce anything solid at this point. The engine that powers Warface, CryEngine, was heavily modified by our team to be able to run smoothly on a vast variety of systems. If you download it and launch the game on a relatively weak PC, for example, you will be surprised how well it will run.

With that in mind, we’re definitely looking into what the next-gen consoles can offer us, especially in terms of increased performance and graphical fidelity.

How important is it for a multiplayer game like Warface that cross-play becomes an industry standard going into next gen?

We are not alone to be really excited about the cross-play trend and we think it’s incredible that industry itself is moving towards helping developers out in their intention to make gameplay experience even more fascinating to the players. It’s been a year since Warface became available on PS4 and Xbox One and we have already exceeded the milestone of 13 million players globally with 40% out of this amount being from USA. We see a huge potential in cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One players, which will become available in Warface in Q2 next year. Our main goal is to make Warface accessible to as many players as possible, especially taking into consideration the dynamic and fast-paced environment of the game.

To my mind, it is quite logical that cross-play might be available in the next-gen consoles.

There’s been a lot of talk of SSDs, which the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are both confirmed to feature. What’s the biggest impact it’s going to have on development, according to you? 

The transition to SSD is probably the most important improvement in the new-gen consoles. The performance of the disk subsystem is the narrowest bottleneck of the current generation. And this problem is becoming more urgent every year with the growing trend for open worlds of the size of tens and sometimes hundreds of square kilometers in modern game projects. As for the open game worlds, it is impossible to keep the entire game map in RAM, so developers have to add new objects location by location as the player moves forward. In order to do this, the developer has to use tricks in the schedule (deterioration of detail and range of drawing objects, using fewer unique objects on the map) and gameplay (limitation of the maximum speed of a player’s movement, creation of buffer zones on the map with a reduced number of unique objects in order to be able to load next zone with more details). Of course, developers do not like to make such compromises, because it affects their games.

But SSD solves this problem. You can think of SSD as an extension of RAM. Levels should load faster, drawing distances can be increased. It should also allow developers to get rid of such a rudiment as a “loading screen” and make the game as seamless as possible. Fast streaming allows making larger game worlds with richer content locations.

"Based on the information we have about this new PS5 haptic-enabled controller, we think it has good potential for enriching gaming experience, adding new ways of interaction to the players, broadening horizons for the developers and, thus, pushing forward the evolution of video games. But… I think much will depend on Sony and how it makes PS5."

Speaking of next-gen hardware, something else that the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are both going to have is a Zen 2 CPU- how big of a leap is it over current gen hardware in your view, and how is it going to help development?

Featuring the new generation of AMD processors in the PS5 / Xbox Series X will bring an increase in processor frequency by about 50%. For games, this means an improvement in quantitative parameters: detail / size of worlds, more AI characters processing. But what’s more important is that it will be possible to create previously inaccessible effects. For example, miscalculation of a physically reliable reflection of sounds from walls, which can turn the genre of competitive shooters, which at the moment rely more on the player’s reaction speed and shooting accuracy, makes compromises in assessing the accuracy of enemy positioning using sound.

The Xbox Series X also features GDDR6 memory- what’s the impact it will have on games in conjunction with the other advancements we’re going to see in next-gen consoles? 

Memory performance is one of the biggest bottlenecks when developing for a console. GDDR6 offers a big leap in data transfer rates between the processor and RAM. This means that the CPU will spend less time waiting for access to data in RAM, which should have a beneficial effect on the frame rate. With GDDR6, developers can put more stuff on-screen without sacrificing stable frame rates, which is awesome.

What’s your take on the PS5’s haptic-enabled controller? Do you think it’s something that can significantly add to an experience, or is it just going to be a novelty?

Based on the information we have about this new PS5 haptic-enabled controller, we think it has good potential for enriching gaming experience, adding new ways of interaction to the players, broadening horizons for the developers and, thus, pushing forward the evolution of video games. But… I think much will depend on Sony and how it makes PS5. All in all, we will definitely see some interesting and unexpected solutions. Let’s wait – it won’t be long now.

To learn more about this Xbox One version of the game and what the major differences are, Gamingbolt reached out to My.com with some questions and Producer Jacek Pudlik provided the following answers.

"Armored Warfare provides a different kind of experience than our competitors in the genre. The two main differences is the PVE focus and the modern vehicles."

With games such as War Thunder and World of Tanks available on the Xbox One, what would you say sets apart Armored Warfare from its competition?

Armored Warfare provides a different kind of experience than our competitors in the genre. The two main differences is the PVE focus and the modern vehicles. Additionally to PVE being a general strong side, the storyline missions give a good, growing storyline that our players enjoy.

What are some of the new tanks being introduced with the Xbox One version of the game?

