War Thunder walks back economy changes following review bombing campaign

The outcry from players of War Thunder has been a success. Gaijin Entertainment was planning to continue applying what it called a “rank-based economy” this month that would change the costs for a wide variety of vehicles at Rank III and higher like repairs, ammo, suspended weaponry, and the Crew Replenishment expendable modification; it’s those last three items that appear to have raised player hackles, as they would have cost Silver Lions currency to complete.

This plan caused a lot of negative reactions from players of the multiplayer title, especially on Reddit, where multiple threads popped up calling for a review bombing on Steam to express frustrations.

Despite Gaijin’s efforts to explain its position, the studio ultimately decided to walk back its plan despite claiming that its economic adjustments “were on average helpful to players” and that “some players generally agree with [the studio],” while Redditors both claimed victory and suggested vigilance.

Gaijin is still planning to make economy changes for an update in the summer, but is asking players to complete a feedback survey by May 25th while also promising to be more transparent and detailed in its explanations on what these changes will entail. Additionally, Creative Director Kirill Yudintsev elaborated on how economy is important to the free-to-play title while also beseeching players to not use Steam reviews as a method of expressing displeasure.

“[T]he majority of new players just look at the score evaluation, and do not read the text of reviews and do not go into what they were left for. So review bombing does damage to the game in that new players simply won’t try it, while it doesn’t raise their awareness of the problems you’ve noticed. If your goal is not to hurt the game, please use other, less destructive ways.”

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