Heat is a hero shooter based on a popular free-to-play game

World of Tanks fans had a good Gamescom Opening Night Live, as two announcements related to the franchise showed up during Geoff Keighley’s showcase. One is a major update for the free-to-play tank combat game, while the other is a brand new hero shooter spin-off.

That spin-off is titled World of Tanks: Heat, and is in development for both PC and consoles. Meanwhile, the 2.0 update for World of Tanks will roll out next month

What is World of Tanks: Heat

And what players can expect from World of Tanks 2.0

World of Tanks: Heat is a separate game from World of Tanks, as it’s made in a new game engine that Wargaming created. Like other Wargaming titles, it’ll be free-to-play and have cross-play and cross-progression support across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X when it launches.

It’s set in an alternate reality, so it’s not going to be a game committed to realism like World of Tanks proper. Players will choose from a variety of agents who have special skills and can customize their own tank.

From there, they then head into combat, where the abilities and tank customizations impact how players can position themselves and most effectively attack their opponents. Modes common in multiplayer shooters like Battlefield 6 or Call of Duty, such as Kill Confirmed, Domination, and Conquest, will be in the game.

If you’d rather just stick with World of Tanks itself, then you have Update 2.0 to look forward to on September 3. It adds a brand-new set of Tier XI tanks for players to research, streamlines the game’s UI while players are in the Hangar between matches, and introduces a new map called Nordskar and a PvE mission type called Operation Boiling Point.

While Wargaming said over 3 years of work from 200 developers has been put into World of Tanks: Heat, I don’t have the most faith in a hero shooter spin-off of an already popular game. Earlier this year, it launched a hero shooter mecha battle royale game called Steel Hunters.

While it was good fun, Wargaming decided to stop support for the game shortly after it launched in April. I asked World of Tanks: Heat game director Artyom Yantsevich if Wargaming learned any lessons from Steel Hunters’ failure.

In response, Yantsevich simply said the development team is “focusing on the player experience first and continued testing.” He also reiterated Wargaming’s previous messaging that continued development on Steel Hunters was not sustainable and that it moved many of the developers affected by the shutdown to other products.

World of Tanks: Heat does not have a release window at this time, so we’ll have to wait a while to learn whether or not this live service game will have legs of its own.