The new updates introduces a who new dealer , Oscar Faraday, who brings in 6 new vehicles:

• Rooikat 76 Tier 5 AFV
• EE-18 Sucuri Tier 6 TD
• NM142 Tier 7 TD
• Sprut-SD Tier 8 TD
• ASCOD LT-105 Tier 8 Premium LT
• K21 XC8 Tier 10 LT

Does gameplay remain the same from the PC version, or are there any notable changes in the Xbox One versions?

The gameplay remains the same, with minor optimization tweaks taking into consideration different input methods.

What are some of the new maps in this version of the game?

We’re introducing the GLOPS map Grindelwald, which is Swiss-themed. It features three main wildcards – helicopters, AI controlled artillery and bombers.

Is the entire game with all modes and tanks free to play?

Yes! As always, AW delivers all maps, game modes, and tech tree tanks as F2P content available via credits and experience.

What exactly do microtransactions offer to players?

Microtransactions offer convenience, for one. The Premium Account allows faster travel up the dealer trees, which is obviously a great plus. Additionally, Gold has multiple uses, such as conversion of tank-locked XP into XP that can be spent on any tank or module, or converting into credits. Finally, there are special vehicles that are available only via microtransactions. These offer unique gameplay, but are never overpowered. We strongly focus on providing microtransactions that do not provide any unfair P2W advantages.

"We know the XBOX community demands the best, and meeting that with the Cryengine was something that needed a lot of attention."

Were there any particular challenges you’ve faced in bringing the game to Xbox One?

The biggest challenges involved the optimization of the game, both size-wise and performance-wise. We know the XBOX community demands the best, and meeting that with the Cryengine was something that needed a lot of attention.

Now that the game is available on all major platforms, are you considering cross platform play between PS4, Xbox One and PC versions? If not, what do you think is the biggest factor for the same?

Cross-platform play will never be possible between the console and PC versions, as the games carry small differences which make this kind of cross-play not an option. Between consoles, it remains a point of major industry debate, but I wouldn’t say it’s not something we’d like to see one day. It’s not a priority right now though.

The game will feature Xbox One X specific enhancements. What can players expect if they are playing the game on Xbox One X? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

We’re not working on specific enhancements of the game right now, but we will be looking into such options in the future.

And how will the PS4 Pro version turn out in terms of resolution and frame rate?

The PS4 Pro is simply stronger hardware, thus the game loads slightly faster, but our focus right now is game optimization, not adding new visual features.

From a development perspective, how do you find the Xbox One X to be? With so much GPU power, we are sure you must be doing some amazing things.

The Xbox One X is an amazing console, and while it obviously gives a lot of options, as stated before our main focus is optimizing the game and delivering the best possible performance to everyone.

"The Nintendo switch is obviously a great platform, but right now we cannot comment on the possibility of a port of the game to this platform."

How is the game running on the original Xbox One and PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?

It’s matching our expectations in those areas as the game takes advantage of the hardware fully.

Do you have any plans to bring the game to Nintendo Switch? If not, why?

The Nintendo switch is obviously a great platform, but right now we cannot comment on the possibility of a port of the game to this platform.

The free to play tactical shooter MMO Armored Warfare built a solid audience for itself on PC when it first launched back in 2015, and this year it has expanded those audiences further still by launching on the PS4 in February and on the Xbox One in August. Given its online nature, the question of whether or not it will ever support cross-platform play is a particularly pertinent one.

Sadly, though, it doesn’t look like that will ever happen. We recently conducted an interview with My.com’s Jacek Pudlik, who serves as the game’s producer, and asked him if cross-play would ever be enabled for Armored Warfare. He said that though cross-play is clearly a very major point of debate, due to small differences in the game’s console and PC versions, it won’t be an option for Armored Warfare.

“Cross-platform play will never be possible between the console and PC versions,” Pudlik told GamingBolt, “as the games carry small differences which make this kind of cross-play not an option. Between consoles, it remains a point of major industry debate, but I wouldn’t say it’s not something we’d like to see one day. It’s not a priority right now though.”

Armored Warfare is currently available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Our full interview with Pudlik will be going live soon, so stay tuned.

Do you love the smell of burning Xbox Controllers in the morning? Well, then you’ll probably be delighted to hear that My.com is finally bringing the 2015 PS4 and PC Tank Combat MMO, Armored Warfare to Xbox One on August 2nd, still completely free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

It was announced today via a press release. Players control their tanks across a variety of battlefields and take on either rival teams to lay claim to territory, or work with friends to challenge PvE missions that have seasonal stories tied to them. Up to 30 players can participate in the Global Operations mode as well, where teams go head to head.

