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World of Tanks: HEAT Launches on PC and Consoles With Season 0

World of Tanks: HEAT marks Wargaming's first attempt to merge its signature tank combat with hero shooter conventions, and the Mixed Steam reception suggests stability issues may overshadow the gameplay innovations at launch.

Key Facts

  • World of Tanks: HEAT launched on May 26, 2026, as a free-to-play tank hero shooter for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and NVIDIA GeForce NOW.
  • At launch, the game includes 8 agents, 15 vehicles, 8 maps, and 4 PvP modes: Hardpoint, Control, Kill Confirmed, and Conquest.
  • Players start with three agents-Chopper, Kent, and Hound-and can unlock the remaining five through a five-week Season 0 with five free weekly battle passes.
  • On Steam, early player reviews are Mixed, with 33% of 528 reviews recommending the game; frequent crashes are the main complaint, and the developer is working on a hotfix.
  • The game supports cross-platform matchmaking and cross-progression for the first time in the series.

Reporting from 5 sources: 4Gamer.net, Automaton, ASCII.jp, Denfaminicogamer, and 1 more.

World of Tanks: HEAT Launches on PC and Consoles With Season 0

Wargaming released World of Tanks: HEAT on May 26, 2026, as a free-to-play tank hero shooter for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and NVIDIA GeForce NOW. The game is a standalone title built from scratch on a proprietary engine, combining armored vehicle combat with hero shooter mechanics. It supports cross-platform matchmaking and cross-progression for the first time in the series. At launch, the game includes 8 agents divided into three roles (Defender, Attacker, Sniper), 15 vehicles, 8 maps, and 4 PvP modes: Hardpoint, Control, Kill Confirmed, and Conquest. Players start with three agents-Chopper, Kent, and Hound-and can unlock the remaining five through a five-week Season 0 that features five free weekly battle passes. Product director Artyom Yantsevich called the launch a major milestone but said it is only the beginning. On Steam, early player reviews are Mixed, with 33% of 528 reviews recommending the game; frequent crashes are the main complaint, and the developer has said it is working on a hotfix.

The game is set in a fictional timeline after World War II, where players control agents with special abilities and their tanks in 5v5 or 10v10 battles. Each agent has passive effect traits that activate under specific conditions and a manually activated ultimate ability. Tanks also have unique vehicle abilities, such as jamming fields, auto-vulcan turrets, and canister shot volleys, allowing players to choose combinations of agent and vehicle abilities. By completing matches, players earn agent EXP and receive agent skill points upon leveling up, which can be spent in the garage to unlock up to four equippable agent skills.

On console, the game offers multiple display modes. On Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, a Performance Mode targets 60FPS with dynamic internal resolution scaling up to 1080p at 4K output, and a Quality Mode raises the internal resolution cap for sharper image quality at 30FPS at 4K output. Xbox Series S targets 60FPS at 1080p output. PlayStation 5 Pro has dedicated Performance Pro and Quality Pro modes using PSSR upscaling, with Performance Pro targeting 60FPS and dynamic internal resolution up to 1440p at 4K output, and Quality Pro targeting 30FPS at the highest visual settings.

The first week's battle pass includes the tank "XM1V" piloted by Ember at Tier 3. The battle pass has 10 tiers, with rewards including credits to unlock new vehicles, tech to upgrade modules, paint and camouflage for customization, and EXP and tech boosters. The PC minimum requirements target 1080p/60FPS at minimum settings with upscaling, requiring an Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, 8GB of RAM, and a graphics card such as an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or AMD Radeon RX 560. The recommended spec targets 1080p/60FPS at maximum settings with upscaling, calling for an Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5600XT. Both require 60GB of storage space, with an SSD recommended for optimal performance.

Synthesized by Yomimono from the 5 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.

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