There are already ten nations in the game. Adding more nations and vehicles can certainly increase variety, but as the total number of vehicles grows, the likelihood of them being similar or repetitive also increases significantly. We can already see this with Leopard 2s, Abrams tanks, and T-80 variants appearing everywhere.
As a result, the benefit of adding more vehicles is beginning to show diminishing returns. Players naturally enjoy fresh content, and continuously introducing new tanks certainly generates revenue for Gaijin. After all, Gaijin needs to pay its employees, make a profit, and keep the company running.
However, I believe the key to the game’s long-term profitability is finding the right balance. War Thunder cannot continue relying primarily on new vehicles to drive updates and development. It also needs a steady stream of new features, improvements to realism, and genuinely new gameplay experiences.
For example, the Leopard 2’s engine could sound more authentic, water-splash effects could become more realistic, and the overall immersion of operating a tank in combat could continue to improve. Even if a player is driving the same Leopard 2 model two years later, the experience should feel different—more immersive, more convincing, and closer to reality.
That is what players truly need, and I believe it is ultimately the direction that will allow War Thunder to remain successful for many years to come.
It identifies one of War Thunder’s central long-term challenges: new vehicles are easy to monetize, but they do not necessarily improve the core gameplay experience.
The diminishing returns from adding vehicles are becoming increasingly apparent. When a completely new nation or a unique type of armored vehicle was introduced in the past, it brought substantial variety. Today, however, many additions are simply more variants of the Leopard 2, T-80, or Abrams. They may differ statistically, but they do not always provide a genuinely different gameplay experience—especially for veteran players who have already reached top tier in several nations.
Of course, Gaijin cannot stop adding vehicles. New vehicles are easy to promote, give players clear research goals, and generate direct revenue through premium vehicles, pre-order packs, and progression boosts. By comparison, improving engine sounds, terrain physics, environmental effects, and map interaction requires considerable development work but is much harder to monetize directly.
That is why I strongly agree with the idea that driving the same Leopard 2 two years later should feel noticeably different. Meaningful improvements could include more authentic engine, track, and gun sounds; a greater sense of vehicle weight; more realistic effects from mud, sand, snow, and shallow water; better destruction and interaction with buildings, trees, walls, and bridges; more detailed fire-control, thermal-imaging, crew, and active-protection systems; and game modes that offer more meaningful objectives than repeatedly capturing circles.
New vehicles may bring players back to see what has been added, but deeper gameplay, stronger immersion, and a core experience that continues to evolve are what will make them stay.
From the player’s point of view, a lot of the fun comes from chasing something new. But the more vehicles you add, even across different nations, the more overlap becomes unavoidable.
The novelty starts giving less and less back. World of Tanks is a good example of this. They kept adding new tanks and pushing loot boxes, but over time more and more vehicles started feeling similar, with smaller differences between them.
Eventually, a lot of players just started thinking, “What’s the point? This doesn’t feel new anymore.”