Those interested in getting a head start in the game can find prelaunch bonus packs that grant various goodies, as well as early access to the game. Xbox One players will also enjoy timed exclusive content such as maps, different vehicles and the LAV-150 90 Exterminator premium vehicle. You can check out the trailer below to see if you’re interested in giving the game a shot, despite the lukewarm Steam user score.

To find out more about the current status for the game and regarding its future, Gamingbolt spoke to Jacek Pudlik who is a Producer at My.com.

"Armored Warfare has done many steps to stand out from the crowd of other tank games out on the market. The recent successful expansion of PVE content with more story-driven missions is one of those points of separation."

Armored Warfare started in a very interesting way. It was first handled by Obsidian Entertainment and then transferred over to My.com What are your thoughts on the game’s journey thus far?

Armored Warfare has had a very interesting journey so far, and the hardest moments of transferring the entire development over is already past us. The development team is currently working hard to make it even more interesting in the future. With the launch of brand new PVE content, as well as Ranked Battles, we are looking forward to the exciting things to come this year.

What is the basic premise of Armored Warfare and how does it separate itself from its main competitor, World of Tanks?

Armored Warfare has done many steps to stand out from the crowd of other tank games out on the market. The recent successful expansion of PVE content with more story-driven missions is one of those points of separation.

How much content is currently present in the PvE portion? Is there enough to keep solo players going for a long time?

The PVE cooperative content is more than just solo-player content. Naturally it can be played without much dedication to finding friends, thanks to matchmaking with other random players, but it can be played by an organized group as well. The PVE content, especially the recently added missions, can keep players engaged for a very long time due to the newly added difficulty level, which makes it more demanding than ever before, requiring cooperation from members of the team and great precision in execution. Additionally, we plan to be systematically adding more content of this kind throughout the year, based on results of the missions already implemented in the Caribbean Crisis update.

What can you tell us about the tank variety in the game? How much work went into accurately modelling each vehicle?

The tank variety is very diverse right now, with multiple tanks from different nations available in the game already, each offering unique playstyles. We also have plans to expand on our tank offerings in the future, but I can’t comment on the specifics of that at the moment. On the second part of your question – there is a lot of work going into each tank produced. Designs are studied and modelled into tanks that very closely resemble their actual counterparts.

PvP has gotten a major boost with Global Operations which is similar to Battlefield’s Conquest mode. What do you feel changes about this kind of structure when tanks are present at all times?

Global Operations changes a lot to the overall experience. A significant factor to a player’s tactical approach on the battlefield is impacted by the ability to come back to the same battle or not. Respawns allow multiple approaches to the same problem and a more casual playstyle. With that said, Global Operations offers players with a wealth of tactical options to consider beyond respawn rates. Players have theoption to gather and deploy special upgrades, such as the bunkers and bomber support which can help balance gameplay when facing an enemy’s direct line of fire. Also, the changing location of main capture points makes it impossible for players to maintain a constant high-ground. All this makes Global Operations an extremely exciting and dynamic game mode.

"We are passionate about what we do, and we love games. Naturally, this means that we want to deliver the great game experienced by millions of people to even more people, and expanding to the PS4 was great step in the direction of achieving this goal."

What are your thoughts on complaints about optimization on PC? How are you working to improve the game’s performance on a wider range of systems?

Optimization of the PC version of Armored Warfare is a constant work in progress. We are doing our best to bring our product to the widest possible audience, but at the same time we remain committed to maintaining a high visual fidelity of the game.

How effective have monetization strategies been for Armored Warfare, especially in this day and age with controversies surrounding microtransactions, loot boxes and whatnot?

I cannot comment in detail on financial performance of Armored Warfare, but I can say that we are happy with the results of recent changes in our monetization strategy and expanding the permanent store offering. We aim to improve how and what kind of monetization we offer to our players, and to maintain the game as a truly free-to-play environment, while listening to the feedback and suggestions of our players on what they’d like to see available for purchase.

What prompted development for the PS4 version? What are some of the challenges you faced in getting Armored Warfare running on the console?

We are passionate about what we do, and we love games. Naturally, this means that we want to deliver the great game experienced by millions of people to even more people, and expanding to the PS4 was great step in the direction of achieving this goal.

Is there any potential for cross-play support down the line between PC and PS4 users?

Not at the moment. The PC version of the game is not identical to the console version, and we do not see them being merged in the foreseeable future. What is more likely, is having more differences rather than less, to make Armored Warfare PS4 a game tailored for console players, while keeping the PC version developed for the PC audience. The needs of these groups are vastly different.

Is there a specific reason why this game is not launching on the Xbox One?

We are not excluding such a possibility in the future, but at the moment we are focusing on the PC and PS4 versions. One step at a time.

"At the moment the PS4 and PS4 Pro versions are identical, but the game naturally does run smoother on the Pro version."

What kind of support do you have planned for the PS4 Pro version? Any additional visual enhancements over the base PS4 Pro?

At the moment the PS4 and PS4 Pro versions are identical, but the game naturally does run smoother on the Pro version. We are currently putting all our effort in optimizing the game overall for the PS4 environment, but over time we don’t exclude the possibility of utilizing the extended possibilities of the PS4 Pro hardware.

In a recent interview, Mark Cerny, the lead engineer of the PlayStation 4 Pro claimed that converting a base PS4 game to PS4 Pro version is just 0.2 Or 0.3% of the overall effort. What is your take on this? Do you think that the extra work required to develop an additional Pro version is actually bigger than the number quoted?

It’s hard to assess how much actual work would go into developing a special version of a game for the PS4. It depends on whether it’s just accessibility on the PS4 Pro, which AW actually is available on, or developing brand new features.

Where does Armored Warfare go from here? What significant content updates are being planned? 

The Early Access stage of the game, which will last until February 20^th, is only the first stage of our efforts. We will continue to put major effort into the development of Armored Warfare after it moves into the free-to-play stage and hope we will deliver entertainment to everyone who enjoys modern vehicular warfare.

Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

Thank you for this interview. We put a great deal of work into making the Armored Warfare PS4 version ship. We have hope that it will provide a great alternative to other shooters available on the platform and will do our best to improve the game in the coming months and years, bringing in new content, features, and optimizing it on the platform. We are also very grateful to everyone who has shown faith in our efforts to bringing our great modern tactical tank shooter to the PS4 and purchased founder packs during the early access stage.

Another racing trailer for you all, and wouldn’t you know it, we’ve apparently travelled back in time by two years because this one’s still using dubstep montages. Anyway, World of Speed developers, Slightly Mad Studios, have today released their newest gameplay trailer (seriously though it’s just a giant dubstep montage) for the upcoming free to play massively multiplayer online arcade racing game.

The trailer is titled Moscow Racing and you can look forward to not actually seeing that much of Moscow except for one or two exhibition shots and a brief example of a shortcut, because the rest of the trailer is (just like last time) a series of low slung camera angles and needless breaking and turning on empty roads.

Just like with the last trailer, I’m not hating on the game because it still is in Beta stages of development. But when your windscreen wipers move at like 6fps (see the 00:13 point of the video) and you need to include filters and effects to make the trailer somewhat watchable, but no more enjoyable, you make me more than just a little sceptical as to the final quality of the game.

So, you can be forgiven for not knowing about World of Speed, yes it has been on the radar for a while now, but rest assured that no one is going to blame you for not hearing about it when “Forza Horizon 2” is on the Horizon (Pun intended) and the ongoing “THE CREW” beta is keeping people occupied, amongst other car related topics.

World of Speed is a MMOAR, that’s massively multiplayer online action-racing (these abbreviations are getting ridiculous) that pits players against each other in a series of races in an arcade racing world. Don’t expect Forza or Assetto Corsa levels of simulation here folks.

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X vs. Subaru Impreza WRX STi trailer gives us a nice and close montage of gameplay footage set to generic mixed-gen dubstep. The trailer certainly shows off the arcade styled gameplay with the cars being flung around corners and a particularly pointless tap of the brakes at 1:05 for dramatic flair.

Will you be signing up for the Beta?

My.com and Slightly Mad Studios have released some new gameplay footage for World of Speed, the upcoming racing MMO. Taking place on the Silverstone circuit, you’ll get a look behind the wheel of a Pagani Huyara in the rain. The overall physics and rain effects are still a work in progress but it’s looking fairly good at this point.

If you didn’t notice it in the trailer, the weather will play a significant part in your performance around the track. Wet tarmac means you’ll need to race all the more carefully to avoid spin-outs.

World of Speed will be entering its beta phase soon and you can sign up for the same now. The game will be available later this year for PC. Along with the gameplay teaser, My.com has also released gameplay screenshots for the Bathurst racing track in Australia, which you can view below. Let us know what you think of the gameplay trailer as well in the comments.

A new AAA massively multiplayer online RPG has come to light courtesy of My.com’s The Allods Team. Skyforge takes players on a journey, while murdering everything in their way. Check out the first set of eye-popping screenshots below. Certainly some of the nicest looking rat-creatures we’ve ever seen.

The Allods Team development head Oleg Shpilchevsky stated that, “This is our most ambitious project to date. With players competing and cooperating on one single giant server, Skyforge brings the massive back to MMORPGs.”

Skyforge will be out this year for PC, so stay tuned for further updates.